Weak corrections to four-parton processes

Abstract

We report on a calculation of the `mixed' strong and (purely) weak corrections through the order $\alpha_{\mathrm{S}}^2\alpha_{\mathrm{W}}$ to parton-parton processes in all possible channels at hadron colliders entering the single jet inclusive cross section. At both Tevatron and LHC, such effects are always negligible (below permille level) in the total integrated cross section whilst they become sizable in differential rates. Specifically, if such corrections are defined with respect to the full leading-order result of ${\cal O}(\alpha_{\mathrm{S}}^2 +\alpha_{\mathrm{S}}\alpha_{\mathrm{EW}}+\alpha_{\mathrm{EW}}^2)$, we find that, at the FNAL accelerator, they can reach the -5% benchmark in the jet transverse energy (at the kinematical limit of the machine, rendering their detection quite difficult). At the CERN collider, in the same observable, they exceed the -10% level already at 1 TeV and can reach -40% at 4 TeV, kinematic regions where such corrections will be comfortably observable for standard luminosity. In addition, such corrections are somewhat sensitive to the factorisation/renormalisation scale choice.