Jet mass spectra in Higgs boson plus one jet at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic order

Abstract

The invariant mass of a jet is a benchmark variable describing the structure of jets at the LHC. We calculate the jet mass spectrum for Higgs plus one jet at the LHC at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (NNLL) order using a factorization formula. At this order, the cross section becomes sensitive to perturbation theory at the soft m[2 over jet]/p[jet over T] scale. Our calculation is exclusive and uses the 1-jettiness global event shape to implement a veto on additional jets. The dominant dependence on the jet veto is removed by normalizing the spectrum, leaving residual dependence from nonglobal logarithms depending on the ratio of the jet mass and jet-veto variables. For our exclusive jet cross section these nonglobal logarithms are parametrically smaller than in the inclusive case, allowing us to obtain a complete NNLL result. Results for the dependence of the jet mass spectrum on the kinematics, jet algorithm, and jet size R are given. Using individual partonic channels we illustrate the difference between the jet mass spectra for quark and gluon jets. We also study the effect of hadronization and underlying event on the jet mass in PYTHIA. To highlight the similarity of inclusive and exclusive jet mass spectra, a comparison to LHC data is presented.