Top-quark pair hadroproduction at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD

Abstract

We report on a new calculation of the next-to-next-to-leading order QCD radiative corrections to the inclusive production of top-quark pairs at hadron colliders. The calculation is performed by using the qT subtraction formalism to handle and cancel infrared singular contributions at intermediate stages of the computation. We present numerical results for the total cross section in pp collisions at s=8 and 13 TeV, and we compare them with those obtained by using the publicly available numerical program Top++. Our computation represents the first complete application of the qT subtraction formalism to the hadroproduction of a colorful high-mass system at next-to-next-to-leading order.