Resummation of non-global logarithms in cross sections with massive particles

Abstract

A factorization formalism for jet processes involving massive colored particles such as the top quark is developed, extending earlier results for the massless case. The factorization of soft emissions from the underlying hard process is implemented in an effective field theory framework, which forms the basis for the resummation of large logarithms. The renormalization group evolution giving rise to non-global logarithms is implemented into a parton shower code in the large-Nc limit. After a comparison of the massive and massless radiation patterns, the cross section for tt¯ production with a veto on additional central jet activity is computed, taking into account radiation both from the production and the decay of the top quarks. The resummation of the leading logarithms leads to an improved description of ATLAS measurements at s = 7 TeV.