Scalar-pseudoscalar pair production at the Large Hadron Collider at NLO plus NLL accuracy in QCD

We thoroughly investigate both transverse momentum and threshold resummation effects on scalar-pseudoscalar pair production via quark-antiquark annihilation at the 13 TeV Large Hadron Collider at QCD NLO+NLL accuracy. A factorization method is introduced to properly supplement the soft-gluon (threshold) resummation contribution from parton distribution functions to the resummed results obtained by the Collins-Soper-Sterman resummation approach. We find that the impact of the threshold-resummation improved PDFs is comparable to the resummation effect of the partonic matrix element and can even predominate in high invariant mass regions. Moreover, the loop-induced gluon-gluon fusion channel in the type-I two-Higgs-doublet model is considered in our calculations. The numerical results show that the electroweak production via quark-antiquark annihilation dominates over the gluon-initiated QCD production by 1 similar to 2 orders of magnitude.

Automated summary

Thorough investigation of transverse momentum and threshold resummation effects on scalar-pseudoscalar pair production reveals that improved PDFs from threshold resummation can have a comparable impact to the partonic matrix element resummation effect, dominating in high invariant mass regions. Numerical results show that electroweak production via quark-antiquark annihilation dominates over gluon-initiated QCD production by 1 to 2 orders of magnitude.