Next-to-leading QCD effect to the quark compositeness search at the LHC

Abstract: Recently, the CMS and ATLAS Collaborations at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have set exclusion limits on the quark compositeness scale by comparing their data to the leading order and the scaled next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD calculations, respectively. In this Letter, we present the exact NLO QCD corrections to the dijet production induced by the quark contact interactions. We show that as compared to the exact calculation, the scaled NLO QCD prediction adopted by the ATLAS Collaboration has overestimated the new physics effect on some direct observables by more than 30% and renders a higher limit on the quark compositeness scale. The destructive contribution from the exact NLO correction will also lower the compositeness scale limit set by the CMS Collaboration.