Next to Soft Threshold Resummation for $VH$ Production (2502.20331v1)

Abstract: We study the threshold effects for the associated production of a Higgs boson with a massive vector boson $(V=Z,W)$ in the $q\bar{q} \rightarrow V^\star \rightarrow VH$ process at the LHC. By leveraging the universality of threshold logarithms and employing soft-virtual (SV) and next-to-soft virtual (NSV) resummation techniques, we compute threshold corrections to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. After matching the resummed predictions to the Next-to-Next-to-Leading order (NNLO) fixed order results, we present the invariant mass distribution to NNLO$+\overline{\text{NNLL}}$ accuracy in QCD for the current LHC energies and the total production cross sections. The $VH$ production channel is crucial for studying the couplings of the Higgs boson to the vector bosons $(W,Z)$ and understanding the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking. Precision measurements of this process help test the validity of the standard model (SM) and can reveal potential deviations indicating new physics.