Streamlining resummed QCD calculations using Monte Carlo integration

Abstract

Some of the most arduous and error-prone aspects of precision resummed calculations are related to the partonic hard process, having nothing to do with the resummation. In particular, interfacing to parton-distribution functions, combining various channels, and performing the phase space integration can be limiting factors in completing calculations. Conveniently, however, most of these tasks are already automated in many Monte Carlo programs, such as MadGraph, Alpgen or Sherpa. In this paper, we show how such programs can be used to produce distributions of partonic kinematics with associated color structures representing the hard factor in a resummed distribution. These distributions can then be used to weight convolutions of jet, soft and beam functions producing a complete resummed calculation. In fact, only around 1000 unweighted events are necessary to produce precise distributions. A number of examples and checks are provided, including e +e− two- and four-jet event shapes, n-jettiness and jet-mass related observables at hadron colliders. Attached code can be used to modify MadGraph to export the relevant leading-order hard functions and color structures for arbitrary processes.