Investigation of the scale dependence in the MSR and $$ \overline{\textrm{MS}} $$ top quark mass schemes for the $$ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}} $$ invariant mass differential cross section using LHC data

Abstract

Abstract The computation of the single-differential top quark-antiquark pair ($$ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}} $$ t t ¯ ) production cross section at NLO in the fixed-order expansion is examined consistently using the MSR and $$ \overline{\textrm{MS}} $$ MS ¯ short-distance top quark mass schemes. A thorough investigation of the dependence of different regions of the $$ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}} $$ t t ¯ invariant mass spectrum on the renormalization scales R and μm of the MSR mass $$ {m}_{\textrm{t}}^{\textrm{MSR}} $$ m t MSR (R) and $$ \overline{\textrm{MS}} $$ MS ¯ mass $$ \overline{m} $$ m ¯ t(μm), respectively, is carried out. We demonstrate that a scale choice of R ~ 80 GeV is important for the stability of the cross-section predictions for the low $$ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}} $$ t t ¯ invariant mass range, which is important for a reliable extraction of the top quark mass. Furthermore, a choice of semi-dynamical renormalization and factorization scales is preferred. These findings are expected to remain valid once non-relativistic quasi-bound state effects are included in the low invariant mass region.