Fully Differential Vector-Boson-Fusion Higgs Production at Next-to-Next-to-Leading Order

We calculate the fully differential next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) corrections to vector-boson fusion (VBF) Higgs boson production at proton colliders, in the limit in which there is no cross talk between the hadronic systems associated with the two protons. We achieve this using a new "projection-to-Born" method that combines an inclusive NNLO calculation in the structure-function approach and a suitably factorized next-to-leading-order VBF Higgs plus three-jet calculation, using appropriate Higgs plus two-parton counterevents. An earlier calculation of the fully inclusive cross section had found small NNLO corrections, at the 1% level. In contrast, the cross section after typical experimental VBF cuts receives NNLO contributions of about (5-6)%, while differential distributions show corrections of up to (10-12)% for some standard observables. The corrections are often outside the next-to-leading-order scale-uncertainty band.