Electroweak Gauge-Boson Production in Association with b Jets at Hadron Colliders

Abstract

The production of both charged and neutral electroweak gauge bosons in association with $b$ jets has attracted a lot of experimental and theoretical attention in recent years because of its central role in the physics programs of both the Fermilab Tevatron and the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The improved level of accuracy achieved both in the theoretical predictions and experimental measurements of these processes can promote crucial developments in modeling $b$-quark jets and $b$-quark parton distribution functions, and can provide a more accurate description of some of the most important backgrounds to the measurement of Higgs-boson couplings and several new physics searches. In this paper we review the status of theoretical predictions for cross sections and kinematic distributions of processes in which an electroweak gauge boson is produced in association with up to two $b$ jets in hadronic collisions, namely $p\bar{p}, pp\rightarrow V+1b$ jet and $p\bar{p},pp\rightarrow V+2b$ jets with $V=W^\pm, Z/\gamma^*, \gamma$. Available experimental measurements at both the Fermilab Tevatron and the CERN Large Hadron Collider are also reviewed and their comparison with theoretical predictions is discussed.