Matrix element method at NLO: A fine proof of concept in POWHEG

Abstract

The matrix element method (MEM) provides a fully probabilistic approach to confront experimental events with theory, retaining all correlations in the scattering matrix element. While leading-order MEM is widely used and automated, extending it to next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD is challenging due to infrared divergences, negative weights, extra final-state partons, and multi-dimensional phase-space integration. We demonstrate that the POWHEG method offers a practical path to MEM at NLO accuracy. By projecting real-emission events onto Born kinematics via the mappings inherited from the $\tilde{B} (Φ)$ function, our method consistently includes the hardest QCD radiation while preserving the NLO-accurate normalization. As a proof of concept, we apply it to fully leptonic $W^+ W^-$ production in the Standard Model (SM) effective field theory, focusing on a CP-even dimension-six triple-gauge-boson operator. Our NLO MEM implementation acts as a near-optimal classifier, exploiting spin- and polarization-dependent correlations among the final-state leptons to efficiently distinguish beyond-the-SM (BSM) from SM events. This demonstrates the potential of MEM at NLO for precision studies of electroweak processes and subtle BSM effects.