NNLL resummation for squark-antisquark pair production at the LHC

Abstract

We consider the resummation of soft gluon emission for squark-antisquark pair-production at the LHC at next-to-next-to-leading-logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy in the framework of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. We present the analytical ingredients needed for the calculation and provide numerical predictions for the LHC at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 14 TeV. We find a significant reduction in the scale uncertainty and a considerable increase in the prediction of the total cross section. Compared to the next-to-leading order prediction, the corrections increase the cross section by up to 30% for 1.5 TeV squarks at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV.