Constraining BSM physics at the LHC: four top final states with NLO accuracy in perturbative QCD

Many theories, from Supersymmetry to models of Strong Electroweak Symmetry Breaking, look at the production of four top quarks as an interesting channel to evidentiate signals of new physics beyond the Standard Model. The production of four-top final states requires large partonic energies, above the 4m(t) threshold, that are available at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and will become more and more accessible with increasing energy and luminosity of the proton beams. A good theoretical control on the Standard Model background is a fundamental prerequisite for a correct interpretation of the possible signals of new physics that may arise in this channel. In this paper we report on the calculation of the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the Standard Model process pp -> t (t) over bart (t) over bar + X. As it is customary for such studies, we present results for both integrated and differential cross sections. A judicious choice of a dynamical scale allows us to obtain nearly constant K-factors in most distributions.