NLO QCD and EW corrections to vector-boson scattering into W+W- at the LHC

We present the full next-to-leading-order electroweak and QCD corrections to vector-boson scattering into a pair of off-shell opposite-sign W bosons decaying into leptons of different flavour at the LHC. We include full leading-order predictions for the irreducible background. Explicitly, we investigate the process pp -> e(+) nu(e)mu(-)nu(-)(mu)jj + X at leading orders O(alpha(6)), O(alpha(s)alpha(5)), O(alpha(2)(s)alpha(4)) supplemented by the loop-induced O(alpha(4)(s)alpha(4)) contribution, and at next-to-leading orders O(alpha(7)) and O(alpha(s)alpha(6)) in two setups providing fiducial cross sections as well as differential distributions. We take full account of photon-induced next-to-leadingorder contributions, which prove to be non negligible. With -11.4% and -6.7% in the two setups, the electroweak corrections are smaller than for other vector-boson-scattering processes. This can be traced back to the presence of the Higgs-boson resonance in the fiducial phase space, whose effects we analyse within an additional unphysical, but manifestly gauge-invariant setup. The QCD corrections amount to -5.1% and -21.6% in the two setups. The large size of the latter correction, compared to other vector-boson scattering processes, is explained by a very restrictive definition of its fiducial phase space.