Precise predictions for Higgs production via vector-boson fusion (VBF) play an important role when testing the properties of the Higgs boson and probing new-physics effects. While the inclusive cross section changes little when including next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) and next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order QCD corrections, a differential NNLO calculation with typical VBF cuts [1] shows large corrections of up to 10% in distributions. In this article, we investigate the dependence of the differential NNLO QCD calculation on the jet definition. Starting from the known results at a fixed jet clustering choice, we use the electroweak $H+3$ jets production cross section at NLO precision to derive NNLO results for $H+2$ jets production for other jet definitions. We find that larger clustering radii significantly reduce the impact of NNLO corrections. The sizable NNLO corrections for distributions are largely caused by the broader energy flow inside jets at NNLO and are to be expected generally for processes with jets at leading order.

• Received 24 March 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.95.114015