QCD evolution of (un)polarized gluon TMDPDFs and the Higgs $q_T$-distribution

Abstract: We provide the proper definition of all the leading-twist (un)polarized gluon transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMDPDFs), by considering the Higgs boson transverse momentum distribution in hadron-hadron collisions and deriving the factorization theorem in terms of them. We show that the evolution of all the (un)polarized gluon TMDPDFs is driven by a universal evolution kernel, which can be resummed up to next-to-next-to-leading-logarithmic accuracy. Considering the proper definition of gluon TMDPDFs, we perform an explicit next-to-leading-order calculation of the unpolarized ($f_1^g$), linearly polarized ($h_1^{\perp g}$) and helicity ($g_{1L}^g$) gluon TMDPDFs, and show that, as expected, they are free from rapidity divergences. As a byproduct, we obtain the Wilson coefficients of the refactorization of these TMDPDFs at large transverse momentum. In particular, the coefficient of $g_{1L}^g$, which has never been calculated before, constitutes a new and necessary ingredient for a reliable phenomenological extraction of this quantity, for instance at RHIC or the future AFTER@LHC or Electron-Ion Collider. The coefficients of $f_1^g$ and $h_1^{\perp g}$ have never been calculated in the present formalism, although they could be obtained by carefully collecting and recasting previous results in the new TMD formalism. We apply these results to analyze the contribution of linearly polarized gluons at different scales, relevant, for instance, for the inclusive production of the Higgs boson and the $C$-even pseudoscalar bottomonium state $\eta_{b}$. Applying our resummation scheme we finally provide predictions for the Higgs boson $q_T$-distribution at the LHC.