Associated top quark pair production with a heavy boson: differential cross sections at NLO+NNLL accuracy

Abstract: We present theoretical predictions for selected differential cross sections for the process $pp \to t \bar{t} B$ at the LHC, where $B$ can be a Higgs ($H$), a $Z$ or a $W$ boson. The predictions are calculated in the direct QCD framework up to the next-to-next-leading logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy and matched to the complete NLO results including QCD and electroweak effects. Additionally, results for the total cross sections are provided. The calculations deliver a significant improvement of the theoretical predictions, especially for the $t \bar{t} H$ and the $t \bar{t} Z$ production. In these cases, predictions for both the total and differential cross sections are remarkably stable with respect to the central scale choice and carry a substantially reduced scale uncertainty in comparison with the complete NLO predictions.