Precise predictions for $t \bar t H$ production at the LHC: inclusive cross section and differential distributions

Abstract: We present the first fully differential next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD calculation for the production of a top-antitop quark pair in association with a Higgs boson ($t \bar t H$) at hadron colliders. The computation is exact, except for the finite part of the two-loop virtual contribution, which we estimate using two different methods that yield consistent results within their respective uncertainties. The first method relies on a soft-Higgs factorisation formula that we develop up to the three-loop order. The second is based on a high-energy expansion in the small top-mass limit. Combining the newly computed corrections with the complete set of next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD+EW results provides the most advanced perturbative prediction currently available at the LHC for both inclusive and differential $t \bar t H$ cross sections. The uncertainties due to the missing exact two-loop contribution are conservatively estimated to be at the percent level, both for the total cross section and for most of the differential distributions, and therefore subleading compared to the residual perturbative uncertainties.