Back-to-back azimuthal correlations in Z+jet events at high transverse momentum in the TMD parton branching method at next-to-leading order

Understand

Azimuthal correlations in Z+jet production at large transverse momenta are computed by matching Parton - Branching (PB) TMD parton distributions and showers with NLO calculations via MCatNLO.

• The predictions are compared with those for dijet production in the same kinematic range.
• The azimuthal correlations $\Delta\phi$ between the Z boson and the leading jet are steeper compared to those in dijet production at transverse momenta ${\cal O}(100)$ GeV, while they become similar for very high transverse momenta ${\cal O}(1000)$ GeV.
• The different patterns of Z+jet and dijet azimuthal correlations can be used to search for potential {\it factorization - breaking} effects in the back-to-back region, which depend on the different color and spin structure of the final states and their interferences with the initial states.