$W^+ W^-$ pair production in proton-proton collisions: small missing terms

$W^+ W^-$ production is one of the golden channels for testing the Standard Model as well for searches beyond the Standard Model. We discuss many new subleading processes for inclusive production of $W^+ W^-$ pairs generally not included in the litterature so far. We focus mainly on photon-photon induced processes. We include elastic-elastic, elastic-inelastic, inelastic-elastic and inelastic-inelastic contributions. We also calculate the contributions with resolved photons including the partonic substructure of the virtual photon. Predictions for the total cross section and differential distributions in $W$- boson rapidity and transverse momentum as well as $WW$ invariant mass are presented. The $γγ$ components only constitute about 1-2 \% of the inclusive $W^+ W^-$ cross section but increases up to about 10 \% at large $W^{\pm}$ transverse momenta, and are even comparable to the dominant $q \bar q$ component at large $M_{WW}$, i.e. are much larger than the $g g \to W^+ W^-$ one.

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