A Positive-weight next-to-leading-order Monte Carlo for Z pair hadroproduction

We present a first application of a previously published method for the computation of QCD processes that is accurate at next-to-leading order, and that can be interfaced consistently to standard shower Monte Carlo programs. We have considered Z pair production in hadron-hadron collisions, a process whose complexity is sufficient to test the general applicability of the method. We have interfaced our result to the HERWIG and PYTHIA shower Monte Carlo programs. Previous work on next-to-leading order corrections in a shower Monte Carlo (the MC@NLO program) may involve the generation of events with negative weights, that are avoided with the present method. We have compared our results with those obtained with MC@NLO, and found remarkable consistency. Our method can also be used as a standalone, alternative implementation of QCD corrections, with the advantage of positivity, improved convergence, and next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy in the region of small transverse momentum of the radiated parton.