NLO QCD corrections to via quark–antiquark annihilation

The process represents a very important background reaction to searches at the LHC, in particular to production where the Higgs boson decays into a pair. A successful analysis of at the LHC requires the knowledge of direct production at NLO in QCD. We take the first step in this direction upon calculating the NLO QCD corrections to the subprocess initiated by annihilation.