Speaker
Description
We present the first next-to-leading order (NLO) predictions for the associated production of two pairs of heavy quarks through single-parton scattering (SPS) in collinear factorisation in proton-proton collisions at the LHC and photoproduction at the EIC. At the LHC, this process competes with double parton scattering (DPS) contributions to the same final state. A precise calculation of the SPS component is thus essential for improving the extraction and interpretation of DPS studies. The computation is performed within the MadGraph5_aMC@NLO framework, and we provide parton-level differential cross sections, with a particular focus on kinematic correlations in pair azimuthal angles, pair invariant masses, and rapidity differences between heavy quarks.