Two-loop threshold singularities, unstable particles and complex masses

The effect of threshold singularities induced by unstable particles on two-loop observables is investigated and it is shown how to cure them working in the complex-mass scheme. The impact on radiative corrections around thresholds is thoroughly analyzed and shown to be relevant for two selected LHC and ILC applications: Higgs production via gluon fusion and decay into two photons at two loops in the Standard Model. Concerning Higgs production, it is essential to understand possible sources of large corrections in addition to the well-known QCD effects. It is shown that NLO electroweak corrections can incongruently reach a 10% level around the W W vector-boson threshold without a complete implementation of the complex-mass scheme in the two-loop calculation. (C) 2008 Elsevier BY. All rights reserved.