Improving the kinematics for low-x QCD evolution equations in coordinate space

Abstract

High-energy evolution equations, such as the BFKL, BK or JIMWLK equations, aim at resumming the high-energy (next-to-)leading logarithms appearing in QCD perturbative series. However, the standard derivations of those equations are performed in a strict high-energy limit, whereas such equations are then applied to scattering processes at large but finite energies. For that reason, there is typically a slight mismatch between the leading logs resummed by those evolution equations without finite-energy corrections and the leading logs actually present in the perturbative expansion of any observable. That mismatch is one of the sources of large corrections at NLO and NLL accuracy. In the case of the BFKL equation in momentum space, that problem is solved by including a kinematical constraint in the kernel, which is the most important finite-energy correction. In this paper, such an improvement of kinematics is performed in mixed-space (transverse positions and $k^+$) and with a factorization scheme in the light-cone momentum $k^+$ (in a frame in which the projectile is right-moving and the target left-moving). This is the usual choice of variables and factorization scheme for the the BK equation. A kinematically improved version of the BK equation is provided, consistent at finite energies. The results presented here are also a necessary step towards having the high energy limit of QCD (including gluon saturation) quantitatively under control beyond strict leading logarithmic accuracy.