Renormalization-scheme variation of a QCD perturbation expansion with tamed large-order behavior

Abstract

The renormalization-scheme and scale dependence of the truncated QCD perturbative expansions is one of the main sources of theoretical error of the standard model predictions, especially at intermediate energies. Recently, a class of renormalization schemes, parametrized by a single real number $C$, has been defined and investigated in the frame of the standard perturbation expansions in powers of the coupling. In the present paper we investigate the $C$-scheme variation of a Borel-improved QCD perturbation series, which implements information about the large-order divergent character of perturbation theory by means of an optimal conformal mapping of the Borel plane. In the new expansions, the powers of the strong coupling are replaced by a set of expansion functions with properties which resemble those of the expanded correlators, having in particular a singular behavior at the origin of the complex coupling plane. On the other hand, the new expansions have a tamed increase at high orders, as demonstrated by previous studies in the $\overline{\text{MS}}$ renormalization scheme. Using as examples the Adler function and the hadronic decay width of the $\tau$ lepton, we investigate the properties of the Borel-improved expansions in the $C$-scheme, in comparison with the standard expansions in the $C$-scheme and the expansions in $\overline{\text{MS}}$. The variation with the renormalization scale and the prescription for the choice of an optimal value of the parameter $C$ are discussed. The good large-order behavior of the Borel-improved expansions is proved also in the $C$-scheme, which is a further argument in favor of using them in applications of perturbative QCD at intermediate energies.