arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S. Moch.
We report on the calculation of multi-loop Feynman integrals for single-scale problems by means of difference equations in Mellin space. The solution to these difference equations in terms of harmonic sums can be constructed algorithmically over difference fields, the so-called Pi-Sigma-fields. We test the implementaion of the Mathematica package Sigma on examples from recent higher order perturbative calculations in Quantum Chromodynamics.
Second- and third-order results are presented for the structure functions of charged-current deep-inelastic scattering in the framework of massless perturbative QCD. We write down the two-loop differences between the corresponding crossing-even and -odd coefficient functions, including those for the longitudinal structure function not covered in the literature so far. At three loops we compute the lowest five moments of these differences for all three structure functions and provide approximate expressions in Bjorken-$x$ space. Also calculated is the related third-order coefficient-function correction to the Gottfried sum rule. We confirm the conjectured suppression of these quantities if the number of colours is large. Finally we derive the second- and third-order QCD contributions to the Paschos-Wolfenstein ratio used for the determination of the weak mixing angle from neutrino-nucleon deep-inelastic scattering. These contributions are found to be small.
We summarize recent experimental and theoretical results, which were reported in the working group on Structure Functions and Low-x at the DIS 2007 workshop.
We present the two-loop virtual QCD corrections to the production of heavy quarks in gluon fusion. The results are exact in the limit when all kinematical invariants are large compared to the mass of the heavy quark up to terms suppressed by powers of the heavy-quark mass. Our derivation uses a simple relation between massless and massive QCD scattering amplitudes as well as a direct calculation of the massive amplitude at two loops. The results presented here together with those obtained previously for quark-quark scattering form important parts of the next-to-next-to-leading order QCD corrections to heavy-quark production in hadron-hadron collisions.
We report on our recent results for deep-inelastic neutrino-proton scattering. We have computed the perturbative QCD corrections to three loops for the harged current structure functions F_2, F_L and F_3 for the combination nu P - nubar P. In leading twist approximation we have calculated the first six odd-integer Mellin moments in the case of F_2 and F_L and the first six even-integer moments in the case of F_3. As a new result we have obtained the coefficient functions to O(alpha_s^3) and we have found the corresponding anomalous dimensions to agree with known results in the literature.
We present the two-loop virtual QCD corrections to the production of heavy quarks in the quark--anti-quark--annihilation channel in the limit when all kinematical invariants are large compared to the mass of the heavy quark. Our result is exact up to terms suppressed by powers of the heavy-quark mass. The derivation is based on a simple relation between massless and massive scattering amplitudes in gauge theories proposed recently by two of the authors as well as a direct calculation of the massive amplitude at two loops. The results presented here form an important part of the next-to-next-to-leading order QCD contributions to heavy-quark production in hadron-hadron collisions.
We discuss the structure of infrared singularities in on-shell QCD amplitudes with massive partons and present a general factorization formula in the limit of small parton masses. The factorization formula gives rise to an all-order exponentiation of both, the soft poles in dimensional regularization and the large collinear logarithms of the parton masses. Moreover, it provides a universal relation between any on-shell amplitude with massive external partons and its corresponding massless amplitude. For the form factor of a heavy quark we present explicit results including the fixed-order expansion up to three loops in the small mass limit. For general scattering processes we show how our constructive method applies to the computation of all singularities as well as the constant (mass-independent) terms of a generic massive n-parton QCD amplitude up to the next-to-next-to-leading order corrections.
We derive for deep-inelastic neutrino-proton scattering in the combination nu P - nubar P the perturbative QCD corrections to three loops for the charged current structure functions F_2, F_L and F_3. In leading twist approximation we calculate the first five odd-integer Mellin moments in the case of F_2 and F_L and the first five even-integer moments in the case of F_3. As a new result we obtain the coefficient functions to O(alpha_s^3) while the corresponding anomalous dimensions agree with known results in the literature.
We extend the threshold resummation exponents G^N in Mellin-N space to the fourth logarithmic (N^3LL) order collecting the terms alpha_s^2 (alpha_s ln N)^n to all orders in the strong coupling constant as. Comparing the results to our previous three-loop calculations for deep-inelastic scattering (DIS), we derive the universal coefficients B_q and B_g governing the final-state jet functions to order alpha_s^3, extending the previous quark and gluon results by one and two orders. A curious relation is found at second order between these quantities, the splitting functions and the large-angle soft emissions in Drell-Yan type processes. We study the numerical effect of the N^3LL corrections using both the fully exponentiated form and the expansion of the coefficient function in towers of logarithms.
Utilizing recent three-loop results on the quark and gluon splitting functions and form factors, we derive the complete threshold-enhanced third-order (N^3LO) QCD corrections to the total cross sections for the production of lepton pairs and the Higgs boson in hadron collisions. These results, for the latter case obtained in the heavy top-quark limit, are employed to extend the threshold resummation for these processes to the fourth logarithmic order. We investigate the numerical impact of the higher-order corrections for Higgs boson production at the Tevatron and the LHC. Our results, suitably treated in Mellin N-space, provide a sufficiently accurate approximation to the full N^3LO contributions. Corrections of about 5% at the LHC and 10% at the Tevatron are found for typical Higgs masses. The N^3LO predictions exhibit a considerably reduced dependence on the renormalization scale with, for the first time, stationary points close to the Higgs mass.
We discuss recent results on the three-loop (next-to-next-to-leading order, NNLO) time-like splitting functions of QCD and the two-loop (NNLO) coefficient functions in one-particle inclusive e+e- annihilation. These results form the basis for extracting fragmentation functions for light and heavy flavors with NNLO accuracy that will be needed at the LHC and ILC. The two-loop calculations have been performed in Mellin space based on a new method, the main features of which we also describe briefly.
We summarize recent higher-order QCD results based, directly or indirectly, on the Mellin-space computation of the next-to-next-to-leading-order splitting functions governing the evolution of hadronic parton distributions. Specifically, we briefly present third-order results for the coefficient functions in inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (including the structure function F_3 not published so far), the on-shell quark and gluon form factors, and the total cross section for Higgs production at hadron colliders.
We have investigated the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) corrections to inclusive hadron production in e^+e^- annihilation and the related parton fragmentation distributions, the `time-like' counterparts of the `space-like' deep-inelastic structure functions and parton densities. We have re-derived the corresponding second-order coefficient functions in massless perturbative QCD, which so far had been calculated only by one group. Moreover we present, for the first time, the third-order splitting functions governing the NNLO evolution of flavour non-singlet fragmentation distributions. These results have been obtained by two independent methods relating time-like quantities to calculations performed in deep-inelastic scattering. We briefly illustrate the numerical size of the NNLO corrections, and make a prediction for the difference of the yet unknown time-like and space-like splitting functions at the fourth order in the strong coupling constant.
We have calculated the splitting functions governing the evolution of the unpolarized parton distributions of the photon at the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) of massless perturbative QCD. The results, presented here mainly in terms of compact and accurate parametrizations, are consistent with our previous approximations based on the lowest six even-integer Mellin moments. Consequently the NNLO corrections are small in both the MSbar and the DIS_gamma factorization schemes at momentum fractions x >~ 0.1.
We provide an assessment of the impact of parton distributions on the determination of LHC processes, and of the accuracy with which parton distributions (PDFs) can be extracted from data, in particular from current and forthcoming HERA experiments. We give an overview of reference LHC processes and their associated PDF uncertainties, and study in detail W and Z production at the LHC. We discuss the precision which may be obtained from the analysis of existing HERA data, tests of consistency of HERA data from different experiments, and the combination of these data. We determine further improvements on PDFs which may be obtained from future HERA data (including measurements of $F_L$), and from combining present and future HERA data with present and future hadron collider data. We review the current status of knowledge of higher (NNLO) QCD corrections to perturbative evolution and deep-inelastic scattering, and provide reference results for their impact on parton evolution, and we briefly examine non-perturbative models for parton distributions. We discuss the state-of-the art in global parton fits, we assess the impact on them of various kinds of data and of theoretical corrections, by providing benchmarks of Alekhin and MRST parton distributions and a CTEQ analysis of parton fit stability, and we briefly presents proposals for alternative approaches to parton fitting. We summarize the status of large and small x resummation, by providing estimates of the impact of large x resummation on parton fits, and a comparison of different approaches to small x resummation, for which we also discuss numerical techniques.
We summarize our recent results on the resummation of hard-scattering coefficient functions and on-shell form factors in massless perturbative QCD. The threshold resummation has been extended to the fourth logarithmic order for deep-inelastic scattering, Drell-Yan lepton pair production and Higgs production via gluon-gluon fusion. The leading six infrared pole terms have been derived to all orders in the strong coupling constant for the photon-quark-quark and the (heavy-top) Higgs-gluon-gluon form factors. These results have many implications, most notably they lead to a new best estimate for the Higgs production cross section at the LHC.
Higher orders in perturbation theory require the calculation of Feynman integrals at multiple loops. We report on an approach to systematically solve Feynman integrals by means of symbolic summation and discuss the underlying algorithms. Examples such as the non-planar vertex at two loops, or integrals from the recent calculation of the three-loop QCD corrections to structure functions in deep-inelastic scattering are given.
We study the photon-quark-quark and Higgs-gluon-gluon form factors for on-shell massless quarks and gluons in perturbative QCD. Previous third-order results for the quark case are extended by calculating the fermion-loop contributions up to the finite terms in dimensional regularization. For the gluon case the complete set of infrared poles at three loops is derived. Using the exponentiation of the form factor, the latter results are employed to extract a function entering the infrared factorization of general third-order amplitudes. We evaluate the infrared finite absolute ratio of the time-like and space-like gluon form factors up to the fourth order in the strong coupling constant. The result supports previous indications that the perturbative expansion of the Higgs boson production rate at the LHC is under control.