9 Search Results

In these proceedings we report recent progress on understanding hadron and jet production in electron-nucleus collisions at the future Electron-Ion Collider [1,2]. These processes will play an essential role in the exploration of the partonic structure of nuclei and the study of parton shower evolution in strongly-interacting matter. We employ the framework of soft-collinear effective theory, generalized to include in-medium interactions, to present the first theoretical results for inclusive hadron and jet cross sections, as well as the jet charge modification in deep inelastic scattering on nuclei. We further demonstrate how to separate initial-state and final-state effects.

The rare radiative B-meson decay \( {B}^{-}\to \gamma {\mathrm{\ell}}^{-}\overline{v} \) and the radiative Higgs-boson decay h → γγ mediated by light-quark loops both receive large logarithmic corrections in QCD, which can be resummed using factorization theorems derived in soft-collinear effective theory. In these factorization theorems the same radiative jet function appears, which is a central object in the study of factorization beyond the leading order in scale ratios. We calculate this function at two-loop order both in momentum space and in a dual space, where its renormalization-group evolution takes on a simpler form. We also derive the two-loop anomalous dimensionmore » of the jet function and present the exact solution to its evolution equation at two-loop order. Another important outcome of our analysis is the explicit form of the two-loop anomalous dimension of the B-meson light-cone distribution amplitude in momentum space.« less

Soft functions defined in terms of matrix elements of soft fields dressed by Wilson lines are central components of factorization theorems for cross sections and decay rates in collider and heavy-quark physics. While in many cases the relevant soft functions are defined in terms of gluon operators, at subleading order in power counting soft functions containing quark fields appear. We present a detailed discussion of the properties of the soft-quark soft function consisting of a quark propagator dressed by two finite-length Wilson lines connecting at one point. This function enters in the factorization theorem for the Higgs-boson decay amplitude ofmore » the h → γγ process mediated by light-quark loops. We perform the renormalization of this soft function at one-loop order, present a conjecture for its two-loop anomalous dimension and discuss solutions to its renormalization-group evolution equation in momentum space, in Laplace space and in the “diagonal space”, where the evolution is strictly local in the momentum variable.« less

We compute the 1-jettiness soft function for the decay of a heavy quark into a light quark jet plus colorless particles at three-loop order in soft-collinear effective theory. The 1-jettiness measurement fixes the total small light-cone momentum component of the soft radiation with respect to the jet direction. This soft function is a universal ingredient to the factorization of heavy-to-light quark decays in the limit of small 1-jettiness. Our three-loop result is required for resummation at the N³LL' level, e.g. near the endpoint in the photon energy spectrum of the B → X_sγ decay. It is also a necessary ingredientmore » for future calculations of fully-differential heavy-to-light quark decay rates at N³LO using the N -jettiness subtraction method, e.g. for semileptonic top decays. Using our result for the soft anomalous dimension we confirm predictions on the universal infrared structure of QCD scattering amplitudes with a massive external quark at three loops.« less

We present a fully differential next-to-next-to-leading order calculation of charm-quark production in charged-current deep-inelastic scattering, with full charm-quark mass dependence. The next-to-next-toleading order corrections in perturbative quantum chromodynamics are found to be comparable in size to the next-to-leading order corrections in certain kinematic regions.We compare our predictions with data on dimuon production in (anti)neutrino scattering from a heavy nucleus. Our results can be used to improve the extraction of the parton distribution function of a strange quark in the nucleon.