Local unitarity: cutting raised propagators and localising renormalisation

Abstract The Local Unitarity (LU) representation of differential cross-sections locally realises the cancellations of infrared singularities predicted by the Kinoshita-Lee-Nauenberg theorem. In this work we solve the two remaining challenges to enable practical higher-loop computations within the LU...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zeno Capatti, Valentin Hirschi, Ben Ruijl
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2022-10-01
Series:Journal of High Energy Physics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP10(2022)120
Description
Summary:Abstract The Local Unitarity (LU) representation of differential cross-sections locally realises the cancellations of infrared singularities predicted by the Kinoshita-Lee-Nauenberg theorem. In this work we solve the two remaining challenges to enable practical higher-loop computations within the LU formalism. The first concerns the generalisation of the LU representation to graphs with raised propagators. The solution to this problem results in a generalisation of distributional Cutkosky rules. The second concerns the regularisation of ultraviolet and spurious soft singularities, solved using a fully automated and local renormalisation procedure based on Bogoliubov’s R-operation. We detail an all-order construction for the hybrid MS ¯ $$ \overline{\textrm{MS}} $$ and On-Shell scheme whose only analytic input is single-scale vacuum diagrams. We validate this novel technology by providing (semi-)inclusive results for two multi-leg processes at NLO, study limits of individual supergraphs up to N3LO and present the first physical NNLO cross-sections computed fully numerically in momentum-space, namely for the processes γ ∗ → jj and γ ∗ → t t ¯ $$ {\gamma}^{\ast}\to t\overline{t} $$ .
ISSN:1029-8479