Setting the renormalization scale in perturbative QCD: Comparisons of the principle of maximum conformality with the sequential extended Brodsky-Lepage-Mackenzie approach
Apr 6, 2015
16 pages
Published in:
- Phys.Rev.D 91 (2015) 9, 094028
- Published: May 26, 2015
e-Print:
- 1504.01260 [hep-ph]
Report number:
- SLAC-PUB-16236,
- NORDITA-2015-39
Citations per year
Abstract: (APS)
A key problem in making precise perturbative QCD (pQCD) predictions is how to set the renormalization scale of the running coupling unambiguously at each finite order. The elimination of the uncertainty in setting the renormalization scale in pQCD will greatly increase the precision of collider tests of the Standard Model and the sensitivity to new phenomena. Renormalization group invariance requires that predictions for observables must also be independent on the choice of the renormalization scheme. The well-known Brodsky-Lepage-Mackenzie (BLM) approach cannot be easily extended beyond next-to-next-to-leading order of pQCD. Several suggestions have been proposed to extend the BLM approach to all orders. In this paper we discuss two distinct methods. One is based on the “Principle of Maximum Conformality” (PMC), which provides a systematic all-orders method to eliminate the scale and scheme ambiguities of pQCD. The PMC extends the BLM procedure to all orders using renormalization group methods; as an outcome, it significantly improves the pQCD convergence by eliminating renormalon divergences. An alternative method is the “sequential extended BLM” (seBLM) approach, which has been primarily designed to improve the convergence of pQCD series. The seBLM, as originally proposed, introduces auxiliary fields and follows the pattern of the β0-expansion to fix the renormalization scale. However, the seBLM requires a recomputation of pQCD amplitudes including the auxiliary fields; due to the limited availability of calculations using these auxiliary fields, the seBLM has only been applied to a few processes at low orders. In order to avoid the complications of adding extra fields, we propose a modified version of seBLM which allows us to apply this method to higher orders. We then perform detailed numerical comparisons of the two alternative scale-setting approaches by investigating their predictions for the annihilation cross section ratio Re+e- at four-loop order in pQCD.Note:
- 16 pages, 2 figures
- 12.38.Bx
- 11.15.Bt
- 12.38.Aw
- scale: quantum chromodynamics
- quantum chromodynamics: strong coupling
- strong coupling: energy dependence
- quantum chromodynamics: perturbation theory: higher-order
- perturbation theory: error
- renormalization group: invariance
- renormalization group: effect
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