Color transfer in associated heavy-quarkonium production

Area of Science:

• Particle Physics
• Quantum Chromodynamics
• High-Energy Physics

Background:

• Heavy quarkonium production is crucial for understanding quantum chromodynamics.
• Standard effective field theories (EFTs) are typically used to describe these processes.
• Certain phase space regions may present challenges for conventional EFT applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate contributions to heavy quarkonium production alongside an additional heavy pair.
• To identify and analyze non-standard contributions in specific kinematic regimes.
• To understand the role of heavy fermion interactions in these processes.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of phase space regions with low relative velocities between three heavy fermions.
• Examination of infrared sensitive color exchange mechanisms.
• Comparison with predictions from standard effective field theories.

Main Results:

• Identified significant contributions from non-relativistic three-heavy-fermion configurations.
• Demonstrated that standard EFTs may not fully capture these contributions.
• Highlighted a specific color exchange effect dependent on the unpaired (anti)quark.

Conclusions:

• The production of heavy quarkonium with an extra heavy pair has unique features at low relative velocities.
• A specific infrared sensitive color exchange occurs in these non-relativistic scenarios.
• This effect is absent in relativistic scenarios and for massless particles, indicating the importance of heavy quark mass and non-relativistic dynamics.