Quantum Scaling in Energy Correlators beyond the Confinement Transition.

Area of Science:

• Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD)
• High-energy particle physics
• Hadronization physics

Background:

• The energy-energy correlator (EEC) describes particle production in high-energy collisions.
• Understanding the transition from perturbative to nonperturbative QCD regimes is crucial.
• Existing models struggle to fully describe hadronization phenomena.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the QCD scaling behavior of the small-angle EEC.
• To develop a theoretical framework for the transition and nonperturbative regions.
• To establish a new method for studying hadronization.

Main Methods:

• Application of the light-ray operator product expansion (OPE).
• Development of a formalism to describe EEC scaling with input energy Q.
• Connecting light-ray OPE coefficients to moments of the dihadron fragmentation function (DFF).

Main Results:

• A novel formalism is developed for EEC scaling in transition and postconfinement regimes.
• A direct link is established between the light-ray OPE and the dihadron fragmentation function.
• Theoretical predictions show excellent agreement with Monte Carlo simulations for e+e- and pp collisions.

Conclusions:

• The study provides a new paradigm for understanding hadronization through the DFF.
• The developed formalism accurately describes QCD scaling behavior.
• The quantum scaling may play a role in precision determination of alpha_s.