Edge of Safety: Charge-Charge Correlation in the Back-to-Back Limit

Area of Science:

• High-energy physics
• Quantum chromodynamics
• Particle physics

Background:

• Charge-charge correlations (QQC) in electron-positron annihilation are crucial for understanding quantum chromodynamics.
• Previous calculations of QQC beyond leading order were divergent and lacked analytic solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the charge-charge correlation (QQC) as a probe of charge dynamics in quantum chromodynamics.
• To develop a reliable analytic perturbative treatment for QQC.
• To establish QQC as a precise observable in high-energy physics.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing soft-collinear effective field theory (SCET) to derive a factorization theorem for QQC.
• Analytically determining the logarithmic behavior of QQC up to four loops in QCD.
• Performing numerical analysis using event2 to validate theoretical predictions.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated that QQC is infrared and collinear safe in the back-to-back limit, termed leading-power safety.
• Derived a factorization theorem for QQC, enabling analytic perturbative calculations.
• Achieved next-to-next-to-next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (N^{4}LL) accuracy for QQC resummation.
• Uncovered connections between QQC and energy-energy correlations (EEC).

Conclusions:

• Established QQC as a novel and calculable probe of charge dynamics in quantum chromodynamics.
• The findings provide a new window into the behavior of non-Abelian gauge theories.
• QQC calculations now possess high perturbative precision, comparable to EEC.