Next-to-leading power threshold effects for resummed prompt photon production

Abstract

We assess and compare different methods for including leading threshold logarithms at next-to-leading-power in prompt photon production at hadron colliders, for both the direct and parton fragmentation mechanisms. We do this in addition to next-to-leading logarithmic threshold and joint resummation at leading power. We study the size of these effects and their scale variations for LHC kinematics. We find that the next-to-leading power effects have a noticeable effect on the photon transverse momentum distribution, typically of order $\mathcal{O}(10\%)$, depending on the method of inclusion. Our results indicate that next-to-leading power terms can reduce the scale dependence of the distribution considerably.

We dedicate this paper to the memory of Rahul Basu