Precision physics with inclusive QCD processes

Abstract

The inclusive production of hadrons through electroweak currents can be rigorously analysed with short-distance theoretical tools. The associated observables are insensitive to the involved infrared behaviour of the strong interaction, allowing for very precise tests of Quantum Chromodynamics. The theoretical predictions for $\sigma (e^{+}{e}^{-}\to \mathrm{hadrons})$ and the hadronic decay widths of the $\tau$ lepton and the $Z$, $W$ and Higgs bosons have reached an impressive accuracy of $\mathcal{O}({\alpha }_s^4)$. Precise experimental measurements of the $Z$ and $\tau$ hadronic widths have made possible the accurate determination of the strong coupling at two very different energy scales, providing a highly significant experimental verification of asymptotic freedom. A detailed discussion of the theoretical description of these processes and their current phenomenological status is presented. The most precise determinations of ${\alpha }_s$ from other sources are also briefly reviewed and compared with the fully-inclusive results.

50 pages, 18 figures. References added. Version published in Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics

References in corpus (42)

• The global electroweak fit at NNLO and prospects for the LHC and ILC
• The $g-2$ of charged leptons, $\alpha (M_Z^2)$ and the hyperfine splitting of muonium
• Hadronic Z- and tau-Decays in Order alpha_s^4
• The five-loop beta function of Yang-Mills theory with fermions
• Thrust at N^3LL with Power Corrections and a Precision Global Fit for alphas(mZ)
• A precise determination of alpha_s from LEP thrust data using effective field theory
• Quark mass relations to four-loop order
• Adler Function, Bjorken Sum Rule, and the Crewther Relation to Order alpha_s^4 in a General Gauge Theory
• NNLO corrections to 3-jet observables in electron-positron annihilation
• High-precision quark masses and QCD coupling from $n_f=4$ lattice QCD
• alpha_s and the tau hadronic width: fixed-order, contour-improved and higher-order perturbation theory
• The five-loop Beta function for a general gauge group and anomalous dimensions beyond Feynman gauge
• The Determination of alpha_s from Tau Decays Revisited
• Resummation of heavy jet mass and comparison to LEP data
• Event shapes and jet rates in electron-positron annihilation at NNLO
• Chiral Perturbation Theory Beyond One Loop
• Precise predictions for dijet production at the LHC
• The strong coupling from a nonperturbative determination of the $\Lambda$ parameter in three-flavor QCD
• Five-loop quark mass and field anomalous dimensions for a general gauge group
• The strong coupling from the revised ALEPH data for hadronic $\tau$ decays
• Five-loop renormalisation of QCD in covariant gauges
• Determination of the strong coupling constant using matched NNLO+NLLA predictions for hadronic event shapes in e+e- annihilations
• On Higgs decays to hadrons and the R-ratio at N^4LO
• Towards the five-loop Beta function for a general gauge group
• The strong running coupling from the gauge sector of Domain Wall lattice QCD with physical quark masses
• ${\alpha }_s$ from $\tau$ decays: contour-improved versus fixed-order summation in a new QCD perturbation expansion
• Non-Perturbative Contribution to the Thrust Distribution in $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ Annihilation
• Perturbative expansion of the QCD Adler function improved by renormalization-group summation and analytic continuation in the Borel plane
• Possible duality violations in tau decay and their impact on the determination of alpha_s
• Higgs Decay to Gluons at NNLO
• Form-factors and current correlators: chiral couplings L_10(mu) and C_87(mu) at NLO in 1/N(C)
• Bottom and Charm Mass determinations from global fits to $Q\bar{Q}$ bound states at N${}^3$LO
• Extraction of alpha_s from radiative Upsilon(1S) decays
• Matching NLLA+NNLO for event shape distributions
• Decoupling of heavy quarks at four loops and effective Higgs-fermion coupling
• Higher-order perturbative coefficients in QCD from series acceleration by conformal mappings
• Determination of the strong coupling constant ${\alpha }_s(m_Z)$ from measurements of the total cross section for top-antitop quark production
• Determination of QCD condensates from tau-decay data
• Conformal mapping of the Borel plane: going beyond perturbative QCD
• V_us From Hadronin Tau Decays
• Chiral sum rules and vacuum condensates from tau-lepton decay data
• Updated determination of ${\alpha }_s(m_{\tau }^2)$ from tau decays