Linear power corrections for two-body kinematics in the $q_T$ subtraction formalism

Abstract

Transverse-momentum cuts on undistinguished particles in two-body final states induce an enhanced sensitivity to low momentum scales. This undesirable feature, which ultimately leads to an instability of the fixed-order series, poses additional challenges to non-local subtraction schemes. In this letter, we address this issue for general colour-singlet processes within the $q_T$-subtraction formalism, focussing on neutral-current Drell-Yan production. We present a simple procedure to reduce the dependence on the slicing parameter from linear to quadratic, by accounting for the linear power corrections through an appropriate recoil prescription. We observe a dramatical improvement of the numerical convergence and a reduction of the systematic uncertainties. We also discuss how a linear dependence in $q_T$ can be avoided for Drell-Yan production by using staggered cuts, which, to the best of our understanding, could be used in experimental analyses. We show that our approach can be successfully applied also to on-shell $ZZ$ production. We finally study diphoton production and verify that our approach is insufficient to capture the linear power corrections introduced by the isolation procedure. The recoil prescription is available in version 2.1 of MATRIX.

11 pages, 9 figures. Added comparison with local subtraction at NNLO. Version published in Phys.Lett.B

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• Transverse Mass Distribution and Charge Asymmetry in W Boson Production to Third Order in QCD
• Fiducial perturbative power corrections within the q${}_{\mathbf{T}}$ subtraction formalism
• Third order QCD predictions for fiducial W-boson production
• Top-quark pole mass extraction at NNLO accuracy, from total, single- and double-differential cross sections for $t\bar{t}+X$ production at the LHC
• Non-local slicing approaches for NNLO QCD in MCFM
• Effective transverse momentum in multiple jet production at hadron colliders
• Determination of the $W$-boson mass at hadron colliders
• Fully differential Higgs boson pair production at N${}^3$LO with top quark mass effects