The three-loop single-mass heavy-flavor corrections to the structure functions $F_2(x,Q^2)$ and $g_1(x,Q^2)$

Abstract

We present quantitative results on the single-mass heavy-flavor contributions in the region of large virtualities $Q^2$ up to three-loop order to the unpolarized structure function $F_2(x,Q^2)$ and the polarized structure function $g_1(x,Q^2)$ for the first time. These results are relevant for precision QCD analyses of the World deep-inelastic data and the data taken at future colliders, such as the Electron--Ion Collider, since the scaling violations due to massless and massive Wilson coefficients are significantly different. In order to measure the strong coupling constant $\hat{I}{\pm }_s(M_Z^2)$ and the twist-2 parton distribution functions consistently at highest precision, the next-to-next-to-leading order corrections have to be taken into account. Furthermore, the complete three-loop corrections will allow to reduce the present theory error of the charm mass $m_c$ as measured form deep-inelastic data. We provide a fast and precise public numerical code for the unpolarized and polarized massive Wilson coefficients in the asymptotic region.

15 pages, 8 figures