Second order contributions to elastic large-angle Bhabha scattering
E. W. N. Glover, J. B. Tausk, J. J. van der Bij
TL;DR
The paper addresses the need for precise higher-order QED corrections to elastic large-angle Bhabha scattering by deriving the O(α^2 log(s/m_e^2)) contribution. It adapts Catani's infrared factorization to a massive regulator scheme, translating the IR subtraction operators and the H^(2) term to this context and applying them to 2→2 Bhabha scattering without vacuum polarization insertions. The authors compute the VV, SV, and SS pieces and present an explicit expression for the cross section up to O(α^2) that includes a new constant term C, matching known A and B coefficients and validating small-angle limits. This work reduces the theoretical uncertainty in luminosity determinations and informs Monte Carlo implementations, with pathways to higher energies and potential QCD generalizations.
Abstract
We derive the coefficient of the O(alpha^2 log(s/m_e^2)) fixed order contribution to elastic large-angle Bhabha scattering. We adapt the classification of infrared divergences, that was recently developed within dimensional regularization, and apply it to the regularization scheme with a massive photon and electron.