A new subtraction scheme for computing QCD jet cross sections at next-to-leading order accuracy

TL;DR

The paper introduces a new subtraction scheme for computing NLO QCD jet cross sections in $e^+e^-$ annihilation, motivated by difficulties in extending standard schemes to NNLO. The method constructs a universal, phase-space-factorized approximate cross section that captures all singly unresolved infrared singularities via collinear and soft counterterms. Integrating these terms yields an insertion operator that cancels the infrared poles of the virtual contribution, enabling fully finite, four-dimensional numerical integration. Although the scheme offers no immediate advantage over existing NLO methods, it provides a general, NNLO-friendly framework and is validated by agreement with established benchmarks for three-jet event shapes against the EVENT program.

Abstract

We present a new subtraction scheme for computing jet cross sections in electron-positron annihilation at next-to-leading order accuracy in perturbative QCD. The new scheme is motivated by problems emerging in extending the subtraction scheme to the next-to-next-to-leading order. The new scheme is tested by comparing predictions for three-jet event-shape distributions to those obtained by the standard program EVENT.