Collinearity, convergence and cancelling infrared divergences

DOI10.1088/1126-6708/2006/03/026zbMATH Open1226.81128arXivhep-ph/0511314OpenAlexW2087656254MaRDI QIDQ648623FDOQ648623

Authors: Martin Lavelle, David McMullan 

Publication date: 28 November 2011

Published in: Journal of High Energy Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The Lee-Nauenberg theorem is a fundamental quantum mechanical result which provides the standard theoretical response to the problem of collinear and infrared divergences. Its argument, that the divergences due to massless charged particles can be removed by summing over degenerate states, has been successfully applied to systems with final state degeneracies such as LEP processes. If there are massless particles in both the initial and final states, as will be the case at the LHC, the theorem requires the incorporation of disconnected diagrams which produce connected interference effects at the level of the cross-section. However, this aspect of the theory has never been fully tested in the calculation of a cross-section. We show through explicit examples that in such cases the theorem introduces a divergent series of diagrams and hence fails to cancel the infrared divergences. It is also demonstrated that the widespread practice of treating soft infrared divergences by the Bloch-Nordsieck method and handling collinear divergences by the Lee-Nauenberg method is not consistent in such cases.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0511314

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Yang-Mills and other gauge theories in quantum field theory (81T13) Perturbative methods of renormalization applied to problems in quantum field theory (81T15) Strong interaction, including quantum chromodynamics (81V05)

Cites Work

• Asymptotic conditions and infrared divergences in quantum electrodynamics
• Mass Singularities of Feynman Amplitudes
• Note on the Radiation Field of the Electron
• Infrared-finite amplitudes for massless gauge theories
• Charges from dressed matter: Physics and renormalisation
• Charges from dressed matter: construction

Cited In (7)

• Soft collinear degeneracies in an asymptotically free theory
• Power suppressed corrections show new features of infrared cancellations
• Invariant operators in collinear effective theory
• Electrodynamics of massless charged particles
• Electromagnetic fields and potentials generated by massless charged particles
• Wave scattering event shapes at high energies
• Sideband mixing in intense laser backgrounds

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