Complete Renormalization Group Improvement-Avoiding Factorization and Renormalization Scale Dependence in QCD Predictions

For moments of leptoproduction structure functions we show that all dependence on the renormalization and factorization scales disappears, provided that all the ultraviolet logarithms involving the physical energy scale Q are completely resummed. The approach is closely related to Grunberg's method of Effective Charges. A direct and simple method for extracting the universal dimensional transmutation parameter of QCD from experimental data is advocated.Comment: 16 pages, no figure

FAPT: a Mathematica package for calculations in QCD Fractional Analytic Perturbation Theory

We provide here all the procedures in \texttt{Mathematica} which are needed for the computation of the analytic images of the strong coupling constant powers in Minkowski (${\bar{\mathfrak A}_{\nu}(s;n_f)}$ and ${\mathfrak A_{\nu}^\text{glob}(s)}$) and Euclidean (${\bar{\mathcal A}_{\nu}(Q^2;n_f)}$ and ${\mathcal A_{\nu}^\text{glob}(Q^2)}$) domains at arbitrary energy scales (${s}$ and ${Q^2}$, correspondingly) for both schemes --- with fixed number of active flavours ${n_f=3, 4, 5, 6}$ and the global one with taking into account all heavy-quark thresholds. These singularity-free couplings are inevitable elements of Analytic Perturbation Theory (APT) in QCD and its generalization --- Fractional APT, needed to apply the APT imperative for renormalization-group improved hadronic observables.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures. Citations added. Now it matches version approved for publication in Comp. Phys. Commu

Analogs of noninteger powers in general analytic QCD

In contrast to the coupling parameter in the usual perturbative QCD (pQCD), the coupling parameter in the analytic QCD models has cuts only on the negative semiaxis of the Q^2-plane (where q^2 = -Q^2 is the momentum squared), thus reflecting correctly the analytic structure of the spacelike observables. The Minimal Analytic model (MA, named also APT) of Shirkov and Solovtsov removes the nonphysical cut (at positive Q^2) of the usual pQCD coupling and keeps the pQCD cut discontinuity of the coupling at negative Q^2 unchanged. In order to evaluate in MA the physical QCD quantities whose perturbation expansion involves noninteger powers of the pQCD coupling, a specific method of construction of MA analogs of noninteger pQCD powers was developed by Bakulev, Mikhailov and Stefanis (BMS). We present a construction, applicable now in any analytic QCD model, of analytic analogs of noninteger pQCD powers; this method generalizes the BMS approach obtained in the framework of MA. We need to know only the discontinuity function of the analytic coupling (the analog of the pQCD coupling) along its cut in order to obtain the analytic analogs of the noninteger powers of the pQCD coupling, as well as their timelike (Minkowskian) counterparts. As an illustration, we apply the method to the evaluation of the width for the Higgs decay into b+(bar b) pair.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures; sections II and III extended, appendix B is ne

A novel series solution to the renormalization group equation in QCD

Recently, the QCD renormalization group (RG) equation at higher orders in MS-like renormalization schemes has been solved for the running coupling as a series expansion in powers of the exact 2-loop order coupling. In this work, we prove that the power series converges to all orders in perturbation theory. Solving the RG equation at higher orders, we determine the running coupling as an implicit function of the 2-loop order running coupling. Then we analyze the singularity structure of the higher order coupling in the complex 2-loop coupling plane. This enables us to calculate the radii of convergence of the series solutions at the 3- and 4-loop orders as a function of the number of quark flavours $n_{\rm f}$. In parallel, we discuss in some detail the singularity structure of the ${\bar{\rm MS}}$ coupling at the 3- and 4-loops in the complex momentum squared plane for $0\leq n_{\rm f} \leq 16$. The correspondence between the singularity structure of the running coupling in the complex momentum squared plane and the convergence radius of the series solution is established. For sufficiently large $n_{\rm f}$ values, we find that the series converges for all values of the momentum squared variable $Q^2=-q^2>0$. For lower values of $n_{\rm f}$, in the ${\bar{\rm MS}}$ scheme, we determine the minimal value of the momentum squared $Q_{\rm min}^2$ above which the series converges. We study properties of the non-power series corresponding to the presented power series solution in the QCD Analytic Perturbation Theory approach of Shirkov and Solovtsov. The Euclidean and Minkowskian versions of the non-power series are found to be uniformly convergent over whole ranges of the corresponding momentum squared variables.Comment: 29 pages,LateX file, uses IOP LateX class file, 2 figures, 13 Tables. Formulas (4)-(7) and Table 1 were relegated to Appendix 1, some notations changed, 2 footnotes added. Clarifying discussion added at the end of Sect. 3, more references and acknowledgments added. Accepted for publication in Few-Body System

On the running coupling constant in QCD

We try to review the main current ideas and points of view on the running coupling constant in QCD. We begin by recalling briefly the classic analysis based on the Renormalization Group with some emphasis on the exact solutions of the RG equation for a given number of loops, in comparison with the usual approximate expressions. We give particular attention to the problem of eliminating the unphysical Landau singularities, and of defining a coupling that remains significant at the infrared scales. We consider various proposals of couplings directly related to the quark-antiquark potential or to other physical quantities (effective charges) and discuss optimization in the choice of the scale parameter and of the RS. Our main focus is, however, on dispersive methods, their application, their relation with non-perturbative effects. We try also to summarize the main results obtained by Lattice simulations in various MOM schemes. We conclude briefly recalling the traditional comparison with the experimental data.Comment: 75 pages, 8 figures. Corrected typos, added references, replaced 1 figure. Accepted for publication in Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physic

Global Fractional Analytic Perturbation Theory in QCD with Selected Applications

We give the generalization of Fractional Analytic Perturbation Theory (FAPT) for QCD observables, recently developed both for the Euclidean and Minkowski regions of squared momentum transfer q^2, which takes into account heavy-quark thresholds. The original analytic approach to QCD, initiated by Jones, Solovtsov and Shirkov, is shortly summarized. We also shortly consider the basic aspects of FAPT and then concentrate on the accounting for the heavy-quark thresholds problem and the construction of global version of FAPT. We discuss what one should use as an analytic coupling in the timelike region q^2=s>0 for the e^{+}e^{-}-annihilation and the pion form factor, and consider applications to phenomenologically relevant processes (the factorizable part of the pion form factor and the Higgs boson decay into a b\bar{b} pair), as well as to the summation of perturbative series.Comment: 63 pages, 15 figures, in russian (first part of Doktor-Nauk thesis), published in Physics of Particles and Nuclei, typos corrected (English version avalable on request); corrected formulas (3.14b)-(3.14c) and (B9b