Heavy quark induced effective action for gauge fields in the SU(N_c) x U(1) model and the low-energy structure of heavy quark current correlators

We calculate the low-energy limit of heavy quark current correlators within an expansion in the inverse heavy quark mass. The induced low-energy currents built from the gluon fields corresponding to the initial heavy quark currents are obtained from an effective action for gauge fields in the one-loop approximation at the leading order of the 1/m expansion. Explicit formulae for the low-energy spectra of electromagnetic and tensor heavy quark current correlators are given. Consequences of the appearance of a nonvanishing spectral density below the two-particle threshold for high precision phenomenology of heavy quarks are discussed quantitatively.Comment: 21 pages in LaTeX, 2 PostScript figures included in the tex

Next-to-Leading Order perturbative QCD corrections to baryon correlators in matter

We compute the next-to-leading order perturbative QCD corrections to the correlators of nucleon interpolating currents in relativistic nuclear matter. The main new result is the calculation of the O(alpha_s) perturbative corrections to the coefficient functions of the vector quark condensate in matter. This condensate appears in matter due to the violation of Lorentz invariance. The NLO perturbative QCD corrections turn out to be large which implies that the NLO corrections must be included in a sum rule analysis of the properties of both bound nucleons and relativistic nuclear matter.Comment: 19 pages in LaTeX, including 5 Postscript figure

Landau equations and asymptotic operation

The pinched/non-pinched classification of intersections of causal singularities of propagators in Minkowski space is reconsidered in the context of the theory of asymptotic operation as a first step towards extension of the latter to non-Euclidean asymptotic regimes. A highly visual distribution-theoretic technique of singular wave fronts is tailored to the needs of the theory of Feynman diagrams. Besides a simple derivation of the usual Landau equations in the case of the conventional singularities, the technique naturally extends to other types of singularities e.g. due to linear denominators in non-covariant gauges etc. As another application, the results of Euclidean asymptotic operation are extended to a class of quasi-Euclidean asymptotic regimes in Minkowski space.Comment: 15p PS (GSview), IJMP-A (accepted

The BFKL Pomeron within Physical Renormalization Schemes and Scales

In this lecture the next-to-leading order (NLO) corrections to the QCD Pomeron intercept obtained from the Balitsky-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov (BFKL) equation are discussed. It is shown that the BFKL Pomeron intercept when evaluated in non-Abelian physical renormalization schemes with Brodsky-Lepage-Mackenzie (BLM) optimal scale setting does not exhibit the serious problems encountered in the modified minimal subtraction (bar{MS}) scheme. The results obtained provide an opportunity for applications of the NLO BFKL resummation to high-energy phenomenology. One of such applications for virtual gamma-gamma total cross section shows a good agreement with preliminary data at CERN LEP.Comment: Presented at XXXXV PNPI Winter School, Repino, St.Petersburg, Russia, 19-25 Feb., 2001; Latex, 16 pages, 5 figure

On the evaluation of a certain class of Feynman diagrams in x-space: Sunrise-type topologies at any loop order

We review recently developed new powerful techniques to compute a class of Feynman diagrams at any loop order, known as sunrise-type diagrams. These sunrise-type topologies have many important applications in many different fields of physics and we believe it to be timely to discuss their evaluation from a unified point of view. The method is based on the analysis of the diagrams directly in configuration space which, in the case of the sunrise-type diagrams and diagrams related to them, leads to enormous simplifications as compared to the traditional evaluation of loops in momentum space. We present explicit formulae for their analytical evaluation for arbitrary mass configurations and arbitrary dimensions at any loop order. We discuss several limiting cases of their kinematical regimes which are e.g. relevant for applications in HQET and NRQCD.Comment: 100 pages, 16 eps-figures include