Double real radiation corrections to gluon scattering at NNLO

We use the antenna subtraction method to isolate the double real radiation infrared singularities present in the six-gluon tree-level process at next-to-next-to-leading order. We show numerically that the subtraction term correctly approximates the matrix elements in the various single and double unresolved configurations.Comment: six pages, talk given at 10th DESY Workshop on Elementary Particle Theory, Worlitz, 25-30 April 201

Infrared structure of e+e−→3e^+e^- \to 3 jets at NNLO: QED-type contributions

The NNLO QCD corrections to the $e^+e^- \to 3$ jets can be decomposed according to their colour factors. Out of the seven colour factors, three are of QED-type: $1/N^2$, $N_F/N$ and $N_F^2$. We use the antenna subtraction method to compute these contributions, providing complete expressions for the subtraction terms in $N_F/N$ and $N_F^2$.Comment: Talk presented at Loops and Legs 2006, Eisenac

Mechanistic artefact explanation

One thing about technical artefacts that needs to be explained is how their physical make-up, or structure, enables them to fulfil the behaviour associated with their function, or, more colloquially, how they work. In this paper I develop an account of such explanations based on the familiar notion of mechanistic explanation. To accomplish this, I outline two explanatory strategies that provide two different types of insight into an artefact’s functioning, and show how human action inevitably plays a role in artefact explanation. I then use my own account to criticize other recent work on mechanistic explanation and conclude with some general implications for the philosophy of explanation.Keywords: Artefact; Technical function; Explanation; Levels of explanation; Mechanisms