Soft-collinear effective theory

Last updated

In quantum field theory, soft-collinear effective theory (or SCET) is a theoretical framework for doing calculations that involve interacting particles carrying widely different energies.

The motivation for developing SCET was to control the infrared divergences that occur in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) calculations that involve particles that are soft—carrying much lower energy or momentum than other particles in the process—or collinear—traveling in the same direction as another particle in the process. SCET is an effective theory for highly energetic quarks interacting with collinear and/or soft gluons. It has been used for calculations of the decays of B mesons (quark-antiquark bound states involving a bottom quark) and the properties of jets (sprays of hadrons that emerge from particle collisions when a quark or gluon is produced). SCET has also been used to calculate electroweak interactions in Higgs boson production. [1]

The new feature of SCET is its ability to handle more than one soft energy scale. For example, processes involving quarks carrying a high energy Q interacting with gluons have two soft scales: the transverse momentum pT of the collinear particles, plus the even softer scale pT2/Q. SCET provides a power-counting formalism for doing perturbation theory in the small parameter ΛQCD/Q.

See the original papers were by Christian Bauer, Sean Fleming, Michael Luke, Dan Pirjol, and Iain Stewart:

Related Research Articles

Effective field theory Type of approximation to an underlying physical theory

In physics, an effective field theory is a type of approximation, or effective theory, for an underlying physical theory, such as a quantum field theory or a statistical mechanics model. An effective field theory includes the appropriate degrees of freedom to describe physical phenomena occurring at a chosen length scale or energy scale, while ignoring substructure and degrees of freedom at shorter distances. Intuitively, one averages over the behavior of the underlying theory at shorter length scales to derive what is hoped to be a simplified model at longer length scales. Effective field theories typically work best when there is a large separation between length scale of interest and the length scale of the underlying dynamics. Effective field theories have found use in particle physics, statistical mechanics, condensed matter physics, general relativity, and hydrodynamics. They simplify calculations, and allow treatment of dissipation and radiation effects.

In high energy physics, a scalar meson is a meson with total spin 0 and even parity (usually noted as JP=0+). Compare to pseudoscalar meson. The first known scalar mesons have been observed since the late 1950s, with observations of numerous light states and heavier states proliferating since the 1980s. Scalar mesons are most often observed in proton-antiproton annihilation, radiative decays of vector mesons, and meson-meson scattering.

In particle physics, little Higgs models are based on the idea that the Higgs boson is a pseudo-Goldstone boson arising from some global symmetry breaking at a TeV energy scale. The goal of little Higgs models is to use the spontaneous breaking of such approximate global symmetries to stabilize the mass of the Higgs boson(s) responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking.

Two-photon physics Branch of particle physics concerning interactions between two photons

Two-photon physics, also called gamma–gamma physics, is a branch of particle physics that describes the interactions between two photons. Normally, beams of light pass through each other unperturbed. Inside an optical material, and if the intensity of the beams is high enough, the beams may affect each other through a variety of non-linear effects. In pure vacuum, some weak scattering of light by light exists as well. Also, above some threshold of this center-of-mass energy of the system of the two photons, matter can be created.

Jet (particle physics)

A jet is a narrow cone of hadrons and other particles produced by the hadronization of a quark or gluon in a particle physics or heavy ion experiment. Particles carrying a color charge, such as quarks, cannot exist in free form because of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) confinement which only allows for colorless states. When an object containing color charge fragments, each fragment carries away some of the color charge. In order to obey confinement, these fragments create other colored objects around them to form colorless objects. The ensemble of these objects is called a jet, since the fragments all tend to travel in the same direction, forming a narrow "jet" of particles. Jets are measured in particle detectors and studied in order to determine the properties of the original quarks.

Pran Nath is a theoretical physicist working at Northeastern University, with research focus in elementary particle physics. He holds a Matthews Distinguished University Professor chair.

In particle physics, the parton model is a model of hadrons, such as protons and neutrons, proposed by Richard Feynman. It is useful for interpreting the cascades of radiation produced from quantum chromodynamics (QCD) processes and interactions in high-energy particle collisions.

Pervez Hoodbhoy Pakistani nuclear physicist and activist (born 1950)

Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy is a Pakistani nuclear physicist and activist who serves as a professor at the Forman Christian College and previously taught physics at the Quaid-e-Azam University. Hoodbhoy is also a prominent activist in particular concerned with promotion of freedom of speech, secularism, scientific temper and education in Pakistan.

John Iliopoulos Greek physicist

John (Jean) Iliopoulos is a Greek physicist. He is the first person to present the Standard Model of particle physics in a single report. He is best known for his prediction of the charm quark with Sheldon Glashow and Luciano Maiani. Iliopoulos is also known for demonstrating the cancellation of anomalies in the Standard model. He is further known for the Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term formula, which was introduced in 1974. He is currently an honorary member of Laboratory of theoretical physics of École Normale Supérieure, Paris.

Mark Trodden English physicist (born 1968)

Mark Trodden is a theoretical cosmologist and particle physicist. He is the Fay R. and Eugene L. Langberg Professor of Physics and Co-Director of the Center for Particle Cosmology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Francisco José Ynduráin Spanish physicist (1940–2008)

Francisco José Ynduráin Muñoz was a Spanish theoretical physicist. He founded the particle physics research group that became the Department of Theoretical Physics at the Autonomous University of Madrid, where he was a Professor. He was described by his colleagues as "a scientist that always searched for excellence in research".

Thomas Carlos Mehen is an American physicist. His research has consisted of primarily Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and the application of effective field theory to problems in hadronic physics. He has also worked on effective field theory for non-relativistic particles whose short range interactions are characterized by a large scattering length, as well as novel field theories which arise from unusual limits of string theory.

Standard-Model Extension (SME) is an effective field theory that contains the Standard Model, general relativity, and all possible operators that break Lorentz symmetry. Violations of this fundamental symmetry can be studied within this general framework. CPT violation implies the breaking of Lorentz symmetry, and the SME includes operators that both break and preserve CPT symmetry.

Magnetic catalysis is a physics phenomenon, which is defined as an enhancement of dynamical symmetry breaking by an external magnetic field in quantum field theory, used for the description of quantum (quasi-)particles in particle physics, nuclear physics and condensed matter physics. The underlying phenomenon is a consequence of the strong tendency of a magnetic field to enhance binding of oppositely charged particles into bound states. The catalyzing effect comes from a partial restriction of the motion of charged particles in the directions perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic field. Commonly, the magnetic catalysis is specifically associated with spontaneous breaking of flavor or chiral symmetry in quantum field theory, which is enhanced or triggered by the presence of an external magnetic field.

Gordon L. Kane

Gordon Leon Kane is Victor Weisskopf Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan and director emeritus at the Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics (LCTP), a leading center for the advancement of theoretical physics. He was director of the LCTP from 2005 to 2011 and Victor Weisskopf Collegiate Professor of Physics from 2002 - 2011. He received the Lilienfeld Prize from the American Physical Society in 2012, and the J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics in 2017.

In physical cosmology, warm inflation is one of two dynamical realizations of cosmological inflation. The other is the standard scenario, sometimes called cold inflation.

The photon structure function, in quantum field theory, describes the quark content of the photon. While the photon is a massless boson, through certain processes its energy can be converted into the mass of massive fermions. The function is defined by the process e + γ → e + hadrons. It is uniquely characterized by the linear increase in the logarithm of the electronic momentum transfer logQ2 and by the approximately linear rise in x, the fraction of the quark momenta within the photon. These characteristics are borne out by the experimental analyses of the photon structure function.

Searches for Lorentz violation involving photons provide one possible test of relativity. Examples range from modern versions of the classic Michelson–Morley experiment that utilize highly stable electromagnetic resonant cavities to searches for tiny deviations from c in the speed of light emitted by distant astrophysical sources. Due to the extreme distances involved, astrophysical studies have achieved sensitivities on the order of parts in 1038.

Asoke Nath Mitra Indian theoretical physicist (born 1929)

Asoke Nath Mitra is an Indian theoretical physicist currently a lifetime professor emeritus at Delhi University. He is known for his work in nuclear physics, particle physics and quantum field theory and in particular, for his fundamental contributions in obtaining the exact solution of the nucleon 3- body problem with separable potentials which led to the few nucleon studies, quark-recoil effect, development of an integrated dynamics of 2- and 3- body systems from nucleons to quarks as well as for the development of quark dynamics and relativistic quark models for hadrons in the Bethe-Salpeter framework. He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in 1969.

Iain William Stewart is a Canadian-American theoretical nuclear and particle physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is the Otto and Jane Morningstar Professor of Science and the current Director of the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics (CTP). He is best known for his work on effective field theories and for developing the Soft Collinear Effective Theory (SCET).

References

  1. Fuhrer, Andreas; Manohar, Aneesh V.; Waalewijn, Wouter J. (2011). "Electroweak radiative corrections to Higgs production via vector boson fusion using soft-collinear effective theory". Physical Review D. 84: 013007. arXiv: 1011.1505 . doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.84.013007.