Full treatment of the thrust distribution in single inclusive $e^+ e^- \to h \, X$ processes

Abstract

Extending the transverse momentum dependent factorization to thrust dependent observables entails a series of difficulties, ultimately associated to the behavior of soft radiation. As a consequence, the definition of the transverse momentum dependent functions has to be revised, while preserving (and possibly extending) their universality properties. Moreover, the regularization of the rapidity divergences generates non trivial correlations between rapidity and thrust. In this paper, we show how to deal with these correlations in a consistent treatment of the thrust dependence of $e^+ e^- \to h \, X$ cross section, where the hadron transverse momentum is measured with respect to the thrust axis. In this framework all results obtained in the past few years properly fit together, leading to a remarkable phenomenological description of the experimental measurements.