On the Resummation of Large QCD Corrections to photon photon to b anti-b

Abstract

We study the resummation of large QCD radiative corrections up to the next to leading logarithmic accuracy to the process photon photon to b anti-b; i.e., we resum logarithms of the type alpha_s^p log^{2p}{m^2/s} and alpha_s^p log^{2p-1}{m^2/s} (m is the quark mass). The only source of all the logarithms to this accuracy is the off-shell Sudakov form factor included into the triangle topologies of the one-loop box diagram. We prove that any other configurations of diagrams to this accuracy, either cancel in subgroups or develop a universal on-shell Sudakov exponent due to the final quark anti-quark lines. We study the mechanism of cancellations between the different diagrams, which leads to the simple resummed results. We show the cancellation explicitly at three loops for the leading and at two loops for the next-to-leading logarithms. We also point out the general mechanism responsible for it, and discuss how it can be extended to higher orders.