Jet rates in electron-positron annihilation at O(\alpha_s^3) in QCD

TL;DR

This paper presents high-precision calculations of jet production rates in electron-positron annihilation at third order in QCD, improving the theoretical understanding of jet multiplicity dependence on resolution parameters.

Contribution

It provides the first complete NNLO and N$^3$LO calculations for three-jet and two-jet production rates, respectively, enhancing the accuracy of QCD predictions.

Findings

Improved perturbative description at small $ ext{y}_{ ext{cut}}$

Enhanced agreement with experimental data

Refined understanding of jet multiplicity dependence

Abstract

We compute production rates for two, three, four and five jets in electron-positron annihilation at the third order in the QCD coupling constant. At this order, three-jet production is described to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbation theory while the two-jet rate is obtained at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^3$LO). Our results yield an improved perturbative description of the dependence of jet multiplicity on the jet resolution parameter, $\ycut$, particularly at small values of $\ycut$.