Tops from Light Quarks: Full Mass Dependence at Two-Loops in QCD

TL;DR

This paper calculates two-loop QCD corrections for massive quark pair production, combining analytical expansion and numerical methods, with applications to top quark pair production at the LHC.

Contribution

It provides the full mass dependence at two loops in QCD for quark-antiquark annihilation, advancing precision calculations for top quark production.

Findings

Two-loop corrections computed with full mass dependence.

Method combines high-energy expansion and numerical differential equations.

Results applicable to top quark pair production at the LHC.

Abstract

I present the two-loop QCD corrections to the production of a massive quark-anti-quark pair in the massless quark-anti-quark annihilation channel. The result is obtained as a combination of a deep expansion in the mass around the high energy limit and of a numerical integration of a system of differential equations. The primary application of the outcome and developed methods is top quark pair production at the Large Hadron Collider.