NNLO soft function for electroweak boson production at large transverse momentum

TL;DR

This paper presents the first two-loop calculation of the soft function for electroweak boson production at high transverse momentum, enabling more precise threshold resummation at advanced logarithmic accuracy.

Contribution

It provides the first two-loop soft function computation involving three light-cone directions, advancing theoretical precision in electroweak boson production predictions.

Findings

Soft function computed at NNLO for the first time.

Enables NN3LL threshold resummation for electroweak boson production.

Improves theoretical accuracy for high transverse momentum processes.

Abstract

The soft function relevant for the production of an electroweak boson (photon, W, Z or H) with large transverse momentum at a hadron collider is computed at next-to-next-to-leading order. This is the first two-loop computation of a soft function involving three light-cone directions. With the result, the threshold resummation for these processes can now be performed at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy.