On the one loop $\gamma^{(*)}\to q\bar{q}$ impact factor and the exclusive diffractive cross sections for the production of two or three jets

TL;DR

This paper calculates the one-loop impact factor for gamma to quark-antiquark transition in high-energy processes, enabling precise predictions for diffractive jet production in electron-proton collisions.

Contribution

It provides the first one-loop impact factor for gamma to quark-antiquark transition in arbitrary kinematics, facilitating improved cross-section calculations for diffractive jet production.

Findings

Derived cross sections for 2- and 3-jet diffractive electroproduction.

Demonstrated cancellation of IR, collinear, and rapidity singularities.

Applicable to analyze HERA data on exclusive dijet production.

Abstract

We present the calculation of the impact factor for the $\gamma^{(*)}\to q\bar{q}$ transition with one loop accuracy in arbitrary kinematics. The calculation was done within Balitsky's high energy operator expansion. Together with our previous result for the $\gamma^{(*)}\to q\bar{q} g$ Born impact factor it allows one to derive cross-sections for 2- (one loop) and 3-jet (Born) difractive electroproduction. We write such cross sections for the 2 and 3 jet exclusive diffractive electroproduction off a proton in terms of hadronic matrix elements of Wilson lines. For the 2-jet cross section we demonstrate the cancellation of IR, collinear and rapidity singularities. Our result can be directly exploited to describe the recently analyzed data on exclusive dijet production at HERA and used for the study of jet photoproduction in ultraperipheral proton or nuclear scattering.