Dipole factorization for DIS at NLO I: Loop correction to the photon to quark-antiquark light-front wave-functions

TL;DR

This paper calculates one-loop QCD corrections to the photon to quark-antiquark wave-functions in dipole factorization, providing essential virtual NLO contributions for DIS observables at low Bjorken x.

Contribution

It presents explicit one-loop corrections to the photon wave-function in both momentum and dipole space, advancing the precision of NLO calculations in DIS at low x.

Findings

One-loop corrections to photon wave-functions are explicitly derived.

Results are applicable to virtual NLO corrections in DIS observables.

Foundation for full NLO structure function calculations at low x.

Abstract

The one-loop QCD corrections to the light-front wave-function for the quark-antiquark Fock state inside a transverse or longitudinal off-shell photon are explicitly calculated, both in full momentum space and in mixed space (a.k.a. dipole space). These results provide one of the main contributions to virtual NLO corrections to many DIS observables (inclusive or not) in the dipole factorization formalism at low Bjorken x. In a follow-up article, these one-loop corrections are combined with earlier results on the wave-function for the quark-antiquark-gluon Fock state, in order to get the full set of NLO corrections to the DIS structure functions $F_2$ and $F_L$ in the dipole factorization formalism, valid at low Bjorken x.