Mixed QCD-EW two-loop corrections to Drell-Yan production

TL;DR

This paper presents the first complete analytical calculation of mixed QCD-electroweak two-loop corrections to Drell-Yan lepton-pair production, improving theoretical precision for collider predictions.

Contribution

It provides the first full calculation of mixed QCD-EW two-loop virtual corrections to Drell-Yan production, including validation and infrared divergence subtraction methods.

Findings

Validated previous mixed QCD-QED correction calculations.

Demonstrated how jet and soft functions can subtract infrared divergences.

Enhanced theoretical accuracy for Drell-Yan cross section predictions.

Abstract

The Drell-Yan production of charged lepton pairs is one of the key processes measured at hadron colliders. The QCD corrections to the cross section are known to order $\alpha_s^2$ and electroweak corrections are known to order $\alpha$. The next important step for a better theoretical understanding is the complete calculation of the mixed QCD-EW corrections of order $\alpha_s\alpha$. In my talk, I report on the first complete calculation of the virtual two-loop corrections of order $\alpha\alpha_s$ to the lepton-pair production cross section. The calculation is carried out analytically using tensor reduction, integration-by-parts relations and the method of differential equations. We validate a previous calculation of the subset of mixed QCD-QED corrections and show how the jet and soft functions of that reference can be used to subtract the infrared divergences of the complete mixed QCD-electroweak virtual corrections.