The trace amplitude method and its application to the NLO QCD calculation

TL;DR

This paper reviews the trace amplitude method and demonstrates its straightforward extension to NLO QCD calculations, providing a new analytical approach for helicity amplitudes involving massive fermions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of the trace amplitude method to NLO QCD calculations, expanding its utility beyond previous leading-order analyses.

Findings

TAM can be generalized to NLO QCD calculations

Singularity structures are key to applying TAM at NLO

A simple example illustrates the method's application

Abstract

The trace amplitude method (TAM) provides us a straightforward way to calculate the helicity amplitudes with massive fermions analytically. In this work, we review the basic idea of this method, and then discuss how it can be applied to next-to-leading order (NLO) quantum chromodynamics (QCD) calculations, which has not been explored before. By analyzing the singularity structures of both virtual and real corrections, we show that the TAM can be generalized to NLO QCD calculations straightforwardly, the only caution is that the unitarity should be guaranteed. We also present a simple example to demonstrate the application of this method.