Massive quarks at one loop in the dipole picture of Deep Inelastic Scattering

TL;DR

This paper computes one-loop light cone wave functions for virtual photons splitting into massive quark-antiquark pairs, enabling more precise predictions for deep inelastic scattering processes at future colliders.

Contribution

It introduces the first calculation of quark mass effects at one loop in the dipole picture of DIS, improving theoretical accuracy for gluon saturation studies.

Findings

Derived dipole cross sections at one loop including quark masses.

Wave functions consistent with Lorentz invariance and renormalized in the pole mass scheme.

Provides tools for precision predictions at the Electron-Ion Collider.

Abstract

We calculate the light cone wave functions for a virtual photon to split into quark-antiquark states, including for the first time quark masses at one loop accuracy. These wave functions can be used to calculate cross sections for several precision probes of perturbative gluon saturation at the Electron-Ion Collider. Using these wave functions we derive, for the first time, the dipole picture DIS cross sections at one loop for longitudinal and transverse virtual photons including quark masses. The quark masses are renormalized in the pole mass scheme, satisfying constraints from the requirement of Lorentz invariance of the quark Dirac and Pauli form factors.