Rotating the Color Glass Condensate

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new framework for high-energy QCD evolution that stabilizes calculations beyond leading order by modifying the operator basis, enabling precise studies of gluon saturation at colliders.

Contribution

It proposes a basis change in high-energy operators that stabilizes NLO evolution equations, maintaining physical observables and improving perturbative stability.

Findings

Derived a stable NLO evolution equation for high-energy QCD

Numerical solutions show stable evolution at large rapidities

Framework compatible with standard high-energy operator product expansion

Abstract

High-energy QCD evolution beyond leading order suffers from instabilities driven by large collinear logarithms. We present a framework, consistent with the standard high-energy operator product expansion (OPE), that restores perturbative stability order by order. The method involves a change of basis in the space of high-energy operators, which modifies both the evolution kernel and the coefficient functions while leaving physical observables invariant. Within this factorization scheme, we derive a next-to-leading-order renormalization-group equation whose numerical solution exhibits stable evolution up to large rapidities, thereby establishing a solid foundation for precision studies of gluon saturation at current and future colliders.