Deep-inelastic Electron-Photon Scattering at High Q^2 : Neutral and Charged Current Reactions

TL;DR

This paper calculates high virtuality deep inelastic electron-photon scattering at a linear collider, including NLO QCD corrections and electroweak contributions, highlighting significant cross sections and charged current effects at energies above 500 GeV.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed NLO QCD calculation of electron-photon scattering at high Q^2, incorporating Z and W boson exchanges near their mass shells.

Findings

Total cross section exceeds 1 pb at energies above 500 GeV.

Charged current processes contribute significantly to the scattering.

Electroweak effects are important near Z and W boson masses.

Abstract

We present the results of a calculation of deep inelastic electron-photon scattering at a linear collider for very high virtuality of the intermediate gauge boson up to NLO in perturbative QCD. The real photon is produced unpolarized via the Compton back scattering of laser light of the incoming beam. For $Q^2$ values close to the masses squared of the Z and W gauge bosons, the deep inelastic electron-photon scattering process receives important contributions not only from virtual photon exchange but also from the exchange of a Z-boson and a W-boson. We find that the total cross section for center of mass energies above $500 \rm{GeV}$ is at least of ${\cal O}(pb)$ and has an important charged current contribution.