Center for Theoretical Physics

The energy-energy correlator (EEC) is an observable of wide interest for collider physics and Standard Model measurements, due to both its simple theoretical description in terms of the energy-momentum tensor and its novel features for experimental studies. Significant progress has been made in both applications and higher-order perturbative predictions for the EEC. Here, we analyze the nature of the asymptotic perturbative series for the EEC by determining its analytic form in Borel space under the bubble-sum approximation. This result provides information on the leading and subleading nonperturbative power corrections through renormalon poles. We improve the perturbative convergence of the \(\overline{\mathrm{MS}}\) series for the EEC, by removing its leading renormalon using an MSR scheme, which is independent of the bubble-sum approximation. Using the leading MSR scheme power correction determined by fits to thrust, we find good agreement with EEC OPAL data already at \({\mathcal O}(\alpha_s^2)\).

We present a description of saturation in small x deep inelastic scattering from power counting in a top-down effective theory derived from QCD. A factorization formula isolates the universal physics of the nucleus at leading power in x. The onset of saturation is then understood as a breakdown in the expansion in an emergent power counting parameter, which is defined by the matrix element of a gauge invariant operator. We demonstrate the presence of a novel collinear-soft radiation mode, which clarifies the role played by the medium size in deciding linear/non-linear evolution of the cross section in \(\ln x\).

We present a new method for analytic continuation of retarded Green functions, including Euclidean Green functions computed using lattice QCD. The method is based on conformal maps and construction of an interpolation function which is analytic in the upper half plane. A novel aspect of our method is rigorous bounding of systematic uncertainties, which are handled by constructing the full space of interpolating functions (at each point in the upper half-plane) consistent with the given Euclidean data and the constraints of analyticity. The resulting Green function in the upper half-plane has an appealing interpretation as a smeared spectral function.

We initiate the study of transverse momentum-dependent (TMD) fragmentation functions for heavy quarks, demonstrate their factorization in terms of novel nonperturbative matrix elements in heavy-quark effective theory (HQET), and prove new TMD sum rules that arise from heavy-quark spin symmetry. We discuss the phenomenology of heavy-quark TMD FFs at \(B\) factories and find that the Collins effect, in contrast to claims in the literature, is not parametrically suppressed by the heavy-quark mass. We further calculate all TMD parton distribution functions for the production of heavy quarks from polarized gluons within the nucleon and use our results to demonstrate the potential of the future EIC to resolve TMD heavy-quark fragmentation in semi-inclusive DIS, complementing the planned EIC program to use heavy quarks as probes of gluon distributions.