No Arabic abstract
We propose a novel method to compute multi-loop master integrals by constructing and numerically solving a system of ordinary differential equations, with almost trivial boundary conditions. Thus it can be systematically applied to problems with arbitrary kinematic configurations. Numerical tests show that our method can not only achieve results with high precision, but also be much faster than the only existing systematic method sector decomposition. As a by product, we find a new strategy to compute scalar one-loop integrals without reducing them to master integrals.
We present the complete set of planar master integrals relevant to the calculation of three-point functions in four-loop massless Quantum Chromodynamics. Employing direct parametric integrations for a basis of finite integrals, we give analytic results for the Laurent expansion of conventional integrals in the parameter of dimensional regularization through to terms of weight eight.
Higher-order radiative corrections play an important role in precision studies of the electroweak and Higgs sector, as well as for the detailed understanding of large backgrounds to new physics searches. For corrections beyond the one-loop level and involving many independent mass and momentum scales, it is in general not possible to find analytic results, so that one needs to resort to numerical methods instead. This article presents an overview over a variety of numerical loop integration techniques, highlighting their range of applicability, suitability for automatization, and numerical precision and stability. In a second part of this article, the application of numerical loop integration methods in the area of electroweak precision tests is illustrated. Numerical methods were essential for obtaining full two-loop predictions for the most important precision observables within the Standard Model. The theoretical foundations for these corrections will be described in some detail, including aspects of the renormalization, resummation of leading loop contributions, and the evaluation of the theory uncertainty from missing higher orders.
The standard procedure when evaluating integrals of a given family of Feynman integrals, corresponding to some Feynman graph, is to construct an algorithm which provides the possibility to write any particular integral as a linear combination of so-called master integrals. To do this, public (AIR, FIRE, REDUZE, LiteRed, KIRA) and private codes based on solving integration by parts relations are used. However, the choice of the master integrals provided by these codes is not always optimal. We present an algorithm to improve a given basis of the master integrals, as well as its computer implementation; see also a competitive variant [1].
We present numerical results which are needed to evaluate all non-trivial master integrals for four-loop massless propagators, confirming the recent analytic results of[1]and evaluating an extra order in $ep$ expansion for each master integral.
We evaluate analytically higher terms of the epsilon-expansion of the three-loop master integrals corresponding to three-loop quark and gluon form factors and to the three-loop master integrals contributing to the electron g-2 in QED up to the transcendentality weight typical to four-loop calculations, i.e. eight and seven, respectively. The calculation is based on a combination of a method recently suggested by one of the authors (R.L.) with other techniques: sector decomposition implemented in FIESTA, the method of Mellin--Barnes representation, and the PSLQ algorithm.