The trace amplitude method (TAM) provides us a straightforward way to calculate the helicity amplitudes with massive fermions analytically. In this work, we review the basic idea of this method, and then discuss how it can be applied to next-to-leading order (NLO) quantum chromodynamics (QCD) calculations, which has not been explored before. By analyzing the singularity structures of both virtual and real corrections, we show that the TAM can be generalized to NLO QCD calculations straightforwardly, the only caution is that the unitarity should be guaranteed. We also present a simple example to demonstrate the application of this method.
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