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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

In this note we present an approximate next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) evaluation of the QCD form factor resumming threshold logarithmic contributions in semi-inclusive heavy flavour decays.

In semi-inclusive processes, final gluon radiation is strongly inhibited in the phase space regions where the observed final state obtains its maximum energy, therefore opening the way to soft and collinear singularities. The perturbative calculation of the differential cross section is plagued, in that limit, by large logarithms. In order to improve the reliability of the perturbative calculation, these large logarithms need to be resummed.

Let us consider the rate of semi-inclusive heavy flavour decays. The Mellin $`N`$-moments of the rate contain double logarithmic contributions and have an expansion of the form:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_B}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_N\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑xx^{N1}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_B}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\mathrm{\Gamma }}{dx}}(x;\alpha _S)`$ (2)
$`=`$ $`1+{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{m=0}{\overset{2n}{}}}G_{nm}\alpha _S^nL^m+{\displaystyle \underset{l=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\alpha _S^lR_N^{\left(l\right)}`$
$`=`$ $`1+G_{12}\alpha _SL^2+G_{11}\alpha _SL+G_{10}\alpha _S+G_{24}\alpha _S^2L^4+G_{23}\alpha _S^2L^3+G_{22}\alpha _S^2L^2+\mathrm{}`$
$`+\alpha _SR_N^{\left(1\right)}+\alpha _S^2R_N^{\left(2\right)}+\alpha _S^3R_N^{\left(3\right)}+\mathrm{},`$
where

$$L\mathrm{ln}N.$$
(3)
$`R_N\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ is a remainder function, which does not contain large logarithms and has a perturbative expansion of the form:

$$R_N\left(\alpha _S\right)\underset{l=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\alpha _S^lR_N^{\left(l\right)}.$$
(4)
The running coupling is evaluated at a general renormalization scale $`\mu Q,`$ where $`Q`$ is the hard scale:

$$\alpha _S=\alpha _S\left(\mu ^2\right).$$
(5)
The logarithmic terms have an exponential structure, so one can write :

$$\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_B}\mathrm{\Gamma }_N\left(\alpha _S\right)=C\left(\alpha _S\right)f_N\left(\alpha _S\right)$$
(6)
where the form factor $`f_N\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ reads:

$`f_N\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{n+1}{}}}c_{nm}\alpha _S^nL^k\right]`$ (7)
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{exp}\left[c_{12}\alpha _SL^2+c_{11}\alpha _SL+c_{23}\alpha _S^2L^3+c_{22}\alpha _S^2L^2+c_{\mathrm{2\hspace{0.17em}1}}\alpha _S^2L+c_{34}\alpha _S^3L^4+\mathrm{}\right].`$
Note that the exponent contains only the first term $`\alpha _SL^2`$ of the double-logarithmic series $`\left(\alpha _SL^2\right)^n.`$ The advantage of the exponentiation is therefore that we can predict $`\mathrm{ln}f_N`$ reliably for $`\alpha _SL1`$, that is, for a larger region than $`\alpha _SL^21`$, where the perturbative expansion of $`f_N`$ holds. In fact, the other terms of $`(\alpha _SL^2)^n`$ come purely from the expansion of the exponential function, as can be seen in formula (2).

The prefactor in (6) is the coefficient function, having an expansion in powers of $`\alpha _S`$:

$$C\left(\alpha _S\right)=1+\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}C_n\alpha _S^n=1+C_1\alpha _S+C_2\alpha _S^2+\mathrm{}.$$
(8)
The double sum in the exponent is usually organized as a series of functions, which resum “strips” in the $`(n,k)`$ plane:

$`f_N\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{exp}\left[Lg_1\left(\beta _0\alpha _SL\right)+{\displaystyle \underset{n=2}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\alpha _S^{n2}g_n\left(\beta _0\alpha _SL\right)\right]`$ (9)
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{exp}\left[Lg_1\left(\beta _0\alpha _SL\right)+g_2\left(\beta _0\alpha _SL\right)+\alpha _Sg_3\left(\beta _0\alpha _SL\right)+\alpha _S^2g_4\left(\beta _0\alpha _SL\right)+\mathrm{}\right].`$
The functions $`g_i\left(\lambda \right)`$ have a power-series expansion:

$$g_i\left(\lambda \right)=\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}g_{in}\lambda ^n.$$
(10)
where $`\lambda =\beta _0\alpha _SL`$. They are all homogeneous functions: $`g_i\left(0\right)=0.`$ This property insures the normalization of the form factor: $`f_{N=1}=1.`$ The resumming at LO, NLO and NNLO is referred, respectively, to series in $`L(\alpha _SL)^n`$, $`(\alpha _SL)^n`$ and $`\alpha _S(\alpha _SL)^n`$.

We have computed the function $`g_3(\lambda )`$, which is necessary for the NNLO resumming. Not all the quantities determining $`g_3(\lambda )`$ are known exactly. $`A_3`$ is only known numerically from a fit of the three-loop Altarelli-Parisi (AP) splitting function to the known moments. $`B_2`$ is unknown and we approximate it with the infrared-regular part of the two-loop AP splitting function. The coefficient functions and the remainder functions for radiative and semileptonic $`B`$ decays have been computed to NLO in ref. . A complete NNLO computation of the distributions requires also the knowledge of the two-loop coefficient function, which at present is unknown for any distribution. After the resummation of the threshold logarithms in the $`N`$-space, we have returned to the form factor in the $`x`$-space, by inverting $`f_N(\alpha _S)`$ with analytic and numerical procedures.

## 2 QCD form factor at NNLO

Let us briefly describe the derivation of the NNLO form factor in the $`N`$-space. By NNLO accuracy, we mean the resummation of all the infrared logarithms up to and including

$$NNLO:\alpha _S^nL^{n1}.$$
(11)
The general expression of the form factor is:

$$\mathrm{log}f_N\left(\alpha _S\right)=_0^1𝑑z\frac{z^{N1}1}{1z}\left\{_{Q^2(1z)^2}^{Q^2(1z)}\frac{dk^2}{k^2}A\left[\alpha _S\left(k^2\right)\right]+D\left[\alpha _S\left(Q^2\left(1z\right)^2\right)\right]+B\left[\alpha _S\left(Q^2(1z)\right)\right]\right\}.$$
(12)
Let us remind one difference between annihilation processes, as Drell-Yan, and other processes, like the present one or DIS. In the annihilation processes, the initial partons reduce their momenta by irradiation, before actually annihilating; when $`\tau =Q^2/s1`$, only the emission of soft partons is allowed. Likewise, in the other processes, as f.i. DIS, and in the limit $`x=Q^2/2Qp1`$, only soft emission is allowed, before the scattering; however, after the scattering, the parton fragments with the only kinematical constraint of having a low virtuality and collinear emission is no longer forbidden.

The functions $`A\left(\alpha _S\right),D\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ and $`B\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ have a perturbative expansion in powers of $`\alpha _S`$:

$`A\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}A_n\alpha _S^n=A_1\alpha _S+A_2\alpha _S^2+A_3\alpha _S^3+\mathrm{};`$
$`D\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}D_n\alpha _S^n=D_1\alpha _S+D_2\alpha _S^2+\mathrm{};`$
$`B\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}B_n\alpha _S^n=B_1\alpha _S+B_2\alpha _S^2+\mathrm{}.`$ (13)
Let us observe, that in general the transverse momentum rule is a guess, as it has not been proven to such an accuracy. The universality of $`B_2,`$ in general, is a debated problem. If we neglect the variation of the coupling with the scale (frozen coupling), we find logarithmic terms of the form:

$$A_1\alpha _SL^2,A_2\alpha _S^2L^2,A_3\alpha _S^3L^2,\mathrm{}D_1\alpha _SL,D_2\alpha _S^2L,\mathrm{}B_1\alpha _SL,B_2\alpha _S^2L,\mathrm{}.$$
(14)
Then, to NNLO accuracy, one needs the first three terms in the expansion of $`A\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ and the first two terms of the functions $`D\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ and $`B\left(\alpha _S\right).`$

The three-loop coupling, according to the definition given in the PDG , reads:

$$\alpha _s\left(\mu ^2\right)=\frac{1}{\beta _0\mathrm{log}\mu ^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}\frac{\beta _1}{\beta _0^3}\frac{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}\mu ^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{\mathrm{log}^2\mu ^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}+\frac{\beta _1^2}{\beta _0^5}\frac{\mathrm{log}^2\mathrm{log}\mu ^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }^2\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}\mu ^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }^21}{\mathrm{log}^3\mu ^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}+\frac{\beta _2}{\beta _0^4}\frac{1}{\mathrm{log}^3\mu ^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}.$$
(15)
The asymptotic expansion of the coupling is basically an expansion in inverse powers of $`\mathrm{log}\mu ^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }^2.`$ The first three coefficients of the $`\beta `$-function, defined as

$$\frac{d\alpha _s}{d\mathrm{log}\mu ^2}=\beta _0\alpha _S^2\beta _1\alpha _S^3\beta _2\alpha _S^4\mathrm{},$$
(16)
read:

$`\beta _0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{11C_A2n_F}{12\pi }}={\displaystyle \frac{332n_F}{12\pi }}=0.875350.05305n_F,`$
$`\beta _1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{17C_A^25C_An_F3C_Fn_F}{24\pi ^2}}={\displaystyle \frac{15319n_F}{24\pi ^2}}=0.645920.08021n_F,`$
$`\beta _2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{28575033/9n_F+325/27n_F^2}{128\pi ^3}}=0.719860.140904n_F+0.003032n_F^2.`$ (17)
Let us note that $`\beta _0`$ and $`\beta _1`$ are renormalization-scheme independent, while $`\beta _2`$ is not and we have given its value in the $`\overline{MS}`$ scheme .

Integrating the $`\beta `$-function equation (16) on both sides, one obtains:

$$\alpha _S\left(k^2\right)=\alpha _S\left(Q^2\right)\beta _0\alpha _S^2\left(Q^2\right)\mathrm{log}\frac{k^2}{Q^2}\beta _1\alpha _S^3\left(Q^2\right)\mathrm{log}\frac{k^2}{Q^2}\beta _2\alpha _S^4\left(Q^2\right)\mathrm{log}\frac{k^2}{Q^2}+(\mathrm{iterations}).$$
(18)
Substituting the above expression into (12), one sees that a $`\beta _0`$-insertion corresponds to the additional factor $`\alpha _SL,`$ that of $`\beta _1`$ to $`\alpha _S^2L`$ and that of $`\beta _2`$ to $`\alpha _S^3L:`$

$$\beta _0:\alpha _SL,\beta _1:\alpha _S^2L,\beta _2:\alpha _S^3L.$$
(19)
Therefore, in the terms containing NNLO coefficients, the coupling can be replaced with the one-loop one and in the NLO terms the coupling can be replaced with the two-loop one, so that one has:

$`A\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ $`=`$ $`A_1\alpha _{S,3L}+A_2\alpha _{S,2L}^2+A_3\alpha _{S,1L}^3;`$
$`D\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ $`=`$ $`D_1\alpha _{S,2L}+D_2\alpha _{S,1L}^2;`$
$`B\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ $`=`$ $`B_1\alpha _{S,2L}+B_2\alpha _{S,1L}^2.`$ (20)
Furthermore, the $`\beta _1^2`$ term in $`A_2\alpha _{S,2L}^2`$ can be neglected, as it is a N3LO contribution. After replacing eqs. (20) into eq. (12), one performs a straightforward integration over $`k^2,`$ the gluon transverse momentum. The integration over $`z,`$ the longitudinal gluon momentum, is easily done using the approximation :

$$z^{N1}1\theta \left(1z\frac{1}{n}\right).$$
(21)
This approximation misses the term proportional to $`A_1\zeta _2,`$ where $`\zeta _2=\pi ^2/6,`$ which can be obtained in the following way. Using the large-$`N`$ approximation derived in , one obtains, in the $`n`$ variable:

$`{\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑z{\displaystyle \frac{z^{N1}1}{1z}}{\displaystyle _{Q^2(1z)^2}^{Q^2(1z)}}{\displaystyle \frac{dk^2}{k^2}}A_1\alpha _S\left(k^2\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}c_k{\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑z{\displaystyle \frac{z^{N1}1}{1z}}\mathrm{log}^k\left(1z\right)`$ (22)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}c_k{\displaystyle \frac{\left(1\right)^{k+1}}{k+1}}\left[\mathrm{log}^{k+1}n+{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _2}{2}}k\left(k+1\right)\mathrm{log}^{k1}n\right]`$
$`=`$ $`\left[\mathrm{lo}\right]+\left[\mathrm{nnlo}\right].`$
Therefore:

$$\left[\mathrm{nnlo}\right]=\frac{\zeta _2}{2}\frac{^2}{\left(\mathrm{log}n\right)^2}\left[\mathrm{lo}\right].$$
(23)
We have used the variable $`n=N/N_0`$ instead of $`N,`$ where $`N_0e^{\gamma _E}=0.561459\mathrm{}.`$ Within this alternative representation, the terms proportional to $`\gamma _E`$ and to $`\gamma _E^2`$ disappear. This scheme is probably more accurate as Feynman diagram computation directly in $`N`$-space brings factors containing $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(1ϵ\right)`$ with $`D=42ϵ`$ the space-time dimension.

The advantage of the variable $`N`$ is that the total rate is directly reproduced by setting $`N=1,`$ while in the variable $`n`$ it is given by $`f_{n=1/N_0}`$. These two variables differ by terms of higher order in $`\gamma _E.`$

The lowest-order term, computed within the approximation (21), reads:

$$\left[\mathrm{lo}\right]=\frac{A_1}{2\beta _0}\left[\mathrm{log}\frac{s}{n^2}\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}\frac{s}{n^2}+\mathrm{log}s\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s2\mathrm{log}\frac{s}{n}\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}\frac{s}{n}\right].$$
(24)
One then obtains:

$`\mathrm{log}f_N\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{A_1}{2\beta _0}}\left[\mathrm{log}s/n^2\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s/n^2+\mathrm{log}s\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s2\mathrm{log}s/n\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s/n\right]+`$ (25)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0A_2\beta _1A_1}{2\beta _0^3}}\left[\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s2\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s/n+\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s/n^2\right]+`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _1A_1}{4\beta _0^3}}\left[\mathrm{log}^2\mathrm{log}s/n^22\mathrm{log}^2\mathrm{log}s/n+\mathrm{log}^2\mathrm{log}s\right]+`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{D_1}{2\beta _0}}\left[\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s/n^2\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s\right]+{\displaystyle \frac{B_1}{\beta _0}}\left[\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s/n\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s\right]`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{A_3}{4\beta _0^3}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s/n^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\mathrm{log}s/n}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s}}\right]{\displaystyle \frac{A_1\zeta _2}{2\beta _0}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\mathrm{log}s/n^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s/n}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s}}\right]+`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{A_1\beta _2}{8\beta _0^4}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s/n^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\mathrm{log}s/n}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s}}\right]+`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{A_2\beta _1}{4\beta _0^4}}\left[2{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s/n^2}{\mathrm{log}s/n^2}}4{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s/n}{\mathrm{log}s/n}}+2{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s}{\mathrm{log}s}}+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{\mathrm{log}s/n^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{6}{\mathrm{log}s/n}}+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{\mathrm{log}s}}\right]+`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{A_1\beta _1^2}{4\beta _0^5}}[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}^2\mathrm{log}s/n^2}{\mathrm{log}s/n^2}}2{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}^2\mathrm{log}s/n}{\mathrm{log}s/n}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}^2\mathrm{log}s}{\mathrm{log}s}}+2{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s/n^2}{\mathrm{log}s/n^2}}+`$
$`4{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s/n}{\mathrm{log}s/n}}+2{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s}{\mathrm{log}s}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s/n^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\mathrm{log}s/n}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s}}]+`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{D_1\beta _1}{2\beta _0^3}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s/n^2}{\mathrm{log}s/n^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s}{\mathrm{log}s}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s/n^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s}}\right]{\displaystyle \frac{D_2}{2\beta _0^2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s/n^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s}}\right]+`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{B_1\beta _1}{\beta _0^3}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s/n}{\mathrm{log}s/n}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\mathrm{log}s}{\mathrm{log}s}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s/n}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s}}\right]{\displaystyle \frac{B_2}{\beta _0^2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s/n}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{log}s}}\right].`$
The next step is to write the above result as a function of the three-loop coupling. The inverse of (15) reads:

$$\mathrm{log}s=\frac{1}{\beta _0\alpha _S}+\frac{\beta _1}{\beta _0^2}\mathrm{log}\left(\beta _0\alpha _S\right)\left(\frac{\beta _1^2}{\beta _0^3}\frac{\beta _2}{\beta _0^2}\right)\alpha _S+O\left(\alpha _S^2\right),$$
(26)
where $`s`$ is the square of the hard scale in unit of the QCD scale,

$$s\frac{Q^2}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}.$$
(27)
After the replacement (26), terms of higher order with respect to NNLO are generated, which must be discarded. One finally makes the expansion in $`\gamma _E`$ up to second order to obtain eq. (40).

The quantities $`A_1`$ and $`A_2`$ are known analytically :

$$A_1=\frac{C_F}{\pi }=0.424413,A_2=\frac{C_F}{\pi ^2}\left[C_A\left(\frac{67}{36}\frac{\pi ^2}{12}\right)\frac{5}{9}n_FT_R\right]=0.420950.03753n_F,$$
(28)
where $`C_A=N_c=3,`$ $`T_R=1/2`$ and $`n_F=3`$ is the number of active quark flavours in $`b`$ decay. The value given for $`A_2`$ in the $`\overline{MS}`$ scheme for the coupling constant. At present, only a numerical estimate of $`A_3`$ is available :

$$A_3=0.594130.09272n_F0.00040n_F^2.$$
(29)
The soft quantities $`D_1`$ and $`D_2`$  are known analitically:

$`D_1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{C_F}{\pi }}=0.424413,`$ (30)
$`D_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{C_F}{\pi ^2}}\left[\left({\displaystyle \frac{37}{108}}+{\displaystyle \frac{7}{18}}\pi ^2{\displaystyle \frac{9}{4}}\zeta \left(3\right)\right)C_A+\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{27}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{9}}\pi ^2\right)T_Rn_F\right]=0.598260.07157n_F.`$
Numerically, $`\zeta \left(3\right)1.20206.`$ The constant $`D_1`$ is renormalization-scheme independent, while $`D_2`$ is not and we have given its value in the $`\overline{MS}`$ scheme. The latter quantity turns out to be the most important one to determine the NNLO effects.

The collinear quantity $`B_1`$ is known analitically,

$$B_1=\frac{3}{4}\frac{C_F}{\pi }=0.31831.$$
(31)
The two-loop quantity $`B_2`$ is unknown and we approximate it with the infrared-regular part in the two-loop Altarelli-Parisi splitting function $`P_{qq}\left(z\right)`$. In general, the latter is naturally decomposed in the soft limit as:

$$P_{qq}\left(z\right)=\left[\frac{A(\alpha _S\left(Q^2(1z)\right))}{1z}\right]_+K(z;\alpha _S)+K\left(\alpha _S\right)\delta \left(1z\right).$$
(32)
The functions $`K(z;\alpha _S)`$ and $`K\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ have an expansion in powers of $`\alpha _S`$:

$`K\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ $`=`$ $`K_1\alpha _S+K_2\alpha _S^2+\mathrm{},`$
$`K(z;\alpha _S)`$ $`=`$ $`K_1\left(z\right)\alpha _S+K_2\left(z\right)\alpha _S^2+\mathrm{}.`$ (33)
Since the splitting function has vanishing first moment:

$$K\left(\alpha _S\right)=_0^1K(z;\alpha _S)𝑑z,$$
(34)
it holds that

$$K_1=_0^1K_1\left(z\right)𝑑z\mathrm{and}K_2=_0^1K_2\left(z\right)𝑑z.$$
(35)
In leading order, it holds $`B_1=K_1.`$ Our approximation then is:

$$B_2K_2$$
(36)
where, in the $`\overline{MS}`$ scheme ,

$`K_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{C_F}{\pi ^2}}\left[C_F\left({\displaystyle \frac{3}{32}}{\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^2}{8}}+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}\zeta \left(3\right)\right)+C_A\left({\displaystyle \frac{17}{96}}+{\displaystyle \frac{11}{72}}\pi ^2{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}\zeta \left(3\right)\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{24}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^2}{18}}\right)T_Rn_F\right]`$ (37)
$`=`$ $`0.43695+0.03985n_F.`$
### 2.1 Results

The functions $`g_1`$ and $`g_2`$ have the following expressions :

$`g_1(\lambda ;{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{A_1}{2\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\lambda }}\left[\left(12\lambda \right)\mathrm{log}\left(12\lambda \right)2\left(1\lambda \right)\mathrm{log}\left(1\lambda \right)\right];`$ (38)
$`g_2(\lambda ;{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}})`$ $`=`$ $`+{\displaystyle \frac{A_2}{2\beta _0^2}}\left[\mathrm{log}(12\lambda )2\mathrm{log}(1\lambda )\right]+{\displaystyle \frac{A_1\gamma _E}{\beta _0}}\left[\mathrm{log}(12\lambda )\mathrm{log}(1\lambda )\right]+`$ (39)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _1A_1}{4\beta _0^3}}\left[\mathrm{log}^2(12\lambda )2\mathrm{log}^2(1\lambda )+2\mathrm{log}(12\lambda )4\mathrm{log}(1\lambda )\right]+`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{D_1}{2\beta _0}}\mathrm{log}(12\lambda )+{\displaystyle \frac{B_1}{\beta _0}}\mathrm{log}(1\lambda )+{\displaystyle \frac{A_1}{2\beta _0}}\left[\mathrm{log}\left(12\lambda \right)2\mathrm{log}\left(1\lambda \right)\right]\mathrm{log}{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}.`$
Our result for the NNLO function $`g_3`$ reads:

$`g_3(\lambda ;{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{A_3}{2\beta _0^2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{1\lambda }}\right]{\displaystyle \frac{A_1\zeta _2}{2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{4\lambda }{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{1\lambda }}\right]+`$ (40)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{A_1\beta _2}{4\beta _0^3}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{2\lambda }{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{2\lambda }{1\lambda }}+\mathrm{log}\left(12\lambda \right)2\mathrm{log}\left(1\lambda \right)\right]+`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{A_2\beta _1}{2\beta _0^3}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\left(12\lambda \right)}{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{2\mathrm{log}\left(1\lambda \right)}{1\lambda }}+{\displaystyle \frac{3\lambda }{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{3\lambda }{1\lambda }}\right]+`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{A_1\beta _1^2}{2\beta _0^4}}[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}^2\left(12\lambda \right)}{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}^2\left(1\lambda \right)}{1\lambda }}+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\left(12\lambda \right)}{12\lambda }}+`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{2\mathrm{log}\left(1\lambda \right)}{1\lambda }}+{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{1\lambda }}\mathrm{log}(12\lambda )+2\mathrm{log}(1\lambda )]+`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{D_1\beta _1}{2\beta _0^2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\left(12\lambda \right)}{12\lambda }}+{\displaystyle \frac{2\lambda }{12\lambda }}\right]+{\displaystyle \frac{B_1\beta _1}{\beta _0^2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\left(1\lambda \right)}{1\lambda }}+{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{1\lambda }}\right]+`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{D_2}{\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{B_2}{\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{1\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{A_1\gamma _E^2}{2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{4\lambda }{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{1\lambda }}\right]+`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{A_1\beta _1\gamma _E}{\beta _0^2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\left(12\lambda \right)}{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{log}\left(1\lambda \right)}{1\lambda }}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1\lambda }}\right]+`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{A_2\gamma _E}{\beta _0}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1\lambda }}\right]{\displaystyle \frac{D_1\gamma _E2\lambda }{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{B_1\gamma _E\lambda }{1\lambda }}+`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{A_1}{2\beta _0}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{2\lambda ^2}{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda ^2}{1\lambda }}\right]\mathrm{log}^2{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{A_2}{\beta _0^2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{1\lambda }}\right]\mathrm{log}{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}+`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{A_1\gamma _E}{\beta _0}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{2\lambda }{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{1\lambda }}\right]\mathrm{log}{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{D_1}{\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{12\lambda }}\mathrm{log}{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{B_1}{\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{1\lambda }}\mathrm{log}{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}+`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{A_1\beta _1}{\beta _0^3}}[{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda \mathrm{log}\left(12\lambda \right)}{12\lambda }}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda \mathrm{log}\left(1\lambda \right)}{1\lambda }}+{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{12\lambda }}+`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{1\lambda }}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{log}(12\lambda )\mathrm{log}(1\lambda )]\mathrm{log}{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}.`$
Arbitrary constants have been added to the function $`g_3`$ in order to make it homogenous. The quantity $`\gamma _E=0.577216\mathrm{}`$ is the Euler constant and $`\zeta \left(n\right)`$ is the Rieman zeta function,

$$\zeta \left(n\right)\underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{1}{k^n}.$$
(41)
$`\zeta \left(2\right)=\pi ^2/6=1.64493.`$ The functions $`g_2`$ and $`g_3`$ depend on the renormalization scale $`\mu ,`$ while $`g_1`$ does not.

The expansion up to order $`\alpha _S^3`$ reads:

$`\mathrm{log}f_N`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}A_1\alpha _SL^2D_1\alpha _SLB_1\alpha _SL+`$ (42)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}A_1\beta _0\alpha _S^2L^3\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}A_2+\beta _0D_1+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\beta _0B_1\right)\alpha _S^2L^2\left(D_2+B_2+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}A_1\zeta _2\beta _0\right)\alpha _S^2L+`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{7}{12}}A_1\beta _0^2\alpha _S^3L^4\left(A_2\beta _0+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}A_1\beta _1+{\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}D_1\beta _0^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}B_1\beta _0^2\right)\alpha _S^3L^3+`$
$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}A_3+{\displaystyle \frac{7}{2}}A_1\zeta _2\beta _0^2+2D_2\beta _0+B_2\beta _0+D_1\beta _1+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}B_1\beta _1\right)\alpha _S^3L^2+O\left(\alpha _S^4\right).`$
Let us note that $`\beta _2`$ appears only at order $`O\left(\alpha _S^4\right).`$

The functions $`g_i`$ become singular when

$$\lambda \frac{1}{2}^{}.$$
(43)
Since

$$\lambda =\beta _0\alpha _S\left(\mu ^2\right)L,$$
(44)
this means that a singularity in $`N`$-space occurs when:

$$N\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1}{2\beta _0\alpha _S\left(\mu ^2\right)}\right]\frac{\mu }{\mathrm{\Lambda }},$$
(45)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the QCD scale. Let us observe that, in general, this singularity signals non-perturbative effects but its precise position is completely unphysical, as we can move it with a change of renormalization scale.

### 2.2 Renormalization-scale dependence

In this section we consider renormalization-scale dependence. In principle, such scale $`\mu `$ should not appear in the cross sections, as it does not correspond to any fundamental constant or kinematical scale in the problem. The completely resummed perturbative expansion of an observable111We do not mean here the resummation of towers of logarithmic contributions, but the resummation of the whole series in $`\alpha _S.`$ is indeed formally independent on $`\mu .`$ In practise, truncated perturbative expansions exhibit a residual scale dependence, because of neglected higher orders.

We start with the form factor as a function of $`\alpha _S\left(Q^2\right)`$ and we derive its expression as a function of $`\alpha _S\left(\mu ^2\right)`$ and $`\mu ^2/Q^2.`$

Since

$$a\left(Q\right)=a\left(\mu \right)+ca^2\left(\mu \right)+c^{}a^3\left(\mu \right)+O\left(a^4\right),$$
(46)
where $`a\beta _0\alpha _S`$ and (from eq. (18))

$$c=\mathrm{log}\frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2},c^{}=\mathrm{log}^2\frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}+\frac{\beta _1}{\beta _0^2}\mathrm{log}\frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2},$$
(47)
one has, where now $`\lambda =\lambda (\mu )`$:

$`Lg_1\left[\lambda +ac\lambda +a^2c^{}\lambda \right]`$ $`=`$ $`Lg_1\left[\lambda \right]+c\lambda ^2g_1^{}\left[\lambda \right]+ac^{}\lambda ^2g_1^{}\left[\lambda \right]+a{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}c^2\lambda ^3g_1^{\prime \prime }\left[\lambda \right]+\mathrm{}`$
$`g_2\left[\lambda +ac\lambda +a^2c^{}\lambda \right]`$ $`=`$ $`g_2\left[\lambda \right]+ac\lambda g_2^{}\left[\lambda \right]+\mathrm{}.`$ (48)
The additional terms in the functions $`g_i,`$ to (partially) compensate for the scale change $`Q^2\mu ^2`$ therefore read:

$`\delta g_1[\lambda ,{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}]`$ $`=`$ $`0`$
$`\delta g_2[\lambda ,{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}]`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda ^2g_1^{}\left[\lambda \right]\mathrm{log}{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}`$
$`\delta g_3[\lambda ,{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\lambda ^3g_1^{\prime \prime }\left[\lambda \right]\mathrm{log}^2{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}+\lambda ^2g_1^{}\left[\lambda \right]\left(\mathrm{log}^2{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _1}{\beta _0^2}}\mathrm{log}{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}\right)+\lambda g_2^{}\left[\lambda \right]\mathrm{log}{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}`$ (49)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\lambda {\displaystyle \frac{d}{d\lambda }}\left(\lambda ^2g_1^{}\left[\lambda \right]\right)\mathrm{log}^2{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}+\left({\displaystyle \frac{\beta _1}{\beta _0^2}}\lambda ^2g_1^{}\left[\lambda \right]+\lambda g_2^{}\left[\lambda \right]\right)\mathrm{log}{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}.`$
Therefore, the leading function $`g_1`$ does not depend explicitely on the renormalization scale, analogously to the coefficient of the leading term in the expansion of inclusive observables (such as the $`\alpha _S/\pi `$ term in the total $`e^+e^{}`$ hadronic cross-section). The higher order functions $`g_{i>1}`$ instead explicitly depend on $`\mu `$. We want to show the effect on $`\mathrm{log}[N]`$ of the variations in eq. (49). Therefore, in fig. 1 and in fig. 2, we show the dependence of $`\mathrm{log}[N]`$ on $`\mu `$ at NLO and at NNLO, keeping $`\alpha _S`$ fixed at 0.21; we notice a NNLO improvement at high values of N. At lower values of $`N`$ ($`N10`$), there is an appreciable improvement only by going at much higher energies (f.i. $`\alpha _S=0.1`$). In general, by varying also $`\alpha _S`$ with the scale $`\mu `$ around $`m_b`$, there is not a significant improvement at NNLO.

## 3 Analytic inverse Mellin transform

The $`N`$-moments are physical quantities, but in practice a measure of the moments for large $`N`$ is difficult. It is therefore convenient to perform the inverse transform back to momentum space.

Let us derive an analytical expression of the inverse Mellin transform at NNLO. We start by introducing the inverse Mellin transform of $`f_N(\alpha _S)/N`$:

$$G(\alpha _S;x)=\frac{1}{2\pi i}_{Ci\mathrm{}}^{C+i\mathrm{}}\frac{dN}{N}x^Nf_N(\alpha _S,L)$$
(50)
The inverse Mellin transform of $`f_N(\alpha _S)`$ is the logarithmic derivative of $`G(\alpha _S,L;x)`$:

$$f(x)=x\frac{d}{dx}G(x).$$
(51)
After the substitutions $`xe^s`$ and $`uNs`$, we have:

$`G(\alpha _S;x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi i}}{\displaystyle _{C^{}i\mathrm{}}^{C^{}+i\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{du}{u}}e^uf_N(\alpha _S,L)`$ (52)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi i}}{\displaystyle _{C^{}i\mathrm{}}^{C^{}+i\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{du}{u}}e^u\mathrm{exp}\left[Lg_1\left(\beta _0\alpha _SL\right)+{\displaystyle \underset{n=2}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\alpha _S^{n2}g_n\left(\beta _0\alpha _SL\right)\right]`$
We Taylor expand the exponent with respect to $`L`$ around $`L=l=\mathrm{ln}1/s`$ . In the $`x`$-variable, $`l\mathrm{ln}(\mathrm{ln}x)`$. Note that $`l\mathrm{ln}(1x)`$ when $`x1`$.

We have, at NNLO:

$$G(\alpha _S;x)=\frac{1}{2\pi i}_{C^{}i\mathrm{}}^{C^{}+i\mathrm{}}\frac{du}{u}e^{u+F_0(l)+F_1(l)\mathrm{ln}u+\frac{1}{2}F_2(l)\mathrm{ln}^2u+\mathrm{}}$$
(53)
where, at scale $`Q^2`$ and at the same NNLO:

$`F_0(l)`$ $`=`$ $`lg_1(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)+g_2(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)+\alpha _Sg_3(\beta _0\alpha _Sl),`$
$`F_1(l)`$ $`=`$ $`g_1(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)+\beta _0\alpha _Slg_1^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)+\beta _0\alpha _Sg_2^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl),`$
$`F_2(l)`$ $`=`$ $`2\beta _0\alpha _Sg_1^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)+\beta _0^2\alpha _S^2lg_1^{\prime \prime }(\beta _0\alpha _Sl).`$
By keeping in the exponent terms up to NLO, while expanding the NNLO terms, we obtain:

$$G(\alpha _S;x)=\frac{e^{F_0(l)}}{2\pi i}_{C^{}i\mathrm{}}^{C^{}+i\mathrm{}}𝑑ue^{u\left[1F_1^{NL}(l)\right]\mathrm{ln}u}\left[1+F_1^{N^2L}(l)\mathrm{ln}u+\frac{1}{2}F_2(l)\mathrm{ln}^2u+\mathrm{}\right]$$
(54)
where:

$`F_1(l)`$ $``$ $`F_1^{NL}(l)+F_1^{N^2L}(l)`$
$`F_1^{NL}(l)`$ $``$ $`g_1(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)+\beta _0\alpha _Slg_1^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)`$
$`F_1^{N^2L}(l)`$ $``$ $`\beta _0\alpha _Sg_2^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl).`$ (55)
By using the result:

$$\frac{1}{2\pi i}_C𝑑u\mathrm{log}^kue^{u\left[1F_1^{NL}(l)\right]\mathrm{log}u}=\frac{d^k}{dF_{1}^{NL}{}_{}{}^{k}}\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1F_1^{NL})},$$
(56)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the Euler Gamma function, we obtain, after the integration:

$`G(\alpha _S;x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{e^{F_0(l)}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1F_1^{NL})}}\left[1+F_1^{N^2L}\psi (1F_1^{NL})+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}F_2(l)\left(\psi ^2(1F_1^{NL})\psi ^{}(1F_1^{NL})\right)\right]`$ (57)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{e^{lg_1(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)+g_2(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)+\alpha _Sg_3(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1g_1(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)\beta _0\alpha _Slg_1^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl))}}[1+\beta _0\alpha _Sg_2^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)\psi (1g_1(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)\beta _0\alpha _Slg_1^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl))`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}F_2(l)(\psi ^2(1g_1(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)\beta _0\alpha _Slg_1^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl))\psi ^{}(1g_1(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)\beta _0\alpha _Slg_1^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)))]`$
with $`\psi (x)=d\mathrm{log}\mathrm{\Gamma }(x)/dx`$, the digamma function.

At the end, we find the explicit analytic formula for the inverse Mellin transform at NNLO:

$`f(x)`$ $`=`$ $`x{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dx}}G(\alpha _S;x)`$ (58)
$`=`$ $`x{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dx}}\{{\displaystyle \frac{e^{lg_1(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)+g_2(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)+\alpha _Sg_3(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1g_1(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)\beta _0\alpha _Slg_1^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl))}}[1+\beta _0\alpha _Sg_2^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)\psi (1g_1(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)\beta _0\alpha _Slg_1^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl))`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}F_2(l)(\psi ^2(1g_1(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)\beta _0\alpha _Slg_1^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl))\psi ^{}(1g_1(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)\beta _0\alpha _Slg_1^{}(\beta _0\alpha _Sl)))]\}.`$
### 3.1 Discussion and conclusions

There are two physical effects involved in the inverse Mellin transform:

1. exact longitudinal momentum conservation; the terms which enforce longitudinal momentum conservation are formally subleading in the infrared logarithm counting;
2. infrared pole in the coupling; the inverse transform involves an integration over all moments and arbitrarily large values of $`|N|`$ enter. This implies that a prescription for the infrared pole in the coupling has to be given. In general, the transformation mixes all the momentum scales in the problem.

One can study one problem at a time; for example, one can study the problem 1. only, by considering the frozen coupling approximation for the distributions in $`N`$-space. In one-loop, this is equivalent to consider the QED case.

The frozen coupling approximation means neglecting the variation of $`\alpha _S`$ with the scale. Let us start from formula (12) at NNLO:

$`\mathrm{log}f_N\left(\alpha _S\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^1}dz{\displaystyle \frac{z^{N1}1}{1z}}\{{\displaystyle _{Q^2(1z)^2}^{Q^2(1z)}}{\displaystyle \frac{dk^2}{k^2}}[A_1\alpha _S+A_2\alpha _S^2+A_3\alpha _S^3+\mathrm{}]+`$
$`+`$ $`B_1\alpha _S+B_2\alpha _S^2+\mathrm{}+D_1\alpha _S+D_2\alpha _S^2+\mathrm{}+\}`$
$``$ $`{\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑z{\displaystyle \frac{z^{N1}1}{1z}}\left\{\left(A_1\alpha _S+A_2\alpha _S^2+A_3\alpha _S^3\right)\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1z}}+\left(B_1+D_1\right)\alpha _S+\left(B_2+D_2\right)\alpha _S^2\right\}`$
After integration in $`z`$, at the lowest order in $`\lambda =\beta _0\alpha _2\mathrm{ln}N`$, we have:

$`g_1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{A_1}{2\beta _0}}\lambda `$ (60)
$`g_2`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{B_1}{\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{D_1}{\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{A_1\gamma _E}{\beta _0}}\right)\lambda `$ (61)
$`g_3`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{B_2}{\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{D_2}{\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{A_2\gamma _E}{\beta _0}}\right)\lambda .`$ (62)
We have two ways, analytical and numerical, to compute the inverse Mellin transform of $`f_N(\alpha _S)`$:

$$f(\alpha _S;x)=\frac{1}{2\pi i}_{Ci\mathrm{}}^{C+i\mathrm{}}𝑑Nx^Nf_N(\alpha _S,L).$$
(63)
In the case of frozen coupling, the $`g_i`$ are linear in $`\lambda `$ and therefore the numerical path does not include the Landau pole; the numerical integration is therefore exact. We have compared the inverse Mellin transform calculated numerically, directly from the definition (63), with the analytical result (58). We find a very good agreement, up to energies around the charm scale, provided that we go to NNLO. The exact longitudinal momentum conservation does not seem to spoil the reliability of the perturbative series.

In the real world, we cannot use linearized $`g_i`$, but we have to use the $`g_i`$ computed in section 2; therefore, problems due to infrared poles come into play.

Let us first make an important observation: the degree of singularity of the functions $`g_i`$ for $`\lambda 1/2,`$ and therefore also of the form factor, increases with the order of the function, i.e. with $`i`$ .

At LO, $`g_1`$ has at most a logarithmic singularity of the form

$$g_1:(12\lambda )\mathrm{log}(12\lambda );$$
(64)
at NLO, $`g_2`$ has at most a singularity of the form

$$g_2:\mathrm{log}^2(12\lambda ).$$
(65)
The prefactor $`12\lambda `$ in front of the logarithm, vanishing for $`\lambda =1/2,`$ is now absent, but the singularity is still logarithmic. At NNLO, $`g_3`$ has at most a singularity of the form

$$g_3:\frac{\mathrm{log}^2\left(12\lambda \right)}{12\lambda }.$$
(66)
The latter is basically a pole singularity, no more a logarithmic singularity anymore, i.e. a much stronger singularity. Note that the above term is proportional to $`A_1\beta _1^2`$ and so it is scheme-independent.

Another observation concerns the size of the two-loop soft term. For three active flavours, the size of the two-loop correction with respect to the one-loop one is rather large,

$$\frac{D_2}{D_1}\alpha _S\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\alpha _S\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}40}\%,$$
(67)
since $`\alpha _S\left(m_B\right)0.21.`$ The inclusion of $`D_2`$ is therefore important. The size of the two-loop term compared to the one-loop term is expected on general ground to be of order:

$$\frac{D_2}{D_1}\frac{C_A}{C_F}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2.25},$$
(68)
since in two-loop order gluons start to be radiated by gluons istead of quarks, the former having a larger colour charge $`C_A`$ instead of $`C_F.`$

Let us now consider the inverse Mellin transform (63), releasing the frozen coupling approximation; in formula (12) the coupling runs over the whole integration range.

The form factor in $`N`$-space is computed in such a way that infrared-pole effects appear in a sharp way for $`N>N_c,`$ where it acquires an unphysical (imaginary) part. In other terms, the numerical distribution is not real for any value of N because of the integration over the Landau pole. An exact numerical evaluation of the inverse transform then requires a prescription for the pole. An alternative strategy is to give a prescription for the infrared pole directly in $`N`$-space, in such a way that the form factors are well-defined for any $`N.`$ In general, this results into a softening of the form factor for large $`N.`$ It is then not necessary to give a prescription for the pole in the inverse transform.

We have used the minimal prescription (mp) , over two different paths (with the same results); the first path was made by two straight lines parallel to the negative real axes, closed by a half-circle centered arond the origin and crossing the positive axes between the origin and the first Landau pole; the second path was composed by two lines almost vertical, meeting on the positive real axes between the origin and the first Landau pole. The precise crossing point is irrelevant, as far as it is before the Landau pole.

The inverse Mellin transform can be also derived analytically, as seen in section 3. We want to compare the analytic and numerical results, as we did before in the frozen coupling approximation. In this case, however, the Landau pole contribution plays an important role and we need to reach regions of higher energy ($`\alpha _S=0.1`$), where the first Landau pole (see eq. (43)) occurs at larger values of $`N`$ ($`N=e^{1/2\beta _0\alpha _S}30004000`$). In these regions, the perturbative resumming keeps under control the infrared divergences and cancels the oscillatory behaviour. We compare the analytic (NLO and NNLO) and numerical (NNLO) plots in fig. 3 (at $`\alpha _S=0.1`$).

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank S. Catani for discussions. G.R. thanks the CERN theory department for hospitality during part of this work.