$O(\alpha_s^2)$ and $O(\alpha_s^3)$ Heavy Flavor Contributions to Transversity at $Q^2 \gg m^2$

Abstract

In deep-inelastic processes the heavy flavor Wilson coefficients factorize for $Q^2 \gg m^2$ into the light flavor Wilson coefficients of the corresponding process and the massive operator matrix elements (OMEs). We calculate the $O(\alpha_s^2)$ and $O(\alpha_s^3)$ massive OME for the flavor non-singlet transversity distribution. At $O(\alpha_s^2)$ the OME is obtained for general values of the Mellin variable $N$, while at $O(\alpha_s^3)$ the moments $N = 1$ to 13 are computed. The terms $\propto T_F$ of the 3--loop transversity anomalous dimension are obtained and results in the literature are confirmed. We discuss the relation of these contributions to the Soffer bound for transversity.