Decoupling constant for $\alpha_s$ and the effective gluon-Higgs coupling to three loops in supersymmetric QCD

Abstract

We compute the three-loop QCD corrections to the decoupling constant for $\alpha_s$ which relates the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model to Quantum Chromodynamics with five or six active flavours. The new results can be used to study the stability of $\alpha_s$ evaluated at a high scale from the knowledge of its value at $M_Z$. We furthermore derive a low-energy theorem which allows the calculation of the coefficient function of the effective Higgs boson-gluon operator from the decoupling constant. This constitutes the first independent check of the matching coefficient to three loops.