General formulation of the sector-improved residue subtraction

Abstract

The main theoretical tool to provide precise predictions for scattering cross sections of strongly interacting particles is perturbative QCD. Starting at next-to-leading order (NLO) the calculation suffers from unphysical IR-divergences that cancel in the final result. At NLO there exist general subtraction algorithms to treat these divergences during a calculation. Since the LHC demands for more precise theoretical predictions, general subtraction methods at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) are needed. This proceeding outlines the four-dimensional formulation of the sector improved residue subtraction. The subtraction scheme STRIPPER and in particular its extension to arbitrary multiplicities is explained. Therefore, it furnishes a general framework for the calculation of NNLO cross sections in perturbative QCD.