Three-loop formula for quark and gluon contributions to the QCD trace anomaly

Abstract

In the QCD energy-momentum tensor $T^{\mu\nu}$, the terms that contribute to physical matrix elements are expressed as the sum of the gauge-invariant quark part and gluon part. Each part undergoes the renormalization due to the interactions among quarks and gluons, although the total tensor $T^{\mu\nu}$ is not renormalized thanks to the conservation of energy and momentum. Recently it has been shown that, through the renormalization, each of the quark and gluon parts of $T^{\mu\nu}$ receives a definite amount of anomalous trace contribution, such that their sum reproduces the well-known QCD trace anomaly, $T^\mu_\mu= (\beta/2g)F^{\mu\nu}F_{\mu\nu}+ m (1+\gamma_m)\bar{\psi}\psi$, and the corresponding formulas have been derived up to two-loop order. We extend this result to the three-loop order, working out all the relevant three-loop renormalization structure for the quark and gluon energy-momentum tensors in the (modified) minimal subtraction scheme in the dimensional regularization. We apply our three-loop formula of the quark/gluon decomposition of the trace anomaly to calculate the anomaly-induced mass structure of nucleons as well as pions.