Renormalization and Matching for the Collins-Soper Kernel from Lattice QCD

Abstract

The Collins-Soper kernel, which governs the energy evolution of transverse-momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMDPDFs), is required to accurately predict Drell-Yan like processes at small transverse momentum, and is a key ingredient for extracting TMDPDFs from experiment. Earlier we proposed a method to calculate this kernel from ratios of the so-called quasi-TMDPDFs determined with lattice QCD, which are defined as hadronic matrix elements of staple-shaped Euclidean Wilson line operators. Here we provide the one-loop renormalization of these operators in a regularization-independent momentum subtraction (RI$^\prime$/MOM) scheme, as well as the conversion factor from the RI$^\prime$/MOM-renormalized quasi-TMDPDF to the $\overline{\rm MS}$ scheme. We also propose a procedure for calculating the Collins-Soper kernel directly from position space correlators, which simplifies the lattice determination.