Revisiting QCD corrections to the forward-backward charge asymmetry of heavy quarks in electron-positron collisions at the Z pole: really a problem?

Abstract

We review in some detail the QCD corrections to the measurement of the forward-backward charge asymmetry of heavy quarks in the $\mathrm{e^+e^-\rightarrow Q\overline{Q}(g)}$ process at the Z pole. We show that the size of these corrections can be reduced by an order of magnitude by using simple cuts on jet acollinearity. Such a reduction is expected to lead to systematic uncertainties at the $\Delta \mathrm{A_{FB}^{0,Q}} \approx 10^{-4}$ level, opening up the path to high precision electroweak measurements with heavy flavors at future high luminosity $\mathrm{e^+e^-}$ colliders like the FCC-ee.