The analytic two-loop soft function for leading-jet $p_T$

Abstract

We present the calculation of the two-loop soft function for the transverse momentum distribution of the leading jet produced in association with any colour-singlet system (e.g.~a Higgs or a $Z$ boson). This constitutes a central ingredient for the resummation of the above distribution as well as the jet-vetoed cross section at the next-to-next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic order, both of which play an important role in the precision physics programme at the Large Hadron Collider. The calculation is performed in soft-collinear effective theory with an appropriate regularisation of the rapidity divergences that occur in the phase-space integrals. We obtain analytic results by employing an exponential regulator and by taking a Laurent expansion in the jet radius $R$. All expressions are presented as ancillary files with this article.