The electron parton distribution functions at the NNLO in QED

Abstract

The electron Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) are essential components in the calculations of cross sections within a collinear-factorisation framework at lepton colliders. We compute them at the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QED by working in two different factorisation schemes, namely the standard $\overline{\rm MS}$ one and the so-called $Δ$ scheme, which was originally defined at the next-to-leading order, and which we generalise in this work by extending its definition to all orders. We present analytical results relevant to the large-$z$ behaviour of the PDFs in both factorisation schemes, and thus show how the soft-logarithm enhancement of the $\overline{\rm MS}$ electron PDF is completely absent in the $Δ$ scheme. The latter therefore constitutes a natural choice that helps significantly reduce the complexity not only of numerical simulations in phenomenological applications, but also that of analytical computations necessary to achieve the soft resummation of physical observables. We argue that NNLO PDFs are necessary to attain relative-precision targets of $10^{-4}$ or better, for colliders whose centre-of-mass energies are in the hundred-GeV range.