Three-loop non-diagonal current correlators in QCD and NLO corrections to single-top-quark production

Abstract

The non-diagonal correlators of vector and scalar currents are considered at three-loop order in QCD. The full mass dependence is computed in the case where one of the quarks is massless and the other one carries the mass $M$. As applications we consider the single-top-quark production via the process $q\bar{q}\to t\bar{b}$ and the decay rate of a charged Higgs into hadrons. In both cases the computed NLO corrections are shown to be numerically much less important than the leading ones.