Quark-Gluon Antenna Functions from Neutralino Decay

Abstract

The computation of exclusive QCD jet observables at higher orders requires a method for the subtraction of infrared singular configurations arising from multiple radiation of real partons. One commonly used method at next-to-leading order (NLO) is based on the antenna factorization of colour-ordered matrix elements, and uses antenna functions to subtract the real radiation singularities. Up to now, NLO antenna functions could be derived in a systematic manner only for hard quark-antiquark pairs, while the gluon-gluon and quark-gluon antenna functions were constructed from their limiting behaviour. In this paper, we show that antenna functions for hard quark-gluon pairs can be systematically derived from an effective Lagrangian describing heavy neutralino decay. The infrared structure of the colour-ordered neutralino decay matrix elements at NLO and NNLO is shown to agree with the structure observed for parton radiation off a quark-gluon antenna.