Drell-Yan Lepton Angular Distribution at Small Transverse Momentum

Abstract

We investigate the dependence of the Drell-Yan cross section on lepton polar and azimuthal angles, as generated by the lowest-order QCD annihilation and Compton processes. We focus in particular on the azimuthal-angular distributions, which are of the form cos(phi) and cos(2phi). At small transverse momentum q_T of the lepton pair, q_T << Q, with Q the pair mass, these terms are known to be suppressed relative to the phi-independent part of the Drell-Yan cross section by one or two powers of the transverse momentum. Nonetheless, as we show, like the phi-independent part they are subject to large logarithmic corrections, whose precise form however depends on the reference frame chosen. These logarithmic contributions ultimately require resummation to all orders in the strong coupling. We discuss the potential effects of resummation on the various angular terms in the cross section and on the Lam-Tung relation.