Infrared safe definition of jet flavour

Abstract

Though it is widely taken for granted that it makes sense to separately discuss quark and gluon jets, normal jet algorithms lead to a net parton-level jet flavour that is infrared (IR) unsafe. This writeup illustrates the problem and explains how the kt algorithm can be modified to provide an IR safe parton-level flavour. As well as being of use in theoretical calculations that require a projection of higher-order contributions onto a flavour-channel of the lowest order, jet-flavour algorithms also open up the prospect of significant improvements in the accuracy of heavy-quark jet predictions.