Renormalons in Effective Field Theories

Abstract

We investigate the high-order behavior of perturbative matching conditions in effective field theories. These series are typically badly divergent, and are not Borel summable due to infrared and ultraviolet renormalons which introduce ambiguities in defining the sum of the series. We argue that, when treated consistently, there is no physical significance to these ambiguities. Although nonperturbative matrix elements and matching conditions are in general ambiguous, the ambiguity in any physical observable is always higher order in $1/M$ than the theory has been defined. We discuss the implications for the recently noticed infrared renormalon in the pole mass of a heavy quark. We show that a ratio of form factors in exclusive $\Lambda_b$ decays (which is related to the pole mass) is free from renormalon ambiguities regardless of the mass used as the expansion parameter of HQET. The renormalon ambiguities also cancel in inclusive heavy hadron decays. Finally, we demonstrate the cancellation of renormalons in a four-Fermi effective theory obtained by integrating out a heavy colored scalar.