Universality of infrared renormalons in hadronic cross sections

Abstract

We discuss the role of infrared renormalons in power corrections to hadronic cross sections, including their universality. We show how perturbative renormalon structure arises near kinematic boundaries in the thrust distribution, the Drell-Yan cross section and radiative B decays. The leading infrared renormalon in each case is associated with jet evolution. Demanding that the combination of perturbative and nonperturbative contributions be well-defined, we infer the form of the leading power corrections to each cross section. This is at the level $1/Q$ for the thrust distribution and Drell-Yan process, and $1/m^2$ for B decay. We discuss the universality of $1/Q$ corrections between Drell-Yan and thrust, and conclude that it is approximate, due to contributions from multijet configurations that may differ in the two cases.