Gluon Pair Production in the Quasi-Multi-Regge Kinematics

Abstract

To find the region of applicability of the leading log(1/x) approximation for parton distributions in the small x region and to fix the argument of the QCD running coupling it is necessary to know radiative corrections to the kernel of the BFKL equation. The next-to-leading corrections to the BFKL kernel are expressed in terms of the two-loop correction to the gluon Regge trajectory, one-loop correction to the Reggeon-Reggeon-gluon vertex, and contributions from two-gluon and quark-antiquark production in the quasi-multi-Regge kinematics. We calculate differential and total cross sections of the two gluon production. Differential cross section can be applied for description of two jet production in the quasi-multi-Regge kinematics; the total cross section defines corresponding correction to the BFKL kernel. To escape the infrared divergencies we use dimensional regularization of the Feynman integrals.