Factorization and soft-gluon divergences in isolated-photon cross sections

Abstract

We study the production of isolated photons in $e^+e^-$ annihilation and give the proof of the all-order factorization of the collinear singularities. These singularities are absorbed in the standard fragmentation functions of partons into a photon, while the effects of the isolation are consistently included in the short-distance cross section. We compute this cross section at order $\as$ and show that it contains large double logarithms of the isolation parameters. We explain the physical origin of these logarithms and discuss the possibility to resum them to all orders in $\as$.