Sudakov Logarithm Resummation in Transverse Momentum Space for Electroweak Boson Production at Hadron Colliders

Abstract

A complete description of W and Z boson production at high-energy hadron colliders requires the resummation of large Sudakov double logarithms which dominate the transverse momentum (q_T) distribution at small q_T. We compare different prescriptions for performing this resummation, in particular implicit impact parameter space resummation versus explicit transverse momentum space resummation. We argue that the latter method can be formulated so as to retain the advantages of the former, while at the same time allowing a smooth transition to finite order dominance at high q_T.