Universality of 1/Q corrections revisited

Abstract

We provide an exact analytical calculation at the two-loop level in the abelian limit of the leading power correction for the C parameter in e+e- annihilation. We compare our results to the numerical value obtained employing the soft approximation, the abelian part of the Milan factor. We demonstrate that a simple proportionality holds between the leading power corrections to the C parameter and to the longitudinal cross section in the soft region, and we verify that this proportionality holds for the full two-loop abelian contribution computed here. We comment on the possibility of extending this technique to other event shape variables and distributions, as well as to the non-abelian contributions.