Infrared Structure of Dijet Production at the LHC

Abstract

Higher order corrections to QCD scattering processes are crucial for phenomenological analyses in hadronic collider environments such as the LHC. In this thesis we consider the infrared divergent structures emerging from Next-to-Next-to-Leading Order (NNLO) perturbative QCD predictions within the antenna subtraction framework. In doing so we elucidate the highly predictive nature of such a construction, driven by the underlying infrared behaviour. The antenna subtraction formalism has previously been applied successfully to the pure-gluon channel in dijet production at NNLO; we present the extension to processes involving two and four quarks at leading order in colour. We derive explicit expressions for subtracting single and double unresolved contributions to various channels required for dijet production in hadronic collisions. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the validity of the subtraction terms in mimicking the physical cross section in the various unresolved limits.