The variable flavor number scheme to three-loop order

J. Ablinger; A. Behring; J. Blümlein; A. De Freitas; A. von Manteuffel; C. Schneider; K. Schönwald

The variable flavor number scheme to three-loop order

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2026-07-06 v1 High Energy Physics - Experiment High Energy Physics - Theory

Authors: J. Ablinger , A. Behring , J. Blümlein , A. De Freitas , A. von Manteuffel , C. Schneider , K. Schönwald

Abstract

We describe the variable flavor number scheme to three-loop order, which modifies the massless parton densities by single- and two-mass effects and introduces heavy-quark parton distribution functions for charm and bottom. A renormalization group analysis shows the validity of this picture at large scales $Q^2$ , where it resembles the non-power-suppressed heavy-flavor corrections completely. We also provide numerical implementations of a series of charged and neutral current Wilson coefficients.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.05235,
  title  = {The variable flavor number scheme to three-loop order},
  author = {J. Ablinger and A. Behring and J. Blümlein and A. De Freitas and A. von Manteuffel and C. Schneider and K. Schönwald},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.05235},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

11 pages Latex + pictures