THE EMISSION OF SOFT-PHOTONS AND THE LBK THEOREM, REVISITED

Balsach R.; Kulesza A.; Bonocore D.

Abstract

Predictions for processes involving soft photons, up to next-to-leading power (NLP) in the photon energy, can be obtained using the Low–Burnett–Kroll (LBK) theorem. The consistency of the theorem has been a recent topic of investigation since it is traditionally formulated in terms of a non-radiative amplitude, which is evaluated with unphysical momenta. We address such questions and propose a formulation of the LBK theorem which relies on the evaluation of the non-radiative amplitude with on-shell, physical momenta. We use this form to numerically study the impact of NLP contributions to cross sections for pp and e−e+ processes involving soft-photon emission.