Factorization and resummation of QED radiative corrections for neutron beta decay
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1.
University of Kentucky
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2.
Fermilab
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3.
California Institute of Technology
Abstract
Details of the two-loop analysis of long-distance QED radiative corrections to neutron beta decay are presented. Explicit expressions are given for hard, jet, and soft functions appearing in the factorization formula that describes the limit of small electron mass and large electron energy. Numerical enhancements from the infrared region are resummed using renormalization group methods. Power corrections, cancellation of singularities in the small-mass expansion, renormalization scheme dependence, and bound-state effects are also discussed. These results provide the most precise determination of long-distance radiative corrections to neutron beta decay and impact the determination of | V ud | from the measured neutron lifetime and thus set a target for uncertainty reductions in the experimental and short-distance inputs.
Copyright and License
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.
Acknowledgement
P. V. G. acknowledges support from the Visiting Scholars Award Program of the Universities Research Association. R. P. thanks the Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington for its kind hospitality and stimulating research environment during Program No. INT 23-1b. This research was supported in part by the INT’s U.S. Department of Energy Grant No. DE-FG02-00ER41132. Part of the research of R. P. was performed at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, which is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY-1748958. R. P. is supported by the Neutrino Theory Network under Award No. DEAC02-07CH11359, the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics under Award No. DE-SC0011632, and by the Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics, under Award No. DE-SC0019095. This work was produced by Fermi Forward Discovery Group, LLC under Contract No. 89243024CSC000002 with the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics.
Data Availability
The data supporting this study’s findings are available within the article.
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Additional details
Related works
- Is new version of
- Discussion Paper: arXiv:2508.05741 (arXiv)
Funding
- Universities Research Association
- University of Washington
- INT 23-1b
- United States Department of Energy
- DE-FG02-00ER41132
- National Science Foundation
- PHY-1748958
- United States Department of Energy
- DE-AC02-07CH11359
- United States Department of Energy
- DE-SC0011632
- California Institute of Technology
- Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics -
- United States Department of Energy
- DE-SC0019095
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
- 89243024CSC000002
- SCOAP3
Dates
- Submitted
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2025-08-18
- Accepted
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2025-12-02