Quark beam function at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD in the generalized large-$N_c$ approximation

Abstract

We present the matching coefficient for the quark beam function at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD in the generalized large $N_c$-approximation, $N_c\sim N_f\gg 1$. Although several refinements are still needed to make this result interesting for phenomenological applications, our computation shows that a fully-differential description of simple color singlet production processes at a hadron collider at N${}^3$LO in perturbative QCD is within reach.

Comments: 10 pages, 1 figure