Analytical Solution of the Sudakov--BFKL Interpolation Equation for Small-$x$ Gluon TMDs

Abstract

We analytically solve the evolution equation for small-$x$ gluon transverse-momentum-dependent distributions, which describes the interpolation between the Sudakov and BFKL regimes. We first derive its two limiting forms: the BFKL equation for $\xi =\alpha \sigma s{\mathbf{z}}^2/4\ll 1$ and the Sudakov equation for $\xi \gg 1$. The analytical solutions in these limits are obtained through Mellin-space diagonalization of the BFKL kernel and direct integration of the Sudakov evolution equation, respectively. We then solve the full interpolation equation using a Mellin-space diagonalization ansatz, in which the evolution factor $F(Y,\xi )$ describes the nontrivial $\xi$-dependent modification of a Mellin eigenfunction of the BFKL kernel. This procedure reduces the original two-dimensional integral to a one-dimensional form and permits an analytical evaluation of the resulting evolution kernel. The obtained solution interpolates consistently between the BFKL and Sudakov regimes through an exponential factor $\exp [H(\xi ,\gamma )]$. An analysis of the structure of $H(\xi ,\gamma )$ allows a quantitative estimation of the transition region between the two dynamical regimes. Our calculation implies a potential matching point in the range of ${\xi }^{\ast }\simeq 0.04-0.15$, which is substantially smaller than the naive evaluation value.

Comments: 16 pages