From correlation functions to event shapes in QCD

Abstract

Abstract We present a method for calculating event shapes in QCD based on correlation functions of conserved currents. The method has been previously applied to the maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, but we demonstrate that supersymmetry is not essential. As a proof of concept, we consider the simplest example of a charge-charge correlation at one loop (leading order). We compute the correlation function of four electromagnetic currents and explain in detail the steps needed to extract the event shape from it. The result is compared to the standard amplitude calculation. The explicit four-point correlation function may also be of interest for the CFT community.