Toward precision measurements of nucleon energy correlators in lepton-nucleon collisions
H. Cao, Xiaohui Liu, Hua Xing Zhu
Abstract
The nucleon energy-energy correlator (NEEC) was proposed recently [X. Liu and H. X. Zhu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 091901 (2023)] as a new way of studying nucleon intrinsic dynamics. In this work, we present a detailed derivation of the factorization theorem that enables the measurement of the unpolarized NEEC in lepton-nucleon collisions. As a first step toward a precise measurement of this quantity, we obtained the next-to-leading-logarithmic [NLL, $\ensuremath{\sim}\mathcal{O}({\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s}^{n}{L}^{n\ensuremath{-}1})$] resummation in a concise analytic form, and predicted the analytic $\ensuremath{\theta}$-angle distribution at $\mathcal{O}({\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s}^{2})$. Extending our analytic resummation formula to higher logarithmic accuracy and the factorization theorem to hadron-hadron collisions is straightforward.