Next-to-next-to-leading order<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi mathvariant="script">O</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo><mml:msubsup><mml:mi>α</mml:mi><mml:mi>s</mml:mi><mml:mn>4</mml:mn></mml:msubsup><mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo></mml:math>results for heavy quark pair production in quark-antiquark collisions: The one-loop squared contributions

Abstract

We calculate the next-to-next-to-leading order ${\cal O}(\alpha_s^4)$ one-loop squared corrections to the production of heavy quark pairs in quark-antiquark annihilations. These are part of the next-to-next-to-leading order ${\cal O}(\alpha_s^4)$ radiative QCD corrections to this process. Our results, with the full mass dependence retained, are presented in a closed and very compact form, in the dimensional regularization scheme. We have found very intriguing factorization properties for the finite part of the amplitudes.