Comparison of phase space slicing and dipole subtraction methods for $\gamma^* \rightarrow Q\bar{Q}$

Abstract

We compare the phase space slicing and dipole subtraction methods in the computation of the inclusive and differential next-to-leading order cross sections for heavy quark production in the simple process \(\gamma^* \rightarrow Q\bar{Q}\). For the phase space slicing method we study the effects of improvement terms that remove restrictions on the slicing parameter \(s_{\mathrm{min}}\). For the dipole method our comparison is a first check on some of its counterterms involving massive quarks, derived recently. In our comparison we address issues such as numerical accuracy and efficiency.