Dipole splitting algorithm: A practical algorithm to use the dipole subtraction procedure

Abstract

The Catani--Seymour dipole subtraction is a general and powerful procedure to calculate the QCD next-to-leading order corrections for collider observables. We clearly define a practical algorithm to use the dipole subtraction. The algorithm is called the Dipole splitting algorithm (DSA). The DSA is applied to an arbitrary process by following well defined steps. The subtraction terms created by the DSA can be summarized in a compact form by tables. We present a template for the summary tables. One advantage of the DSA is to allow a straightforward algorithm to prove the consistency relation of all the subtraction terms. The proof algorithm is presented in the subsequent article. We demonstrate the DSA in two collider processes, $pp \to \mu^{-}\mu^{+}$ and $2\,jets$. Further as a confirmation of the DSA it is shown that the analytical results obtained by the DSA at the Drell-Yan process exactly agree with the well known results obtained by the traditional method.