Abstract
We present a new approach to radiative processes in e+ e- annihilation based on a Monte Carlo method. This is nothing but the QED version of the parton shower model studied extensively in QCD. It is applicable to both initial and final state radiation but without the interference between these two. To examine the validity of the model, we compare it with the results of the exact calculations up to OCa) and OCa 2 ). Comparison of several distributions shows that the model can give reliable results for practical use. Study of radiative corrections in e+ e- collisions has a long history!) since its importance was recognized in the discovery of ]/CP.2) Until now, most efforts have concentrated on the calculation of O(a) corrections to weak interactions. Precise measurements of properties of the ZO boson, however, required the detailed study of higher order QED corrections. Techniques of calculating some contributions in all order have been developed, such as soft photon summation 3 ) and collinear photon summation. 4 ) Generally speaking, these are methods suitable only for inclusive distributions, and they can hardly be applied to exclusive processes or event genera tions. It is obvious that the collinear photon summation has an exact correspondence with the collinear parton summation based on the Altarelli-Parisi equation in pertur bative quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The parton shower model was originally proposed to deal with exclusive processes in QCD. 5 ) In this paper we apply this technique to QED and examine its validity for radiative processes. We shall call this new model QED parton shower (QEDPS). Although the development of the model is not difficult in the technical sense, study of its validity is a nontrivial task because a much higher accuracy of calculation is required than in QCD. Recently one of the authors calculated exact O(a 2 ) QED corrections to the initial state of e+ e- annihila tion. 6 ) With the help of this calculation, we are able to test the validity of QEDPS in a systematic and quantitative way. The purposes of this paper are to present the formulation of QEDPS in a Monte Carlo method and to show that it is really a practical method to describe radiative processes. Since the parton shower model is applied to the final q, q and gluon system in e+ e- annihilation, QEDPS can also be used to estimate QED radiative corrections to the charged particles in the final state. Thus it is equally applicable to both initial and final state radiation, though the interference between these two states cannot be included at present. In the next section we will give the algorithm of QEDPS. In § 3, comparison will
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