Reanalysis of the BFKL Pomeron at the next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy

Abstract

We apply the principle of maximum conformality (PMC) to the Balitsky-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov (BFKL) Pomeron intercept at the next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) accuracy. The PMC eliminates the conventional renormalization scale ambiguity by absorbing the non-conformal $\{\beta_i\}$-terms into the running coupling, and a more accurate pQCD estimation can be obtained. After PMC scale setting, the QCD perturbative convergence can be greatly improved due to the elimination of renormalon terms in pQCD series, and the BFKL Pomeron intercept has a weak dependence on the virtuality of the reggeized gluon. For example, by taking the Fried-Yennie gauge, we obtain $\omega_{\rm MOM}^{\rm PMC}(Q^{2},0)\in [0.149,0.176]$ for $Q^2\in[1,100]\;{\rm GeV}^2$. This is a good property to apply to the high-energy phenomenology. Further more, to compare with the data, it is found that the physical ${\rm MOM}$-scheme is more reliable than the $\overline{\rm MS}$-scheme. The ${\rm MOM}$-scheme is gauge dependent, which can also be greatly suppressed after PMC scale setting. We discuss the MOM-scheme gauge dependence for the Pomeron intercept by adopting three gauges, i.e. the Landau gauge, the Feynman gauge and the Fried-Yennie gauge, and we obtain $\omega_{\rm MOM}^{\rm PMC}(Q^{2}=15\;{\rm GeV}^2,0) = 0.166^{+0.010}_{-0.017}$; i.e. about $10\%$ gauge dependence is observed. We apply the BFKL Pomeron intercept to the photon-photon collision process, and compare the theoretical predictions with the data from the OPAL and L3 experiments.