Third-order QCD corrections to the charged-current structure function [formula omitted

Abstract

We compute the coefficient function for the charge-averaged W ± -exchange structure function F 3 in deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) to the third order in massless perturbative QCD. Our new three-loop contribution to this quantity forms, at not too small values of the Bjorken variable x, the dominant part of the next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order corrections. It thus facilitates improved determinations of the strong coupling α s and of 1 / Q 2 power corrections from scaling violations measured in neutrino–nucleon DIS. The expansion of F 3 in powers of α s is stable at all values of x relevant to measurements at high scales Q 2 . At small x the third-order coefficient function is dominated by diagrams with the colour structure d abc d abc not present at lower orders. At large x the coefficient function for F 3 is identical to that of F 1 up to terms vanishing for x → 1 .