Abstract: The next to leading order chiral corrections to the SU(2) x SU(2) Gell-Mann-Oakes- Renner (GMOR) relation are obtained using the pseudoscalar correlator to five-loop order in perturbative QCD, together with new finite energy sum rules (FESR) incorporating polynomial, Legendre type, integration kernels. The purpose of these kernels is to suppress hadronic contributions in the region where they are least known. This reduces considerably the systematic uncertainties arising from the lack of direct experimental information on the hadronic resonance spectral function. Three different methods are used to compute the FESR contour integral in the complex energy (squared) s-plane, i.e. Fixed Order Perturbation Theory, Contour Improved Perturbation Theory, and a fixed renormalization scale scheme. We obtain for the corrections to the GMOR relation, delta(pi), the value delta(pi) = (6.2 +/- 1.6)%. This result is substantially more accurate than previous determinations based on QCD sum rules; it is also more reliable as it is basically free of systematic uncertainties. It implies a light quark condensate < 0 vertical bar(u) over baru vertical bar 0 > similar or equal to < 0 vertical bar(d) over bard vertical bar 0 > < 0 vertical bar(q) over barq vertical bar 0 >vertical bar(2GeV) = (-267 +/- 5MeV)(3). As a byproduct, the chiral perturbation theory (unphysical) low energy constant H-2(r) is predicted to be H-2(r)(nu(X) = M-p) = -(5.1 +/- 1.8) x10(-3), or H-2(r) (nu(X) = M-eta) = -(5.7 +/- 2.0) x10(-3).

Abstract: We present phenomenological results for t (t) over barj + X production at the Large Hadron Collider, of interest for designing forthcoming experimental analyses of this process. We focus on those cases where the t (t) over barj + X process is considered as a signal. We discuss present theoretical uncertainties and the dependence on relevant input parameters entering the computation. For the R. distribution, which depends on the invariant mass of the t (t) over barj-system, we present reference predictions in the on-shell, (MS) over bar and MSR top-quark mass renormalization schemes, applying the latter scheme to this process for the first time. Our conclusions are particularly interesting for those analyses aiming at extracting the topquark mass from cross-section measurements.

Abstract: We derive a sum rule which shows that the Froissart-Martin bound for the asymptotic behaviour of the pi pi total cross sections at high energies, if modulated by the Lukaszuk-Martin coefficient of the leading log(2)s behaviour, cannot be an optimal bound in QCD. We next compute the total cross sections for pi(+)pi(-), pi(+/-)pi(0) and pi(0)pi(0) scattering within the framework of the constituent chiral quark model (C chi QM) in the limit of a large number of colours N-c and discuss their asymptotic behaviours. The same pi pi cross sections are also discussed within the general framework of Large-N-c QCD and we show that it is possible to make an Ansatz for the isospin I = 1 and I = 0 spectrum which satisfy the Froissart-Martin bound with coefficients which, contrary to the Lukaszuk-Martin coefficient, are not singular in the chiral limit and have the correct Large-N-c counting. We finally propose a simple phenomenological model which matches the low energy behaviours of the sigma(total)(pi +/-pi 0)(s) cross section predicted by the CxQM with the high energy behaviour predicted by the Large-N-c Ansatz. The magnitude of these cross sections at very high energies is of the order of those observed for the pp and pp scattering total cross sections.

Abstract: In this work we perform the first ever calculation of jet event shapes at hadron colliders at next-to-next-to leading order (NNLO) in QCD. The inclusion of higher order corrections removes the shape difference observed between data and next-to-leading order predictions. The theory uncertainty at NNLO is comparable to, or slightly larger than, existing measurements. Except for narrow kinematical ranges where all-order resummation becomes important, the NNLO predictions for the event shapes considered in the present work are reliable. As a prime application of the results derived in this work we provide a detailed investigation of the prospects for the precision determination of the strong coupling constant and its running through TeV scales from LHC data.

Abstract: The computation of multi-loop multi-leg scattering amplitudes plays a key role to improve the precision of theoretical predictions for particle physics at high-energy colliders. In this work, we focus on the mathematical properties of the novel integrand-level representation of Feynman integrals, which is based on the Loop-Tree Duality (LTD). We explore the behaviour of the multi-loop iterated residues and explicitly show, by developing a general compact and elegant proof, that contributions associated to displaced poles are cancelled out. The remaining residues, called nested residues as originally introduced in ref. [1], encode the relevant physical information and are naturally mapped onto physical configurations associated to nondisjoint on-shell states. By going further on the mathematical structure of the nested residues, we prove that unphysical singularities vanish, and show how the final expressions can be written by using only causal denominators. In this way, we provide a mathematical proof for the all-loop formulae presented in ref. [2].