Contributor info: Prof. Diogo Boito

Miguel A. Benitez-Rathgeb, Diogo Boito, Andre H. Hoang, Matthias Jamin

SciPost Phys. Proc. 16, 007 (2025) · published 14 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

In a recent work it was suggested that the discrepancy observed in the perturbation series behavior of the $\tau$ hadronic decay rate determined in the FOPT and CIPT approaches can be explained from a different infrared sensitivity inherent to both methods, assuming that the major source of the discrepancy is the asymptotic behavior of the series related to the gluon condensate renormalon. This implies that the predictions of both methods may be reconciled in infrared subtracted perturbation theory. In this talk we explore this implication concretely in the large-$\beta_0$ approximation, where the perturbation series is known to all orders, using a renormalon-free scheme for the gluon condensate.

Diogo Boito, Maarten Golterman, Kim Maltman, Santiago Peris

SciPost Phys. Proc. 16, 006 (2025) · published 14 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

Tau-based finite-energy sum-rule (FESR) analyses often assume that scales $s_0\sim m_\tau^2$ are large enough that (i) integrated duality violations (DVs) can be neglected, and (ii) contributions from non-perturbative OPE condensates of dimension $D$ scale as $(\Lambda_{QCD}/m_\tau )^D$, allowing the OPE series to be truncated at low dimension. The latter assumption is not necessarily valid since the OPE series is not convergent, while the former is open to question given experimental results for the electromagnetic, $I=1$ vector ($V$), $I=1$ axial vector ($A$) and $I=1$ $V+A$ current spectral functions, which show DV oscillations with amplitudes comparable in size to the corresponding $\alpha_s$-dependent perturbative contributions at $s\sim2-3$ GeV$^2$. Here, we discuss recently introduced new tools for assessing the numerical relevance of omitted higher-$D$ OPE contributions. Applying these to the "truncated OPE" strategy used in Refs. [M. Davier et al., Eur. Phys. J. C 74, 2803 (2014); A. Pich and A. Rodríguez-Sánchez, Phys. Rev. D 94, 034027 (2016)] and earlier work by the same authors, we find that this strategy fails to yield reliable results for the strong coupling from hadronic $\tau$ decays.

Diogo Boito, Maarten Golterman, Kim Maltman, Santiago Peris, Marcus V. Rodrigues, Wilder Schaaf

SciPost Phys. Proc. 16, 004 (2025) · published 14 July 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We perform a precise extraction of the QCD coupling at the $\tau$-mass scale, $\alpha_s(m_\tau)$, from a new vector isovector spectral function which combines ALEPH and OPAL distributions for the dominant channels, $\tau\to\pi \pi^0\nu_\tau$, $\tau\to 3\pi \pi^0\nu_\tau$ and $\tau\to \pi 3\pi^0\nu_\tau$, with estimates of sub-leading contributions obtained from electroproduction cross-sections using CVC, as well as BaBar results for $\tau \to K^-K^0\nu_\tau$. The fully inclusive spectral function thus obtained is entirely based on experimental data, without Monte Carlo input. From this new data set, we obtain $\alpha_s(m_\tau)=0.3077±0.0075$, which corresponds to $\alpha_s(m_Z)=0.1171±0.0010$. This analysis can be improved on the experimental side with new measurements of the dominant $\pi\pi^0$, $\pi 3\pi^0$, and $3\pi \pi^0$ $\tau$ decay modes.

Diogo Boito, Maarten Golterman, Kim Maltman, Santiago Peris

SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 053 (2019) · published 22 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We discuss sum-rule determinations of $\alpha_s$ from non-strange hadronic $\tau$-decay data. We investigate, in particular, the reliability of the assumptions underlying the ``truncated OPE strategy,'' which specifies a certain treatment of non-perturbative contributions, and which was employed in Refs.~\cite{Pich,Aleph, Opal}. Here, we test this strategy by applying the strategy to the $R$-ratio obtained from $e^+e^-$ data, which extend beyond the $\tau$ mass, and demonstrate that the assumptions underlying this strategy are not, in general, valid. We then present a brief overview of new results on the form of duality-violating non-perturbative contributions, which are conspicuously present in the experimentally determined spectral functions. As we show, with the current precision claimed for the extraction of $\alpha_s$, including a representation of duality violations is unavoidable if one wishes to avoid uncontrolled theoretical errors.

Diogo Boito, Pere Masjuan, Fabio Oliani

SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 049 (2019) · published 22 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

One of the main sources of theoretical uncertainty in the extraction of the strong coupling from hadronic tau decays stems from the renormalization group improvement of the series. Perturbative series in QCD are divergent but are (most likely) asymptotic expansions. One needs knowledge about higher orders to be able to choose the optimal renormalization-scale setting procedure. Here, we discuss the use of Pad\'e approximants as a model-independent and robust method to extract information about the higher-order terms. We show that in hadronic \boldmath $\tau$ decays the fixed-order expansion, known as fixed-order perturbation theory (FOPT), is the most reliable mainstream method to set the scale. This fully corroborates previous conclusions based on the available knowledge about the leading renormalon singularities of the perturbative series.

Diogo Boito, Maarten Golterman, Alex Keshavarzi, Kim Maltman, Daiskuke Nomura, Santiago Peris, Thomas Teubner

SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 035 (2019) · published 21 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We use a new compilation of the hadronic $R$-ratio from available data for the process $e^+e^-\to$ hadrons below the charm mass to determine the strong coupling $\alpha_s$, using finite-energy sum rules. Quoting our results at the $\tau$ mass to facilitate comparison to the results obtained from similar analyses of hadronic $\tau$-decay data, we find $\alpha_s(m_\tau^2)=0.298\pm 0.016\pm 0.006$ in fixed-order perturbation theory, and $\alpha_s(m_\tau^2)=0.304\pm 0.018\pm 0.006$ in contour-improved perturbation theory, where the first error is statistical, and the second error combines various systematic effects. These values are in good agreement with a recent determination from the OPAL and ALEPH data for hadronic $\tau$ decays. We briefly compare the $R(s)$-based analysis with the $\tau$-based analysis.