2011

Recent progress in hadronic tau decays

Jamin, Matthias

Understand

The determination of alpha_s from hadronic tau decays is impeded by the fact that two choices for the renormalisation group resummation, namely fixed-order (FOPT) and contour-improved perturbation theory (CIPT), yield systematically differing results.

  • On the basis of a model for higher-order terms in the perturbative series, which incorporates well-known structure from renormalons, it is found that FOPT smoothly approaches the Borel sum for the tau hadronic width, while CIPT is unable to account for the resummed series.
  • An example for the behaviour of QCD spectral function moments, displaying a similar behaviour, is presented as well.

Reading the bibliography…