Determination of perturbative QCD coupling from ALEPH $$\tau $$ decay data using pinched Borel–Laplace and Finite Energy Sum Rules

We present a determination of the perturbative QCD (pQCD) coupling using the V+A channel ALEPH $$\tau $$ τ -decay data. The determination involves the double-pinched Borel–Laplace Sum Rules and Finite Energy Sum Rules. The theoretical basis is the Operator Product Expansion (OPE) of the V+A channel Adler function in which the higher order terms of the leading-twist part originate from a model based on the known structure of the leading renormalons of this quantity. The applied evaluation methods are contour-improved perturbation theory (CIPT), fixed-order perturbation theory (FOPT), and Principal Value of the Borel resummation (PV). All the methods involve truncations in the order of the coupling. In contrast to the truncated CIPT method, the truncated FOPT and PV methods account correctly for the suppression of various renormalon contributions of the Adler function in the mentioned sum rules. The extracted value of the $${\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}$$ MS ¯ coupling is $$\alpha _s(m_{\tau }^2) = 0.3116 \pm 0.0073$$ α s ( m τ 2 ) = 0.3116 ± 0.0073 [$$\alpha _s(M_Z^2)=0.1176 \pm 0.0010$$ α s ( M Z 2 ) = 0.1176 ± 0.0010 ] for the average of the FOPT and PV methods, which we regard as our main result. On the other hand, if we include in the average also the CIPT method, the resulting values are significantly higher, $$\alpha _s(m_{\tau }^2) = 0.3194 \pm 0.0167$$ α s ( m τ 2 ) = 0.3194 ± 0.0167 [$$\alpha _s(M_Z^2)=0.1186 \pm 0.0021$$ α s ( M Z 2 ) = 0.1186 ± 0.0021 ].

Strong coupling constant from Adler function in lattice QCD

We compute the QCD coupling constant, [Formula: see text], from the Adler function with vector hadronic vacuum polarization (HVP) function. On the lattice, Adler function can be measured by the differential of HVP at two different momentum scales. HVP is measured from the conserved-local vector current correlator using nf = 2 + 1 flavor Domain Wall lattice data with three different lattice cutoffs, up to a[Formula: see text] 3.14 GeV. To avoid the lattice artifact due to O(4) symmetry breaking, we set the cylinder cut on the lattice momentum with reflection projection onto vector current correlator, and it then provides smooth function of momentum scale for extracted HVP. We present a global fit of the lattice data at a justified momentum scale with three lattice cutoffs using continuum perturbation theory at [Formula: see text] to obtain the coupling in the continuum limit at arbitrary scale. We take the running to Z boson mass through the appropriate thresholds, and obtain [Formula: see text](MZ) = 0.1191(24)(37) where the first is statistical error and the second is systematic one.

PERTURBATIVE EXPANSION OF τ HADRONIC SPECTRAL FUNCTION MOMENTS

In the extraction of αs from hadronic τ decay data several moments of the spectral functions have been employed. Furthermore, different renormalization group improvement (RGI) frameworks have been advocated, leading to conflicting values of αs. Recently, we performed a systematic study of the perturbative behavior of these moments in the context of the two main-stream RGI frameworks: Fixed Order Perturbation Theory (FOPT) and Contour Improved Perturbation Theory (CIPT). The yet unknown higher order coefficients of the perturbative series were modelled using the available knowledge of the renormalon singularities of the QCD Adler function. We were able to show that within these RGI frameworks some of the commonly employed moments should be avoided due to their poor perturbative behavior. Furthermore, under reasonable assumptions about the higher order behavior of the perturbative series FOPT provides the preferred RGI framework.