No abstract

The method of analytic perturbation theory, which avoids the problem of ghost-pole type singularities and gives a self-consistent description of both spacelike and timelike regions, is applied to describe the "light" Adler function corresponding to the non-strange vector channel of the inclusive decay of the τ lepton. The role of threshold effects is investigated. The behavior of the quark-antiquark system near threshold is described by using a new relativistic resummation factor. It is shown that the method proposed leads to good agreement with the "experimental" Adler function down to the lowest energy scale.

The renormalization group applied to perturbation theory is ordinarily used to define the running coupling constant in the spacelike region. However, to describe processes with timelike momenta transfers, it is important to have a self-consistent determination of the running coupling constant in the timelike region. The technique called analytic perturbation theory (APT) allows a consistent determination of this running coupling constant. The results are found to disagree significantly with those obtained in the standard perturbative approach. Comparison between the standard approach and APT is carried out to two loops, and threshold matching in APT is applied in the timelike region.

We apply an analytic description to the inclusive decay of the τ lepton. We argue that this method gives not only a self-consistent description of the process both in the timelike region by using the initial expression for R τ and in the spacelike domain by using the analytic properties of the hadronic correlator, but also leads to the fact that theoretical uncertainties associated with unknown higher-loop contributions and renormalization scheme dependence can be reduced dramatically.

Results of applying analytic perturbation theory (APT) to the Bjorken sum rule are presented. We study the third-order QCD correction within the analytic approach and investigate its renormalization scheme dependence. We demonstrate that, in the framework of the method, theoretical predictions of the Bjorken sum rule are, practically, scheme independent for the entire interval of momentum transfer.