Two-loop QCD corrections to massless identical quark scattering Original Research Article

We present the two-loop virtual QCD corrections to the scattering of identical massless quarks, qq̄→qq̄, in conventional dimensional regularisation and using the MS scheme. The structure of the infrared divergences agrees with that predicted by Catani while expressions for the finite remainder are given for the qq̄→qq̄ and the qq→qq (q̄q̄→q̄q̄) scattering processes in terms of polylogarithms. The results presented here form a vital part of the next-to-next-to-leading order contribution to inclusive jet production in hadron colliders and will play a crucial role in improving the theoretical prediction for jet cross sections in hadron–hadron collisions.