Soft-gluon coupling and the TMD parton branching Sudakov form factor

Abstract

The evolution of transverse momentum dependent (TMD) distributions in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) can be formulated in a parton branching (PB) framework. We show that next-to-next-to-leading-logarithm (NNLL) accuracy can be achieved in this framework by using the concept of soft-gluon physical coupling. We present results for the TMD distributions and for the Collins-Soper kernel controlling rapidity evolution. The results pave the way for PB predictions at NNLL level for physical observables at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and future colliders.