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  • Open Access

Edge of Safety: Charge-Charge Correlation in the Back-to-Back Limit

Pier Francesco Monni1,*, Gherardo Vita1,†, Zhen Xu2,‡, and Hua Xing Zhu3,4,§

  • 1CERN, Theoretical Physics Department, CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
  • 2Zhejiang Institute of Modern Physics, Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  • 3School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • 4Center for High Energy Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

  • *Contact author: pier.monni@cern.ch
  • †Contact author: gherardo.vita@cern.ch
  • ‡Contact author: zhen.xu@zju.edu.cn
  • §Contact author: zhuhx@pku.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 031901 – Published 13 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/3pqk-qr64

Abstract

We investigate the charge-charge correlation (QQC) in electron-positron annihilation as a probe of charge dynamics in quantum chromodynamics. While generally divergent beyond leading order, we show that the QQC is infrared and collinear safe in the back-to-back limit, a property that we dub leading-power safety. This enables an analytic perturbative treatment that bypasses the reliance on nonperturbative track or fragmentation functions. Using soft-collinear effective field theory, we derive a factorization theorem and determine its logarithmic behavior analytically up to four loops in QCD, uncovering remarkable connections with the energy-energy correlation (EEC). Prior to this Letter, the behavior of the QQC beyond leading order was entirely unknown; we now establish its resummation to next-to-next-to-next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (N4LL) accuracy, placing it among the observables with the highest perturbative precision alongside the EEC. Our results are validated through a numerical analysis using event2, exhibiting excellent agreement with the predicted singular terms. This Letter establishes the QQC as a novel, calculable probe of charge dynamics and unveils a new window into the inner workings of non-Abelian gauge theories.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 031901– Published 13 July, 2026
  • Received 21 October 2025
  • Accepted 26 May 2026
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