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  • Open Access

Quantum Scaling in Energy Correlators beyond the Confinement Transition

Cyuan-Han Chang1,*, Hao Chen2,†, Xiaohui Liu3,4,‡, David Simmons-Duffin5,§, Feng Yuan6,∥, and Hua Xing Zhu7,8,¶

  • *Contact author: cchang10@uchicago.edu
  • †Contact author: hao_chen@mit.edu
  • ‡Contact author: xiliu@bnu.edu.cn
  • §Contact author: dsd@caltech.edu
  • ∥Contact author: fyuan@lbl.gov
  • Contact author: zhuhx@pku.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 081903 – Published 23 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/9ml8-xkfc

Abstract

We study the QCD scaling behavior of the small-angle energy-energy correlator (EEC), focusing on the transition between its perturbative preconfinement and nonperturbative postconfinement regimes. Applying the light-ray operator product expansion (OPE), we develop a formalism that describes the scaling of the EEC with the input energy Q in the transition and the postconfinement region, where the latter quantum scaling is determined by the J=5 DGLAP anomalous dimension. A key result of our Letter is a novel connection between the light-ray OPE and the dihadron fragmentation function (DFF), where we show that the nonperturbative OPE coefficients correspond to moments of the DFF. This finding establishes a new paradigm for studying hadronization. Our theoretical predictions are validated against Monte Carlo simulations for both e+e− and pp collisions, showing excellent agreement. The potential role of the quantum scaling in the precision determination of αs is also discussed.

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See Also

Dihadron Fragmentation and the Confinement Transition in Energy Correlators

Kyle Lee and Iain W. Stewart
Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 081902 (2026)

Factorization and Resummation for the Near-Side Energy-Energy Correlators

Yuxun Guo, Feng Yuan, and Wenbin Zhao
Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 081904 (2026)

Dihadron Fragmentation Framework for Near-Side Energy-Energy Correlators

Zhong-Bo Kang, Andreas Metz, Daniel Pitonyak, and Congyue Zhang
Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 081905 (2026)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

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Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 081903– Published 23 February, 2026
  • Received 23 July 2025
  • Revised 3 November 2025
  • Accepted 9 January 2026
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