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# Contents

## 1 Introduction

At a sufficiently large scale exclusive QCD reactions factorize into a perturbative calculable partonic hard-scattering amplitude and universal hadron distribution amplitudes . The study of such reactions offers the possibility to directly explore non-perturbative features of hadrons at the amplitude level, as well as to test our understanding of the amplitude factorization. Unfortunately, exclusive reactions are still challenging to both experimentalists and theoreticians and the onset of the perturbative approach is controversially discussed in the literature.

The photon-to-pion transition form factor, appearing in the two-photon amplitude of the process $`\gamma ^{}(q_1)\gamma ^{()}(q_2)\pi ^0(P)`$ can serve for a thorough study of the mentioned problem. In this process the partonic content of a meson is only probed by the electromagnetic interaction. Furthermore, since we require that the meson is produced at light-like distances, i.e., that at least one photon is far off-shell, this process belongs to quite a large class of two-photon processes calculable by means of the operator product expansion (OPE) . Deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS), deeply inelastic lepton–hadron scattering (DIS) and the production of various hadronic final states by photon–photon fusion belong to this class of processes. Such processes can be described by a general scattering amplitude given by the time-ordered product of two-electromagnetic currents sandwiched between the hadronic states. For a specific process, the generalized Bjorken kinematics at the light-cone can be reduced to the corresponding kinematics, while the particular hadron content of the process reflects itself in the non-perturbative part of the amplitude. Hence, the generalized hard-scattering amplitude enables us to relate predictions of different two-photon processes on the partonic level.

In the leading twist-2 approximation, the light-cone OPE approach is equivalent to the collinear factorization scheme . The transition form factor factorizes as a convolution of the hard-scattering amplitude $`T`$ and the pion distribution amplitude $`\varphi `$, with respect to the momentum fraction $`x`$:

$`F_{\gamma \pi }(\omega ,Q)=f_\pi T(\omega ,x,Q,\mu _f)\varphi (x,\mu _f),{\displaystyle _0^1}dx,`$ (1.1)
where

$`Q^2={\displaystyle \frac{(q_1q_2)^2}{4}},\omega ={\displaystyle \frac{q_1^2q_2^2}{q_1^2+q_2^2}}.`$
In the above, the resolution scale $`Q^2`$ is large and the asymmetry parameter $`\omega `$ is fixed, i.e., $`|\omega |1`$, while $`\mu _f`$ represents the factorization scale. Due to Bose symmetry the transition form factor is symmetric in $`\omega `$. The perturbative expansion of the hard-scattering amplitude reads

$`T(\omega ,x,Q,\mu _f)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}}{6Q^2}}[T^{(0)}(\omega ,x)+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu _r)}{2\pi }}T^{(1)}(\omega ,x,{\displaystyle \frac{Q}{\mu _f}})+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu _r)}{(2\pi )^2}}T^{(2)}(\omega ,x,{\displaystyle \frac{Q}{\mu _f}},{\displaystyle \frac{Q}{\mu _r}})`$ (1.2)
$`+O\left(\alpha _s^3\right)+\{x1x\}],`$
where $`\mu _r`$ is the renormalization scale and the leading-order (LO) contribution is given by

$$T^{(0)}(\omega ,x)=\frac{1}{1\omega (2x1)}.$$
(1.3)
The normalization of $`T`$ given above corresponds to $`\varphi (x,\mu _f)`$ normalized to one and $`f_\pi =131`$ MeV. Note that a residual dependence on the renormalization scale $`\mu _r`$ appears in the truncated perturbative expansion of the hard-scattering amplitude. The next-to-leading order (NLO) correction to the hard scattering amplitude has been calculated in the modified minimal subtraction ($`\overline{\text{MS}}`$) scheme . In the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO), only the contributions coming from the quark bubble insertions have been evaluated , again using the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme. The pion distribution amplitude $`\varphi (x,\mu _f)`$ is intrinsically a non-perturbative quantity and cannot be determined from the perturbation theory. However, its evolution is governed by the evolution equation

$$\mu _f^2\frac{d}{d\mu _f^2}\varphi (x,\mu _f)=V(x,u,\mu _f)\varphi (u,\mu _f),$$
(1.4)
in which the evolution kernel has a perturbative expansion as

$$V(x,y,\mu _f)=\frac{\alpha _s(\mu _f)}{2\pi }V^{(0)}(x,y)+\frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu _f)}{(2\pi )^2}V^{(1)}(x,y)+O\left(\alpha _s^3\right).$$
(1.5)
The evolution kernel has been estimated to NLO accuracy using the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme  and the corresponding solution of the evolution equation has been obtained . The latter can be expressed in the form

$$\varphi (x,\mu _f|\mu _0)=\varphi ^{(0)}(x,\mu _f|\mu _0)+\frac{\alpha _s(\mu _f)}{2\pi }\varphi ^{(1)}(x,\mu _f|\mu _0)+O\left(\alpha _s^2\right),$$
(1.6)
where the scale $`\mu _0`$ denotes some low scale at which the non-perturbative input has been obtained. The solution (1.6) satisfies the initial condition $`\varphi (x,\mu _0|\mu _0)=\varphi ^{(0)}(x,\mu _0|\mu _0)`$ and for $`\mu _f\mathrm{}`$ takes the asymptotic form $`\varphi (x,\mu _f\mathrm{}|\mu _0)=6x(1x)`$. We stress that the evolution equation as defined by (1.4) and (1.5) corresponds to the simplified scheme fixed by the preference that the distribution amplitude $`\varphi `$ should have no residual dependence on the renormalization scale111Note that, in general, such a residual dependence appears along with the evolution kernel depending on two scales:
$$V(x,y,\mu _f)=\frac{\alpha _s(\mu _r)}{2\pi }V^{(0)}(x,y)+\frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu _r)}{(2\pi )^2}\left(V^{(1)}(x,y)\frac{\beta _0}{2}V^{(0)}(x,y)\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{\mu _r^2}{\mu _f^2}\right)\right)+O\left(\alpha _s^3\right).$$
.

The photon-to-pion transition form factor has been measured at large $`Q^2`$ by the CELLO  and CLEO  collaborations, where one photon is almost on-shell, while the second one has a virtuality up to $`9\text{GeV}^2.`$ Different authors analyzed the data  and it is often stated that the pion distribution amplitude is close to its asymptotic shape; for previous work see also . However, in this kinematics, the shape of the distribution amplitude can be constrained only from the scaling violation that arises from the evolution of the distribution amplitude. In the small $`|\omega |`$-region, perturbative QCD gives a parameter free prediction of the photon-to-pion transition form factor and in the intermediate region, one might extract a few lowest moments of the distribution amplitude and confront them with non-perturbative results, see Ref. . However, both high precision data as well as a precise understanding of perturbative and non-perturbative effects are necessary for such analysis.

Thus, the computation of both perturbative and power suppressed contributions is an important task. In this way, we can gain insight into the perturbative approach to exclusive processes. However, calculations of exclusive amplitudes beyond the leading order are quite cumbersome. Besides the photon-to-meson transition form factor and similar exclusive two-photon processes, the perturbative next-to-leading order predictions are known only for the pion form factor  and for the amplitude of charged meson pair production in two-photon collision for the case of equal momenta sharing meson distribution amplitude . Fortunately, in the perturbative sector massless QCD is invariant under conformal transformation provided the coupling has a fixed point, so that the $`\beta `$-function, the renormalization group coefficient of the running coupling, vanishes. In lowest order of $`\alpha _s`$, the conformal symmetry breaking part, which is consequently proportional to $`\beta /g=\beta _0\alpha _s/(4\pi )+O(\alpha _s^2)`$, can be determined by calculating the abelian part of the gluon self-energy proportional to the number of quarks $`n_f`$. Additional subtleties may appear owing to the factorization procedure and they can be resolved by a finite renormalization of the hard-scattering and the distribution amplitude. Making use of conformal symmetry constraints, together with the explicit calculation of terms proportional to the $`\beta `$-function, offers a considerable simplification of the perturbative calculation and, in our case, gives the possibility of going beyond the NLO approximation.

Indeed, for the photon-to-pion transition form factor we can take advantage of this symmetry and its predictive power  by means of the conformal OPE (COPE) , in which the form of the Wilson–coefficients is constrained. The normalization of these coefficients can be recovered in the forward kinematics from the DIS results for the non-singlet coefficient function of the polarized structure function $`g_1`$ known to NNLO . This field-theoretical approach has been explored  and tested to NLO , where the $`\beta `$-function is absent in the Wilson-coefficients. We emphasise that the “conformal symmetry breaking” due to the factorization procedure in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme and the restoration of conformal symmetry by finite renormalization are well understood at NLO. Further consistency checks are based on comparison with explicit results (e.g. hard-scattering amplitudes for two-photon processes in the light-cone dominated region, the flavour non-singlet kernel, quark bubble insertions in singlet kernels), and with constraints coming from the $`N=1`$ super Yang-Mills theory .

In this paper we apply the COPE combining the NNLO result for the non-singlet coefficient function of the polarized structure function $`g_1`$  with the explicit result for the $`n_f`$ (i.e., $`\beta _0`$) proportional NNLO contribution to the hard-scattering amplitude of the photon-to-pion transition form factor , both being evaluated in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme, to obtain a full NNLO result for the photon-to-pion transition form factor in the so-called conformal factorization scheme. Alternatively, we propose a scheme in which the hard-scattering amplitude can already be constructed from a knowledge of the non-singlet coefficient function of $`g_1`$ and the corresponding anomalous dimensions.

The paper is organized as follows. For the convenience of the reader, in Section 2 we review the predictive power of conformal symmetry relevant to the photon-to-pion transition form factor. We then propose two treatments of terms proportional to the $`\beta `$-function and discuss the remaining freedom in the choice of the factorization procedure. The general structure of the hard-scattering amplitude in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme, and the NNLO term that is proportional to $`\beta _0`$, are analyzed in Section 3. For the phenomenologically important case, in which one photon is quasi-real, we evaluate conformal moments for the hard-scattering amplitude and making use of the NNLO results for the $`g_1`$ function we obtain the NNLO prediction for the photon-to-pion transition form factor in the conformal factorization scheme. We extend this procedure to other values of photon virtualities and present a detailed investigation of the conformal partial wave decomposition of the transition form factor in different $`\omega `$ regions. Based on these results, in Section 4 we analyze the size of the NLO and NNLO effects for one quasi-real photon and in the small and intermediate $`|\omega |`$ regions. Finally, a summary and conclusions are given in Section 5. The appendices are devoted to technical details: the Feynman-Schwinger representation of the hard-scattering amplitude, a consistency check at NNLO between the $`n_f`$-proportional $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ results for the hard-scattering amplitude of the photon-to-pion transition form factor and the results for the non-singlet coefficient function of the DIS polarized structure function $`g_1`$, evaluation of the conformal moments of the hard scattering amplitude, the Taylor expansions in $`\omega `$, and the prescription for reconstructing the hard-scattering amplitude in the momentum fraction space from the known conformal moments.

## 2 Outlining the conformal symmetry formalism

In the physical sector, massless QCD at the tree level is invariant under conformal transformations, i.e., under space-time transformations containing the Poincaré transformations, dilatation, and special conformal transformations. The latter are composed of translation, inversion, and translation again. Conformal symmetry implies an improvement of the energy-momentum tensor, which then becomes traceless. Owing to this symmetry, one has additional constraints for field-theoretical quantities, e.g. for Green functions. This subject was intensively studied in the 60th and 70th in the four-dimensional field theory. In QCD, conformal symmetry is manifested in the Crewther relation  and in the solution for the mixing problem of composite operators under renormalization . The reduced matrix elements of the conformal operators $`𝒪`$, sandwiched between the vacuum $`|\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and one pion $`\pi (P)|`$ states, are pertinent to the expansion of the distribution amplitude222 It is common in the literature that the distribution amplitude is expanded in the form
$$\varphi (x,\mu _f)=6\underset{j=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}{}_{}{}^{}x(1x)B_j(\mu _f)C_j^{3/2}(2x1),$$
where $`B_j`$ ($`j=2,4,\mathrm{}`$) essentially represent the non-perturbative input. Comparing with our definition (2.1), we have $`\pi (P)|𝒪_{jj}(\mu _f)|\mathrm{\Omega }^{\mathrm{red}}=6N_jB_j(\mu _f)`$, where $`\pi (P)|𝒪_{00}(\mu _f)|\mathrm{\Omega }^{\mathrm{red}}=B_0=1`$ is a renormalization group invariant quantity.

$`\varphi (x,\mu _f)={\displaystyle \underset{j=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{}_{}{}^{}{\displaystyle \frac{x(1x)}{N_j}}C_j^{3/2}(2x1)\pi (P)|𝒪_{jj}(\mu _f)|\mathrm{\Omega }^{\mathrm{red}},N_j={\displaystyle \frac{(j+1)(j+2)}{4(2j+3)}}.`$ (2.1)
Here $`C_j^{3/2}`$ are the Gegenbauer polynomials with the index $`\nu =3/2`$ of order $`j`$ and the sum runs over even $`j`$. In this representation, the transition form factor reads

$$F_{\gamma \pi }(\omega ,Q)=f_\pi \underset{j=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}{}_{}{}^{}T_{j}^{}(\omega ,Q,\mu _f)\pi (P)|𝒪_{jj}(\mu _f)|\mathrm{\Omega }^{\mathrm{red}},$$
(2.2)
where $`T_j`$ denotes the $`j`$th conformal moment of the hard-scattering amplitude:

$`T_j(\omega ,Q,\mu _f)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑xT(\omega ,x,Q,\mu _f){\displaystyle \frac{x(1x)}{N_j}}C_j^{3/2}(2x1)`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}}{3Q^2}}\left[T_j^{(0)}(\omega )+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu _r)}{2\pi }}T_j^{(1)}(\omega ,{\displaystyle \frac{Q}{\mu _f}})+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu _r)}{(2\pi )^2}}T_j^{(2)}(\omega ,{\displaystyle \frac{Q}{\mu _f}},{\displaystyle \frac{Q}{\mu _r}})+O(\alpha _s^3)\right].`$
As reviewed in Section 2.1, the operator mixing problem under renormalization beyond the one-loop level is solved by the restoration of conformal symmetry. In Section 2.2 this allows us to employ conformal symmetry to the OPE of two electromagnetic currents, and to fix the hard-scattering amplitude (2) in the conformal limit. Additionally, we include $`\beta `$ proportional terms and in Section 2.3 we discuss the corresponding ambiguities of this procedure. The solution of the renormalization group equation to NNLO is worked out in Section 2.4.

### 2.1 Renormalization properties of conformal operators and the conformal scheme

Let us start with the constraints for the renormalization of composite operators. In the flavour non-singlet and parity odd sector the twist-2 operators read

$$𝒪_{jl}=\overline{\psi }(x)(n\gamma )\gamma _5C_j^{3/2}\left(\frac{n\stackrel{}{D}}{n}\right)(in)^l\psi (y)|_{x=y=0}$$
(2.4)
where $`=\stackrel{}{}+\stackrel{}{}`$, $`\stackrel{}{D}=\stackrel{}{D}\stackrel{}{D}`$ and $`n`$ is a light-like vector that makes these operators symmetric and traceless. The Gegenbauer polynomials $`C_j^{3/2}`$ arise from the group-theoretical construction of the operators and they are of order $`j`$, where this label is related to the conformal spin $`j+1`$, i.e., the eigenvalue of the Casimir operator of the so-called collinear conformal group. These operators have spin $`l+1`$ and canonical dimension $`l+3`$. In other words, we have different infinite irreducible representations of the conformal algebra, called towers, that are characterized by the conformal spin $`j+1`$, while the members of each representation are labeled by the spin $`l+1`$. The conformal operators with $`l=j`$ are the lowest members of each conformal tower, and we can climb the tower by acting with the generator of translation.

Employing Poincaré invariance, the general form of the renormalization group equation for the operators introduced above reads

$`\mu {\displaystyle \frac{d}{d\mu }}𝒪_{jl}={\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{j}{}}}\gamma _{jk}𝒪_{kl}.`$ (2.5)
In the conformal invariant theory operators of different conformal towers do not mix under renormalization. Indeed, the anomalous dimension matrix

$`\gamma _{jk}={\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{2\pi }}\delta _{jk}\gamma _j^{(0)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2}{(2\pi )^2}}\gamma _{jk}^{(1)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^3}{(2\pi )^3}}\gamma _{jk}^{(2)}+O(\alpha _s^4),\text{with}\gamma _j\gamma _{jj},`$ (2.6)
is diagonal at LO. This property is induced by conformal symmetry at tree level. The fact that these operators will mix beyond LO even for the vanishing $`\beta `$-function in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme, has been considered as an unexpected breakdown of conformal symmetry. Note that the appearance of the anomalous dimension already requires a ‘redefinition’ of the conformal representation at tree level, i.e., the scaling dimensions of the operators change.

The understanding of this subtlety is the key for the application of conformal symmetry in all orders of perturbation theory. It is well known that, on the quantum level, conformal symmetry is broken owing to the regularization of ultraviolet divergences, which shows up in the trace anomaly of the (improved) energy-momentum tensor. This trace anomaly is given as a linear combination of different renormalized operators. In the dimensionally regularized theory with space-time dimension $`n=42ϵ`$, it reads

$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{\mu \mu }(x)={\displaystyle \frac{\beta _ϵ}{2g}}\left(G_{\mu \nu }^a(x)\right)^2+\mathrm{},`$ (2.7)
where the $`\beta `$-function in the regularized theory is defined as

$`\beta _ϵ\mu {\displaystyle \frac{g}{\mu }}={\displaystyle \frac{4n}{2}}g+\beta \text{with}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta }{g}}={\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{4\pi }}\beta _0+O(\alpha _s^2)`$ (2.8)
and $`\beta _0=(2/3)n_f(11/3)C_A`$. Besides the square of the renormalized field strength tensor $`G_{\mu \nu }^a`$ multiplied by the $`\beta `$-function, the trace anomaly (2.7) contains equations of motion and BRST-exact operators. Therefore, it is sometimes believed that in the physical sector of the theory the breaking of conformal symmetry is in general proportional to the $`\beta `$-function. However, if one deals with composite operators, the operator product and the trace anomaly of these operators contain additional ultraviolet divergences. Being multiplied by the $`(4n)`$ contribution in $`\beta _ϵ`$, these UV divergences produce finite symmetry breaking terms that are not proportional to the $`\beta `$-function. The appearance of anomalous dimensions of composite operators can be understood in this way, too.

A detailed analysis shows that the non-diagonality of the anomalous dimension matrix observed in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme at NLO originates from such an effect of conformal symmetry breaking. It already appears at LO in the Ward–identities of these operators with respect to the special conformal transformation. The calculation of this special conformal anomaly matrix $`\widehat{\gamma }^c(l)=(\alpha _s/2\pi )\widehat{\gamma }^{c(0)}(l)+O(\alpha _s^2)`$ results in

$$\widehat{\gamma }^{c(0)}(l)=\widehat{b}(l)\widehat{\gamma }^{(0)}+\widehat{w},$$
(2.9)
where

$`b_{jk}(l)`$ $`=`$ $`\{\begin{array}{cc}2(l+k+3)\delta _{jk}2(2k+3)& jk0\text{ and even}\hfill \\ 0& \text{otherwise}\hfill \end{array},`$ (2.12)
and

$`w_{jk}`$ $`=`$ $`C_F\{\begin{array}{cc}\begin{array}{c}4(2k+3)(jk)(j+k+3)\hfill \\ \times \left[{\displaystyle \frac{A_{jk}\psi (j+2)+\psi (1)}{(k+1)(k+2)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{2A_{jk}}{(jk)(j+k+3)}}\right]\hfill \end{array}& jk>0\text{ and even}\hfill \\ 0& \text{otherwise}\hfill \end{array},`$ (2.17)
$`A_{jk}`$ $`=`$ $`\psi \left({\displaystyle \frac{j+k+4}{2}}\right)\psi \left({\displaystyle \frac{jk}{2}}\right)+2\psi \left(jk\right)\psi \left(j+2\right)\psi (1),`$ (2.18)
with $`\psi \left(z\right)=\frac{d}{dz}\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Gamma }(z)`$ and $`C_F=4/3`$. It induces off-diagonal entries in the anomalous dimension matrix (2.6):

$`\gamma _{jk}^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}(1)}={\displaystyle \frac{[\widehat{\gamma }^{c(0)}+\beta _0\widehat{b},\gamma ^{(0)}]_{jk}}{a(j,k)}}\text{ for }j>k,`$ (2.19)
where $`a(j,k)=2(jk)(j+k+3)`$. The prediction (2.19) coincides with the moments of the explicitly calculated evolution kernel at NLO . On the other hand, the diagonal part of the anomalous dimension matrix (2.6)

$$\gamma _{jj}\gamma _j=\frac{\alpha _s}{2\pi }\gamma _j^{(0)}+\frac{\alpha _s^2}{(2\pi )^2}\gamma _j^{(1)}+\frac{\alpha _s^3}{(2\pi )^3}\gamma _j^{(2)}+O(\alpha _s^4)$$
(2.20)
coincides with the anomalous dimensions of the operators that are restricted to the forward kinematics and are known as the moments of the splitting kernels in DIS.

As we can see, there is a complete understanding of conformal symmetry breaking in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme. Now the questions arise:

* Can we find a scheme at which conformal symmetry holds true?
* Can we then use the predictive power of conformal symmetry?

The first question has a positive answer in the case that the $`\beta `$-function has a fixed point. Instead of relying on the hypothetical fixed point, we simply freeze the coupling by hand, which implies $`\beta =0`$. It is then possible to find a scheme in which the renormalized conformal operators (2.4) form an irreducible representation of the collinear conformal group, i.e. their special conformal anomaly and anomalous dimension matrices are simultaneously diagonal. The rotation from the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ to such a scheme, which we call the conformal subtraction (CS) scheme, is given by the matrix $`\widehat{B}`$ defined by

$`𝒪^{\mathrm{CS}}=\widehat{B}^1𝒪^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}},B_{jk}=\delta _{jk}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{2\pi }}B_{jk}^{(1)}+O(\alpha _s^2).`$ (2.21)
The NLO term $`B_{jk}^{(1)}`$ is entirely determined by the special conformal anomaly (2.9) and reads

$`B_{jk}^{(1)}=\theta (j>k){\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _{jk}^{c(0)}}{a(j,k)}}=\theta (j>k)\left\{\widehat{d}\widehat{\gamma }^{(0)}\widehat{g}\right\}_{jk}.`$ (2.22)
Here we introduce the notation $`d_{jk}=b_{jk}/a(j,k)`$ and $`g_{jk}=w_{jk}/a(j,k)`$. In the case of a non-vanishing $`\beta `$-function, an additional off-diagonal term appears and, thus, the complete anomalous dimension in the CS scheme reads

$`\gamma _{jk}^{\mathrm{CS}}=\left\{\widehat{B}^1\widehat{\gamma }^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}\widehat{B}+\widehat{B}^1\left[\mu {\displaystyle \frac{d}{d\mu }}\widehat{B}\right]\right\}_{jk}=\delta _{jk}\gamma _j+\theta (j>k){\displaystyle \frac{\beta }{g}}\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}.`$ (2.23)
The addenda of the anomalous dimension matrix (2.23) is known in the lowest order of $`\alpha _s`$

$`\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}={\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{2\pi }}\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}^{(0)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2}{(2\pi )^2}}\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}^{(1)}+O(\alpha _s^3)\text{with}\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}^{(0)}=B_{jk}^{(1)}[\widehat{d},\widehat{\gamma }^{(0)}]_{jk}.`$ (2.24)
Note that the diagonal part (2.20), which corresponds to the moments of the splitting kernels, also includes $`\beta `$ proportional terms. The moments of the splitting kernels are completely known to two-loop accuracy  and the first thirteen entries at three-loop level are given in . Their scheme dependence is fixed by the fact that they are evaluated in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme. This implies that the diagonal part of $`\widehat{B}`$ is given by the identity matrix.

### 2.2 Conformal operator product expansion

Let us now turn to the second question we have raised. As we have discussed in the preceding subsection, one advantage of the conformal scheme is that, up to off-diagonal terms proportional to $`\beta `$, the anomalous dimensions are fixed by the DIS results, and, in the conformal limit, they are partly known to NNLO order333In principle, we then also know the Efremov-Radyushkin–Brodsky-Lepage (ER-BL) evolution kernels, which can be obtained from the Dokshitzer–Gribov-Lipatov–Altarelli-Parisi (DGLAP) kernels through an integral transformation .. Furthermore, the class of two-photon processes that are light-cone dominated, i.e., for $`Q^2`$ large, can be treated by means of OPE. That includes the evaluation of the corresponding non-forward Wilson-coefficients. Under the assumption that conformal symmetry holds true, these coefficients are fixed up to normalization factors that coincide with the Wilson–coefficients appearing in the deep inelastic scattering structure functions $`F_1`$ and $`g_1`$ . Hence, in the conformal scheme, taking the conformal limit in which conformal symmetry holds true, we can use this predictive power of the COPE to avoid cumbersome higher-order calculations. Indeed, the NLO coefficient functions for the hadronic tensor in the general off-forward kinematics were predicted in this way  and they coincide, after rotation to the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme, with explicitly calculated ones .

For the photon-to-pion transition form factor, the leading twist-2 result of the OPE is given by Eq. (2.2), where the conformal moments $`T_j`$ of the hard-scattering amplitude correspond to the Wilson–coefficients $`C_j`$, which are conventionally normalized as

$$T_j(\omega ,Q,\mu )=\frac{\sqrt{2}}{3Q^2}C_j(\omega |\alpha _s(\mu ),Q/\mu ).$$
(2.25)
As we have mentioned, in the formal conformal limit the Wilson-coefficients are constrained in the CS scheme by the predictive power of the COPE:

$`\alpha _s(\mu )\alpha _s^{}\text{fixed  implies the reduction }C_j(\omega |\alpha _s(\mu ),Q/\mu )\overline{C}_j(\omega |\alpha _s^{},Q/\mu ),`$
where $`\overline{C}_j(\omega |\alpha _s^{},Q/\mu )`$ is given by

$`\overline{C}_j=c_j(\alpha _s^{})\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}\right)^{\frac{\gamma _j}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2(2\omega )^j}{(1+\eta \omega )^{j+1+\frac{\gamma _j}{2}}}}B(j+1,j+2){}_{2}{}^{}F_{1}^{}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{j+1+\frac{1}{2}\gamma _j,j+2+\frac{1}{2}\gamma _j}{2(j+2+\frac{1}{2}\gamma _j)}}|{\displaystyle \frac{2\eta \omega }{1+\eta \omega }}\right).`$
In the limit $`\eta 1`$, one obtains the result for the production of a (pseudo)scalar meson by two virtual photons, while for $`\eta =0`$ the forward case is reproduced444 The Wilson–coefficients appearing in the deep inelastic scattering structure functions $`F_1`$ and $`g_1`$ are derived in the usual DIS operator basis, which differs in the normalization from the definition for the basis of conformal operators. Hence, these Wilson–coefficients differ slightly from the $`\eta =0`$ limit of (2.2).. Note that $`C_j(\omega )`$ is an even (odd) function of $`\omega `$ for even (odd) $`j`$, which is guaranteed by the linear transformation properties of the hypergeometric functions $`{}_{2}{}^{}F_{1}^{}`$. The normalization $`c_j(\alpha _s)`$ coincides with the flavour non-singlet Wilson-coefficients of the polarized structure function $`g_1`$ taken at $`\mu =Q`$. It is given as a perturbative expansion

$`c_j(\alpha _s)=c_j^{(0)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{2\pi }}c_j^{(1)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2}{(2\pi )^2}}c_j^{(2)}+O(\alpha _s^3)\text{with}c_j^{(0)}=1`$ (2.27)
and is known to NNLO in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme . Strictly speaking, this coincidence appears just at the hypothetical fixed point $`\alpha _s=\alpha _s^{}`$. However, since we know the forward anomalous dimensions and the Wilson-coefficients perturbatively in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme, we can easily restore $`\beta `$ proportional terms in these quantities beyond the conformal limit.

Conformal symmetry breaking terms, proportional to the $`\beta `$-function alter the COPE result (2.2) in the full theory. Obviously, in the irreducible conformal representation used, the $`\beta `$ term cannot be fixed from the requirement of conformal invariance. Thus, the definition of the conformal scheme

$`C^{\mathrm{CS}}(\alpha _s(\mu ),Q/\mu )=C^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}(\alpha _s(\mu ),Q/\mu )\widehat{B}\left(\alpha _s(\mu )\right)\text{with}C^{\mathrm{CS}}(\alpha _s^{},Q/\mu )=\overline{C}(\alpha _s^{},Q/\mu ),`$ (2.28)
is ambiguous and, consequently, the $`\widehat{B}`$-matrix is uniquely defined only up to $`\beta `$ proportional terms that are off-diagonal. At the two-loop level, $`C`$ contains $`\beta _0`$ proportional terms appearing in both $`c_j^{(2)}`$ and $`\gamma _j^{(2)}`$. Let us first set such terms to zero and, with the help of this, single out all $`\beta _0`$ proportional terms in $`C^{\mathrm{CS}}`$:

$`C^{\mathrm{CS}}`$ $`=`$ $`C^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}\widehat{B}|_{\beta =0}+{\displaystyle \frac{\beta }{g}}\delta C`$
$`=`$ $`\overline{C}|_{\beta =0}+{\displaystyle \frac{\beta }{g}}\delta C,\text{with}\delta C={\displaystyle \frac{g}{\beta }}\left(C^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}\widehat{B}C^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}\widehat{B}|_{\beta =0}\right)`$
and $`\alpha _s`$ remains running. At LO a $`\beta _0`$ term does not appear in $`C^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}`$, thus, the perturbative expansion

$$\delta C_j=\delta C_j^{(0)}+\frac{\alpha _s}{2\pi }\delta C_j^{(1)}+O(\alpha _s^2)$$
(2.30)
holds true. Note that since $`B_{jk}^{(0)}=\delta _{jk}`$ (2.21) the LO coefficient $`C^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}(0)}C^{(0)}`$ is independent of the scheme. Similarly to (2.2), we can write the matrix $`\widehat{B}`$ in the general form

$`\widehat{B}=\widehat{B}|_{\beta =0}+{\displaystyle \frac{\beta }{g}}\delta \widehat{B}\text{with}\delta \widehat{B}=\delta \widehat{B}^{(0)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{2\pi }}\delta \widehat{B}^{(1)}+O(\alpha _s^2).`$ (2.31)
If we define $`\widehat{B}`$ so that it contains no $`\beta _0`$-term in order $`\alpha _s`$, i.e., if we take $`\delta \widehat{B}^{(0)}=0`$ as in our definition of the CS scheme (2.21-2.22), the coefficients $`\delta C`$ up to NNLO read

$`\delta C^{(0)}=0,\delta C^{(1)}={\displaystyle \frac{2}{\beta _0}}\left(C^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}(2)}C^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}(2)}|_{\beta _0=0}\right)+C^{(0)}\delta \widehat{B}^{(1)}.`$ (2.32)
Since we have required that the diagonal entries of $`\widehat{B}`$ should be one, the normalization coefficients $`c_j`$ coincide in the forward limit with the Wilson-coefficients of $`g_1`$ calculated in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$-scheme.

### 2.3 Ambiguities in the definition of the conformal scheme

As we have discussed, the ambiguity left in the definition of the conformal scheme in the full theory resides in the $`\beta `$ proportional off-diagonal terms, i.e., in the choice of $`\delta \widehat{B}`$ in (2.31). Adopting the definitions (2.21) and (2.31), we set $`\delta \widehat{B}^{(0)}=0`$ and in the following discuss different choices of $`\delta \widehat{B}^{(1)}`$, restricting ourselves to NNLO.

#### 2.3.1 Defining CS and $`\overline{\text{CS}}`$ schemes

The naive choice is to set

$`\delta \widehat{B}^{(1)}=0,`$ (2.33)
which means that the $`\beta _0`$ proportional term in the NNLO Wilson–coefficients, i.e., $`\delta C^{(1)}`$, is entirely evaluated in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme. Since the conformal symmetry breaking part appearing in the COPE has to be proportional to the $`\beta `$-function, we can calculate $`\delta C^{(1)}`$ by evaluating the contributions proportional to the $`n_f`$ piece of $`\beta _0`$, i.e., from the one-loop Feynman graphs with an additional quark-bubble insertion.

In this naive scheme (2.33), which we denote by CS, both the conformal operators and the Wilson–coefficients will mix under renormalization to NLO accuracy owing to the running of the coupling. Let us consider this in more detail. Since the transition form factor is invariant under renormalization, i.e.,

$`\mu {\displaystyle \frac{d}{d\mu }}F_{\gamma \pi }(\omega ,Q)=0,`$ (2.34)
these effects will compensate one another. Thus, the renormalization group equation for the Wilson-coefficients reads

$`\left[\mu {\displaystyle \frac{}{\mu }}+\beta {\displaystyle \frac{}{g}}\right]C_j^{\mathrm{CS}}=\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu )}{2\pi }}\gamma _j^{(0)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu )}{(2\pi )^2}}\gamma _j^{(1)}\right]C_j^{\mathrm{CS}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\beta }{g}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=j+2}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{}_{}{}^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu )}{2\pi }}C_i^{\mathrm{CS}}\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}^{(0)}+O(\alpha _s^3),`$ (2.35)
where the addenda $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}^{(0)}`$ is defined in Eq. (2.24). Since $`C_j^{\mathrm{CS}}`$ is conformally covariant to the NLO approximation, i.e., it contains no partial waves (2.2) with a conformal spin larger than $`j+1`$, the off-diagonal entries on the r.h.s. arise from the explicit $`\mu `$ dependence of $`C_j^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}`$, which has been taken from the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme.

In the alternative conformal scheme, denoted in the following by $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$, this intermediate mixing is avoided by the complete diagonalization of the renormalization group equation. This can be achieved by including an explicit $`\mu `$ dependence in the $`\widehat{B}`$-matrix, i.e., by taking

$`\delta B_{jk}^{(1)}=\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{\mu ^2}}\right)\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}^{(0)}\theta (j>k)+\mathrm{}.`$ (2.36)
In the order we are considering, the matrix $`\widehat{B}`$ now reads

$`B_{jk}=\delta _{jk}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu )}{2\pi }}B_{jk}^{(1)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu )}{(2\pi )^2}}\left\{B_{jk}^{(2)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}\left[\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{\mu ^2}}\right)\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}^{(0)}\theta (j>k)+\mathrm{}\right]\right\}+O(\alpha _s^3).`$ (2.37)
This choice introduces $`\gamma ^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}}`$ given by Eqs. (2.23-2.24) with $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}^{(0)}\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(0)}=0`$, i.e., LO addenda to the anomalous dimension matrix vanishes in this scheme. However, for dimensional reasons the choice (2.37) additionally introduces a new residual scale dependence $`\mu ^{}`$. The meaning of this procedure is obvious. We do not resum the remaining off-diagonal $`\mathrm{ln}\mu `$ terms through the renormalization group equation, rather we include them in the Wilson-coefficients, where they will be annulled. This is indeed on the same footing with that we have already discussed in the $`\beta =0`$ case, where the off-diagonal entries present in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme have been removed by a finite, however, $`\mu `$ independent renormalization. Consequently, both the operators and the Wilson–coefficients

$`𝒪^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}}=\widehat{B}^1𝒪^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}},C^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}}=C^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}\widehat{B},`$ (2.38)
where $`\widehat{B}`$ is defined by Eq. (2.37), now satisfy the desired renormalization group equations in the $`\alpha _s^2`$ approximation:

$`\mu {\displaystyle \frac{d}{d\mu }}𝒪_{jl}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}}(\mu )`$ $`=`$ $`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu )}{2\pi }}\gamma _j^{(0)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu )}{(2\pi )^2}}\gamma _j^{(1)}+O(\alpha _s^3)\right]𝒪_{jl}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}}(\mu ),`$ (2.39)
$`\left[\mu {\displaystyle \frac{}{\mu }}+\beta {\displaystyle \frac{}{g}}\right]C_j^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}}(\alpha _s(\mu ),Q/\mu )`$ $`=`$ $`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu )}{2\pi }}\gamma _j^{(0)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu )}{(2\pi )^2}}\gamma _j^{(1)}+O(\alpha _s^3)\right]C_j^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}}(\alpha _s(\mu ),Q/\mu ).`$ (2.40)
Note that the forward anomalous dimensions $`\gamma _j`$ remain explicitly $`\mu `$ independent. However, both the off-diagonal piece of the anomalous dimensions and the Wilson–coefficients now possess a residual $`\mu ^{}`$ dependence at the orders $`\alpha _s^3`$ and $`\alpha _s^2`$, respectively.

To restore the $`\mu `$ dependence of the Wilson-coefficient, we perturbatively solve its renormalization group equation (2.40). Up to an integration constant $`\delta C^{}`$, its solution to two-loop accuracy can be expressed by the Wilson–coefficient (2.2), appearing in the COPE,

$`C_j^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}}(\alpha _s(\mu ),Q/\mu )=\overline{C}_j(\alpha _s(\mu ),Q/\mu )+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2}{(2\pi )^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}\delta C^{},`$ (2.41)
which now depend on the running coupling:

$`\overline{C}_j=c_j(\alpha _s(\mu ),{\displaystyle \frac{Q}{\mu }},{\displaystyle \frac{}{\gamma _j}})\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}\right)^{\frac{\gamma _j}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2(2\omega )^jB(j+1,j+2)}{(1+\omega )^{j+1+\frac{\gamma _j}{2}}}}{}_{2}{}^{}F_{1}^{}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{j+1+\frac{1}{2}\gamma _j,j+2+\frac{1}{2}\gamma _j}{2(j+2+\frac{1}{2}\gamma _j)}}|{\displaystyle \frac{2\omega }{1+\omega }}\right).`$
The running of $`\alpha _s(\mu )`$, appearing in the lowest approximation of both $`\gamma _j`$ and $`c_j`$, is compensated by introducing a logarithmic change of the $`\mu `$ dependence in the normalization factors:

$`c_j(\alpha _s(\mu ),{\displaystyle \frac{Q}{\mu }},{\displaystyle \frac{}{\gamma _j}})`$ $`=`$ $`c_j^{(0)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu )}{2\pi }}c_j^{(1)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu )}{(2\pi )^2}}c_j^{(2)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu )}{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{\mu ^2}}\right)`$ (2.43)
$`\times \left[{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu )}{2\pi }}\left(c_j^{(1)}+c_j^{(0)}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _j^{(0)}}{4}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{\mu ^2}}\right)\right)+c_j^{(0)}\gamma _j^{(0)}{\displaystyle \frac{}{\gamma _j^{(0)}}}\right]+O(\alpha _s^3).`$
Equation (2.3.1) should be understood in the sense of a consequent expansion with respect to $`\alpha _s`$ up to the order $`\alpha _s^2`$.

So far we have found a rather natural way to include the effects of the running coupling in the structure of the COPE result, with the advantage that the conformal operators do not mix under renormalization in NLO. It remains to fix the integration constant $`\delta C^{}`$, which vanishes in the kinematical forward limit. We can identify it with the non-covariant part calculated in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme, in an analogous way to our discussion in the case of the CS scheme. On the other hand, it is rather appealing that the Wilson–coefficients $`C_j(\alpha _s(\mu ),Q^2/\mu ^2)`$ contain only conformally covariant terms to NNLO. For the scheme we call $`\overline{\text{CS}}`$, we adopt this prescription, i.e., we put $`\delta C^{}=0`$. In the NNLO approximation, we then have a partial wave decomposition of the transition form factor with respect to the ‘good’ quantum number – conformal spin. This in principle allows us to extract the conformal moments of the distribution amplitude with a ‘well-defined’ conformal spin for experimental data.

#### 2.3.2 Calculational prescriptions

Let us comment on the renormalization scale dependence and give the calculational prescription for the schemes we have proposed.

First, we have introduced a naive recipe (CS scheme) which combines the COPE result with that one explicitly calculated in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme. Now we extend our analysis by distinguishing between the renormalization scale $`\mu _r`$ (the argument of $`\alpha _s`$ in the Wilson–coefficients), and the factorization scale $`\mu _f`$. We require that the matrix elements of conformal operators should depend only on the factorization scale $`\mu _f`$. Thus, the scheme transformation now reads

$`C^{\mathrm{CS}}(\alpha _s(\mu _r),Q/\mu _f,Q/\mu _r)=C^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}(\alpha _s(\mu _r),Q/\mu _f,Q/\mu _r)\widehat{B}(\alpha _s(\mu _f)).`$
Employing the scale–changing relation

$$\alpha _s(\mu _f)=\alpha _s(\mu _r)\left[1+\frac{\alpha _s(\mu _r)}{2\pi }\frac{\beta _0}{2}\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{\mu _f^2}{\mu _r^2}\right)+O(\alpha _s^2)\right],$$
(2.44)
we expand the rotation matrix

$`\widehat{B}(\alpha _s(\mu _f))=\widehat{B}(\alpha _s(\mu _r))+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu _r)}{(2\pi )^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu _f^2}{\mu _r^2}}\right)\widehat{B}^{(1)}+O(\alpha _s^3).`$ (2.45)
Hence, in this scheme, the Wilson–coefficients read to NNLO accuracy as

$`C^{\mathrm{CS}}`$ $`=`$ $`\overline{C}(\alpha _s(\mu _r),Q/\mu _f)|_{\beta =0}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu _r)}{(2\pi )^2}}\left[C_\beta ^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}(2)}(\alpha _s(\mu _r),Q/\mu _f,Q/\mu _r)+\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu _f^2}{\mu _r^2}}\right)C^{(0)}\widehat{B}^{(1)}\right]+O(\alpha _s^3),`$
where $`C_\beta ^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}(2)}`$ denotes the $`(\beta _0/2)`$ proportional contribution evaluated in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme, while the structure of $`\overline{C}`$ is fixed by (2.2-2.27).

Alternatively in the $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ scheme, we have employed renormalization group invariance to incorporate the running of the coupling into the generic structure of the COPE result and have used a finite renormalization to preserve the structure of the COPE to NNLO accuracy:

$`C_j^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}}(\alpha _s(\mu ),Q/\mu )=\overline{C}_j(\alpha _s(\mu ),Q/\mu ),`$ (2.47)
where $`\overline{C}_j`$ is defined by Eqs. (2.3.1-2.43). The form of the Wilson–coefficients in which the distinction between the scales $`\mu _r`$ and $`\mu _f`$ is introduced can be obtained analogously to the previously discussed case of the CS scheme, and will be presented in Section 3.3.

In Section 4 we employ both of these schemes to estimate the size of NNLO effects at a given input scale. The missing ingredient for a consistent NNLO analysis including the evolution of distribution amplitude, is the anomalous dimension matrix at three-loop level. Whereas the first few diagonal entries have been calculated, the off-diagonal part is unknown. It could be read off from the $`n_f`$-proportional part of the special conformal anomaly matrix in the two-loop approximation. Also, generally, the trace anomaly will affect the COPE at NNLO accuracy, see Eq. (2.7). We rather make use of the freedom to rotate the conformal symmetry breaking piece from the perturbative sector to the non-perturbative one, as has been done in the $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ scheme, or the reverse. However, we expect that the mixing effect in the $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ scheme will be negligibly small and its detailed investigation is beyond the scope of this paper.

### 2.4 Evolutional behaviour of conformal operators

We end this section with a short review of the evolutional behaviour of the conformal operators from which that of the distribution amplitude $`\varphi (x,\mu )`$ can easily be established. For the convenience of the reader, we repeat here the basic steps for solving the renormalization group equation (1.4) and present the results in a form convenient for the phenomenological analysis .

The renormalization group equation (2.5) is an inhomogeneous first-order partial differential equation and after sandwiching the conformal operators between the hadronic states of interest we obtain the evolution equation for the reduced matrix elements:

$`\mu {\displaystyle \frac{d}{d\mu }}\pi (P)|𝒪_{jj}(\mu )|\mathrm{\Omega }^{\mathrm{red}}=\gamma _{jj}(\mu )\pi (P)|𝒪_{jj}(\mu )|\mathrm{\Omega }^{\mathrm{red}}{\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{j2}{}}}\gamma _{jk}(\mu )\pi (P)|𝒪_{kk}(\mu )|\mathrm{\Omega }^{\mathrm{red}}.`$ (2.48)
The solution can be achieved by the ansatz

$`\pi (P)|𝒪_{jj}(\mu )|\mathrm{\Omega }^{\mathrm{red}}={\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{j}{}}}{}_{}{}^{}_{jk}^{}(\mu ,\mu _0)\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle _{\mu _0}^\mu }{\displaystyle \frac{d\mu ^{}}{\mu ^{}}}\gamma _k(\mu ^{})\right\}\pi (P)|𝒪_{kk}(\mu _0)|\mathrm{\Omega }^{\mathrm{red}},`$ (2.49)
with the initial condition

$`_{jk}(\mu =\mu _0,\mu _0)=\delta _{jk}.`$ (2.50)
The recursive solution of this set of differential equations, starting with the homogeneous one for $`j=0`$, has been written for an arbitrary scheme in a compact form (see Ref. ):

$`_{jk}={\displaystyle \frac{\delta _{jk}}{\delta _{jk}\gamma _{jk}^{\mathrm{ND}}}}=\delta _{jk}+\gamma _{jk}^{\mathrm{ND}}+\left(\gamma ^{\mathrm{ND}}\widehat{\gamma }^{\mathrm{ND}}\right)_{jk}+\mathrm{},`$ (2.51)
where $`\widehat{\gamma }^{\mathrm{ND}}`$ represents the triangular off-diagonal matrix

$$\gamma _{jk}^{\mathrm{ND}}=\{\begin{array}{cc}\gamma _{jk}& \text{for}j>k\\ 0& \text{otherwise}\end{array},$$
(2.52)
and the operator $``$ is an integral operator whose action is defined by

$`\gamma _{jk}^{\mathrm{ND}}={\displaystyle _{\mu _0}^\mu }{\displaystyle \frac{d\mu ^{}}{\mu ^{}}}\gamma _{jk}^{\mathrm{ND}}(\mu ^{})\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle _\mu ^{}^\mu }{\displaystyle \frac{d\mu ^{\prime \prime }}{\mu ^{\prime \prime }}}\left[\gamma _j(\mu ^{\prime \prime })\gamma _k(\mu ^{\prime \prime })\right]\right\}.`$ (2.53)
In the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ or CS scheme, the anomalous dimensions (2.6) depend only implicitly on the scale $`\mu `$ via the running coupling $`\alpha _s(\mu )`$. For the $`\beta `$-function, we employ the expansion

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\beta }{g}}={\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu )}{4\pi }}\beta _0+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu )}{(4\pi )^2}}\beta _1+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^3(\mu )}{(4\pi )^3}}\beta _2+O(\alpha _s^4),`$ (2.54)
$`\beta _0={\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}n_f11,\beta _1={\displaystyle \frac{38}{3}}n_f102,\beta _2={\displaystyle \frac{325}{54}}n_f^2+{\displaystyle \frac{5033}{18}}n_f{\displaystyle \frac{2857}{2}}.`$
Since the off-diagonal entries of the anomalous dimensions give only subleading log’s, which will not be resummed, we expand the $``$ matrix in powers of $`\alpha _s`$:

$`_{jk}(\mu ,\mu _0)=\delta _{jk}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu )}{2\pi }}_{jk}^{(1)}(\mu ,\mu _0)+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu )}{(2\pi )^2}}_{jk}^{(2)}(\mu ,\mu _0)+O(\alpha _s^3).`$ (2.55)
Performing the integrations in Eq. (2.51), we obtain the desired results for

$`_{jk}^{(1)}`$ $`=`$ $`R_{jk}(\mu ,\mu _0|1){\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _{jk}^{\mathrm{ND}(1)}}{\beta _0}},`$ (2.56)
$`_{jk}^{(2)}`$ $`=`$ $`\left[R_{jk}(\mu ,\mu _0|1)R_{jk}(\mu ,\mu _0|2)\right]\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _j^{(1)}\gamma _k^{(1)}}{\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _1}{2\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _j^{(0)}\gamma _k^{(0)}}{\beta _0}}\right]{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _{jk}^{\mathrm{ND}(1)}}{\beta _0}}`$
$`+R_{jk}(\mu ,\mu _0|2)\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _1}{2\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _{jk}^{\mathrm{ND}(1)}}{\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _{jk}^{\mathrm{ND}(2)}}{\beta _0}}\right]+{\displaystyle \underset{m=k+2}{\overset{j2}{}}}{}_{}{}^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _{jm}^{\mathrm{ND}(1)}}{\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{R_{mk}(\mu ,\mu _0|1)R_{jm}(\mu ,\mu _0|2)}{1+\frac{\gamma _j^{(0)}2\gamma _m^{(0)}+\gamma _k^{(0)}}{\beta _0}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _{mk}^{\mathrm{ND}(1)}}{\beta _0}},`$
where

$`R_{jk}(\mu ,\mu _0|n)={\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{n\beta _0+\gamma _j^{(0)}\gamma _k^{(0)}}}\left[1\left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu _0)}{\alpha _s(\mu )}}\right)^{\frac{n\beta _0+\gamma _j^{(0)}\gamma _k^{(0)}}{\beta _0}}\right].`$ (2.57)
The leading log’s, associated with the diagonal entries, are resummed, while the subleading ones are expanded with respect to $`\alpha _s`$:

$`e^{\left\{_{\mu _0}^\mu \frac{d\mu ^{}}{\mu ^{}}\gamma _k(\mu ^{})\right\}}=\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu )}{\alpha _s(\mu _0)}}\right]^{\frac{\gamma _k^{(0)}}{\beta _0}}\left[1+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu )}{2\pi }}𝒜_k^{(1)}(\mu ,\mu _0)+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu )}{(2\pi )^2}}𝒜_k^{(2)}(\mu ,\mu _0)+O(\alpha _s^3)\right],`$ (2.58)
where

$`𝒜_k^{(1)}(\mu ,\mu _0)`$ $`=`$ $`\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu _0)}{\alpha _s(\mu )}}\right]\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _1}{2\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _k^{(0)}}{\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _k^{(1)}}{\beta _0}}\right],`$ (2.59)
$`𝒜_k^{(2)}(\mu ,\mu _0)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left[𝒜_k^{(1)}(\mu ,\mu _0)\right]^2\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu _0)}{\alpha _s^2(\mu )}}\right]\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _1^2\beta _2\beta _0}{8\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _k^{(0)}}{\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _1}{4\beta _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _k^{(1)}}{\beta _0}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _k^{(2)}}{2\beta _0}}\right].`$
To the considered order, the evolution of the matrix elements then reads

$`\pi (P)|𝒪_{jj}(\mu )|\mathrm{\Omega }^{\mathrm{red}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{j}{}}}{}_{}{}^{}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu )}{\alpha _s(\mu _0)}}\right]_{}^{\frac{\gamma _k^{(0)}}{\beta _0}}\{\delta _{jk}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu )}{2\pi }}[\delta _{jk}𝒜_k^{(1)}+_{jk}^{(1)}](\mu ,\mu _0)+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu )}{(2\pi )^2}}`$
$`\times [\delta _{jk}𝒜_k^{(2)}+_{jk}^{(1)}𝒜_k^{(1)}+_{jk}^{(2)}](\mu ,\mu _0)+O(\alpha _s^3)\}\pi (P)|𝒪_{kk}(\mu _0)|\mathrm{\Omega }^{\mathrm{red}}.`$
The off-diagonal entries are known only at NLO and are given in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme in Eq. (2.19). In the CS scheme, they are proportional to $`\beta _0`$, as given in Eq. (2.23), whereas in the $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ scheme they are equal to zero by definition. Therefore, the mixing of operators is an $`\alpha _s^2`$ suppressed effect:

$`_{jk}^{(1)}=0,`$ (2.61)
$`_{jk}^{(2)}={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}^{(0)}}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _j^{(0)}\gamma _k^{(0)}}{\beta _0+\gamma _j^{(0)}\gamma _k^{(0)}}}[{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0+\gamma _j^{(0)}\gamma _k^{(0)}}{\beta _0}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{\mu _{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}}\right)R_{jk}(\mu ,\mu _0|2)`$
$`+\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{\mu _0^2}}\right)({\displaystyle \frac{R_{jk}(\mu ,\mu _0|2)}{1\frac{\alpha _s(\mu _0)}{\alpha _s(\mu )}}}1)]{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}R_{jk}(\mu ,\mu _0|2)\mathrm{\Delta }^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(1)}_{jk},`$
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}^{(0)}`$ is defined in Eq. (2.24). Here we have taken into account the explicit $`\mu `$–dependence in the anomalous dimensions, induced by the transformation (2.37). The addenda $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(1)}=2\gamma _{jk}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(2)}/\beta _0`$, which is presently unknown, has to be evaluated at $`\mu =\mu ^{}`$. Note that the $`\alpha _s`$–power counting remains correct as long as the scales $`\mu ^{},\mu ,`$ and $`\mu _0`$ are of the order of $`Q\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}`$. The auxiliary scale can now be set, e.g., to $`\mu ^{}=\mu `$.

Let us remark that the evolution of the distribution amplitude can be formally obtained by resummation of the conformal partial waves given in Eq. (2.1). Taking into account the evolution of the reduced matrix element in Eq. (2.4), one finds the eigenfunctions of the evolution equation, expanded with respect to the Gegenbauer polynomials .

## 3 Hard-scattering amplitude to NNLO accuracy

In the preceding section we have outlined the structure of the conformal predictions in the conformal momentum space and in this one we analyze the structure of the NNLO results in the momentum fraction representation. In Section 3.1 we derive a convolution representation of the NNLO term proportional to $`\beta _0`$ and also give the general structure of the hard-scattering amplitude in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme up to the NNLO order. Furthermore, in Section 3.2 we consider the phenomenologically important case of the asymmetry parameter $`|\omega |`$ equal to 1 and in Section 3.3 we then present the NNLO result for the conformal moments in the CS and $`\overline{\text{CS}}`$ schemes. In Section 3.4 we analogously present the results at small and the intermediate values of $`|\omega |`$.

### 3.1 $`\beta _0`$-proportional NNLO terms and the general structure of the NNLO results in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme

First, we consider the term proportional to $`n_f`$, i.e., $`\beta _0`$, appearing in the NNLO calculation of the two-photon hard-scattering amplitude (1.2). For the case of general Bjorken kinematics, the result has been given in Ref.  and is easily restricted to the kinematics of a particular process, i.e., in our case, to the kinematics of the photon-to-pion transition form factor (see Appendix B for the definitions of generalized Bjorken kinematics). In the special case $`|\omega |=1`$ (one photon on-shell), these results coincide with the results from Ref. .

The authors of Ref.  have presented the regularized results in terms of hypergeometric functions $`{}_{2}{}^{}F_{1}^{}`$. It is instructive to rewrite it as a convolution of the amplitude

$`T^{(0)}(\omega ,x|ϵ)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(1\omega (2x1))^{1+ϵ}}},`$ (3.1)
with the kernels

$`v^a(x,y|ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`\theta (yx)\left({\displaystyle \frac{x}{y}}\right)^{1+ϵ}+\left\{{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{x\overline{x}}{y\overline{y}}}\right\},`$ (3.2)
$`v^b(x,y|ϵ)`$ $`=`$ $`\theta (yx)\left({\displaystyle \frac{x}{y}}\right)^{1+ϵ}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{yx}}+\left\{{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{x\overline{x}}{y\overline{y}}}\right\},`$ (3.3)
$`g(x,y|ϵ,\sigma )`$ $`=`$ $`\theta (yx){\displaystyle \frac{1}{y}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{x}{y}}\right)^{1+ϵ+\sigma }\mathrm{B}({\displaystyle \frac{x}{y}},1+\sigma ,ϵ\sigma )+\left\{{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{x\overline{x}}{y\overline{y}}}\right\},`$ (3.4)
where $`\mathrm{B}(x,a,b)=_0^x𝑑yy^{a1}(1y)^{b1}`$ is the incomplete Beta–function. Here $`\sigma `$ and $`ϵ`$ are the dimensional regularization parameters ($`n=42\sigma [ϵ]`$) associated with the quark bubble insertion and the overall loop, respectively. The kernels $`\left[v^a(x,y|ϵ)\right]_+`$ and $`\left[v^b(x,y|ϵ)\right]_+`$ are diagonal with respect to the Gegenbauer–polynomials $`C_j^{3/2+ϵ}(2x1)`$ and they are regularized with the usual $`[\mathrm{}]_+`$ prescription

$`\left[v(x,y)\right]_+=v(x,y)\delta (xy){\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑zv(z,y).`$ (3.5)
Their eigenvalues are

$`v_j^a={\displaystyle \frac{1+ϵ}{(1+j+ϵ)(2+j+ϵ)}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2+ϵ}},v_j^b=2\psi (2+ϵ)2\psi (2+ϵ+j).`$ (3.6)
The $`g`$ kernel is not diagonal with respect to the Gegenbauer–polynomials and is responsible for the apparent breaking of conformal symmetry in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$-scheme. Its expansion

$`g(x,y|ϵ,\sigma )=g(x,y)+g^{}(x,y)ϵ+\dot{g}(x,y)\sigma +O(ϵ^2,\sigma ^2,ϵ\sigma )`$
reads

$`g(x,y)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\theta (yx)}{yx}}\mathrm{ln}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{x}{y}}\right)+\left\{{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{x\overline{x}}{y\overline{y}}}\right\},`$
$`g^{}(x,y)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\theta (yx)}{yx}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{ln}^2\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{x}{y}}\right)+\left\{{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{x\overline{x}}{y\overline{y}}}\right\},`$ (3.7)
$`\dot{g}(x,y)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\theta (yx)}{yx}}\left[\mathrm{Li}_2\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{x}{y}}\right)\mathrm{Li}_2(1)\right]+\left\{{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{x\overline{x}}{y\overline{y}}}\right\}+g^{}(x,y).`$
There is a similar expansion of the $`v^i`$ kernels ($`i=a,b`$)

$`v^i(x,y|ϵ)=v^i(x,y)+\dot{v}^i(x,y)ϵ+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\ddot{v}^i(x,y)ϵ^2+O\left(ϵ^3\right),`$
where

$`v^i(x,y)`$ $`=`$ $`\theta (yx)f^i(x,y)+\left\{{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{x\overline{x}}{y\overline{y}}}\right\},`$
$`\dot{v}^i(x,y)`$ $`=`$ $`\theta (yx)f^i(x,y)\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{x}{y}}\right)+\left\{{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{x\overline{x}}{y\overline{y}}}\right\},`$ (3.8)
$`\ddot{v}^i(x,y)`$ $`=`$ $`\theta (yx)f^i(x,y)\mathrm{ln}^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{x}{y}}\right)+\left\{{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{x\overline{x}}{y\overline{y}}}\right\},`$
and the functions $`f^i`$ can be read off from Eqs. (3.2), (3.3).

The LO kernel of Eq. (1.5) is expressed in terms of the $`v^i`$ kernels introduced above:

$`V^{(0)}(x,y)=C_F\left[v(x,y)\right]_+,v(x,y)=v^a(x,y)+v^b(x,y).`$ (3.9)
For the NLO kernel we use the colour decomposition

$`V^{(1)}(x,y)=C_F\left[C_Fv_F(x,y){\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}v_\beta (x,y)\left(C_F{\displaystyle \frac{C_A}{2}}\right)v_G(x,y)\right]_+.`$ (3.10)
In the following we particularly need the $`\beta _0`$-proportional kernel

$`v_\beta (x,y)=\dot{v}(x,y)+{\displaystyle \frac{5}{3}}v(x,y)+v^a(x,y).`$ (3.11)
The unrenormalized NLO and NNLO corrections to the hard-scattering amplitude are of the form

$`\widehat{T}^{(1)}(\omega ,x)`$ $`=`$ $`C_F\widehat{T}_F^{(1)}(\omega ,x),`$ (3.12)
$`\widehat{T}^{(2)}(\omega ,x)`$ $`=`$ $`C_F\left[C_F\widehat{T}_F^{(2)}(\omega ,x){\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}\widehat{T}_\beta ^{(2)}(\omega ,x)\left(C_F{\displaystyle \frac{C_A}{2}}\right)\widehat{T}_G^{(2)}(\omega ,x)\right].`$
Employing the integral representation of the hypergeometric functions, one can express the regularized results of Ref.

$`\widehat{T}_F^{(1)}(\omega ,x)`$ $`=`$ $`(\omega ,x|ϵ,0),`$ (3.13)
$`\widehat{T}_\beta ^{(2)}(\omega ,x)`$ $`=`$ $`3{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(ϵ)\mathrm{\Gamma }(2ϵ)^2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(42ϵ)}}(\omega ,x|ϵ,ϵ)`$ (3.14)
in terms of convolutions

$`(\omega ,x|ϵ,\sigma )`$ (3.15)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(ϵ+\sigma )\mathrm{\Gamma }(2ϵ)\mathrm{\Gamma }(1ϵ\sigma )}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(32ϵ\sigma )\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+\sigma )}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{4\pi \mu ^2}{Q^2}}\right)^{ϵ+\sigma }{\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑yT^{(0)}(\omega ,y|ϵ+\sigma )`$
$`\times \{{\displaystyle \frac{(1ϵ)(14ϵ3\sigma )}{1+\sigma }}\delta (xy)+{\displaystyle \frac{(1ϵ)[22ϵ(1ϵ)+\sigma (1\sigma )]}{1+\sigma }}v^a(y,x|\sigma )`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{(1ϵ)[2ϵ+2ϵ(ϵ+\sigma )]ϵ\sigma (ϵ+\sigma )}{1ϵ}}(\left[v^b(y,x|\sigma )\right]_+(ϵ+\sigma )\left[g(y,x|ϵ,\sigma )\right]_+)\}.`$
The results given above contain UV and collinear singularities, which are removed by renormalization (introduces the scale $`\mu _r`$) and factorization (at the scale $`\mu _f`$) of collinear singularities. The renormalization procedure in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme (for details see Ref. ) induces the following general structure of NLO and NNLO corrections present in expansion (1.2):

$`T^{(1)}(\omega ,x,Q/\mu _f)`$ $`=`$ $`C_FT_F^{(1)}(\omega ,x)+\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right)\left[T^{(0)}V^{(0)}\right](\omega ,x),`$ (3.16)
$`T^{(2)}(\omega ,x,Q/\mu _f,Q/\mu _r)`$ $`=`$ $`C_F\left[C_FT_F^{(2)}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}T_\beta ^{(2)}\left(C_F{\displaystyle \frac{C_A}{2}}\right)T_G^{(2)}\right](\omega ,x)+\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right)`$
$`\times \left\{T^{(0)}V^{(1)}+\left[C_FT_F^{(1)}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right)T^{(0)}V^{(0)}\right]V^{(0)}\right\}(\omega ,x)`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{\mu _r^2}}\right)T^{(1)}(\omega ,x,Q/\mu _f){\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{4}}\mathrm{ln}^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right)\left[T^{(0)}V^{(0)}\right](\omega ,x),`$
where

$`T_F^{(1)}(\omega ,x)`$ $`=`$ $`T^{(0)}(\omega ,y)\left\{𝒯_F^{(1)}(y,x)+\mathrm{LN}(\omega ,y)[v(y,x)]_+\right\},`$ (3.18)
$`T_F^{(2)}(\omega ,x)`$ $`=`$ $`T^{(0)}(\omega ,y)\{𝒯_F^{(2)}(y,x)+\mathrm{LN}(\omega ,y)([v_F(y,x)]_++𝒯_F^{(1)}[v]_+(y,x))`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{LN}^2(\omega ,y)[v]_+[v]_+(y,x)\},`$
$`T_\beta ^{(2)}(\omega ,x)`$ $`=`$ $`T^{(0)}(\omega ,y)\{𝒯_\beta ^{(2)}(y,x)+\mathrm{LN}(\omega ,y)([v_\beta ]_+𝒯_F^{(1)})(y,x)`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{LN}^2(\omega ,y)[v(y,x)]_+\},`$
$`T_G^{(2)}(\omega ,x)`$ $`=`$ $`T^{(0)}(\omega ,y)\left\{𝒯_G^{(2)}(y,x)+\mathrm{LN}(\omega ,y)[v_G(y,x)]_+\right\},`$ (3.21)
while $`\mathrm{LN}(\omega ,x)=\mathrm{ln}[1+\omega 2x\omega ]`$ and $`T^{(0)}(\omega ,x)`$ is given by Eq. (1.3). For a detailed discussion of the appearance of the $`\mathrm{LN}`$ terms, see Appendix A.

The explicit calculation provides us with the kernels

$`𝒯_F^{(1)}(x,y)`$ $`=`$ $`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}v^b+g\right]_+(x,y){\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}\delta (xy),`$ (3.22)
$`𝒯_\beta ^{(2)}(x,y)`$ $`=`$ $`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{29}{12}}v^a+\dot{v}^a{\displaystyle \frac{209}{36}}v{\displaystyle \frac{7}{3}}\dot{v}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\ddot{v}+{\displaystyle \frac{19}{6}}g+\dot{g}\right]_+(x,y)3\delta (xy).`$ (3.23)
As we see, these $`𝒯`$-kernels are built up of $`v`$ and $`g`$ kernels appearing in the evolution kernel, too. While the $`g`$ and $`\dot{v}`$ kernels appear at NLO, the $`\dot{g}`$ and $`\ddot{v}`$ ones show up for the first time at NNLO. For the missing two entries, namely, $`𝒯_F^{(2)}`$ and $`𝒯_G^{(2)}`$, we expect a similar structure, but with additional and unknown building blocks that are related to the $`g`$-kernel.

Making use of the fact that both the photon-to-pion transition form factor and the forward Compton scattering belong to the class of light-cone dominated two-photon processes, which can be described by a general scattering amplitude, we have performed a consistency check between the previously presented results for the hard-scattering amplitude of the photon-to-pion transition form factor (known up to $`\beta _0`$-proportional NNLO terms) and the corresponding results for the non-singlet coefficient function of the DIS polarized structure function $`g_1`$ . The procedure is presented in detail in Appendix B.

A few comments regarding the $`\mathrm{LN}(\omega ,x)`$ terms are in order. In NLO, we observe that the $`\mathrm{LN}(\omega ,x)`$ term match the $`\mathrm{ln}`$-term indicated in Eq. (3.16), i.e., we can absorb it in Eq. (3.18) by an appropriate choice of the scale:

$`\mu _i^2\stackrel{~}{\mu }_i^2=\mu _i^2\left(1+\omega 2x\omega \right)^1\text{ with }i=\{f,r\}.`$ (3.24)
The explicit NNLO result for the $`\beta `$ proportional terms satisfies the same rule for the scale redefinition, which indicates a general property of the hard-scattering amplitude evaluated in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme. This is shown in Appendix A. The terms proportional to $`\mathrm{LN}(\omega ,x)`$ are vanishing in the limit $`|\omega |0`$ and for $`|\omega |1`$ provide a logarithmic enhancement in the end–point region. However, a resummation of such terms through an appropriate scale setting is misleading, since other logarithmically enhanced terms also appear. For instance, at NLO we have

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}(1y)}{1y}}[v(y,x)]_+={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}^2(1x)+2\mathrm{ln}(1x)}{1x}}+O\left(\mathrm{ln}(1x)\right),`$ (3.25)
while the contribution of $`𝒯_F^{(1)}(x,y)`$ is \[see Eq. (3.22)\]

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1y}}𝒯_F^{(1)}(y,x)={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}^2(1x)+3\mathrm{ln}(1x)+9}{2(1x)}}+O\left(\mathrm{ln}(1x)\right),`$ (3.26)
so that only a partial cancellation of the $`\mathrm{ln}^2(1x)/(1x)`$ term appears.

### 3.2 Limit $`|\omega |1`$ and corresponding conformal moments in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme

Of special interest is the limit $`|\omega |1`$, since different (pseudo-scalar) meson-to-photon transition form factors are measured in this kinematical region. We can trivially perform this limit in Eqs. (1.3), (3.18), and (3.1) and after convolution we present the result in the form of Ref. :

$`T^{(0)}(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2(1x)}},`$ (3.27)
$`T_F^{(1)}(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2(1x)}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{9}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1x}{2x}}\mathrm{ln}(1x)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{ln}^2(1x)\right],`$ (3.28)
$`T_\beta ^{(2)}(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2(1x)}}[{\displaystyle \frac{457}{48}}({\displaystyle \frac{47}{36}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4x}})\mathrm{ln}(1x)+({\displaystyle \frac{13}{12}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4x}})\mathrm{ln}^2(1x)`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{6}}\mathrm{ln}^3(1x){\displaystyle \frac{7}{3}}\mathrm{Li}_2(x)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{Li}_3(x)\mathrm{S}_{12}(x)],`$
where the polylogarithms are defined by

$`\mathrm{Li}_n(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^x}𝑑y{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{Li}_{n1}(y)}{y}},\text{ with }\mathrm{Li}_1(x)=\mathrm{ln}(1x),`$
$`\mathrm{S}_{12}(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle _0^x}𝑑y{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}^2(1y)}{y}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{ln}^2(1x)\mathrm{ln}(x)+\mathrm{ln}(1x)\mathrm{Li}_2(1x)\mathrm{Li}_3(1x)+\zeta (3).`$
Here we introduce for the special case $`|\omega |=1`$ a more convenient notation in which the $`\mathrm{ln}(2)`$ terms arising from the $`\mathrm{LN}(\omega =1,x)`$ functions present in Eqs. (3.18-3.1) are absorbed in $`\mathrm{ln}(2Q^2/\mu _{f,(r)}^2)=\mathrm{ln}(q_1^2/\mu _{f,(r)}^2)`$. We do not list here the terms proportional to these log’s but refer to Ref.  for their explicit expressions.

The conformal moments of the individual terms we encounter in Eqs. (3.27-3.2) are given in Appendix C. Here we list the conformal moments of $`T^{(0)}(x)`$, $`T_F^{(1)}(x)`$, and $`T_\beta ^{(2)}(x)`$ calculated in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme:

$`T_j^{(0)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2j+3}{(j+1)(j+2)}},`$ (3.31)
$`T_{F,j}^{(1)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2j+3}{(j+1)(j+2)}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{9}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{34S_1(j+1)}{2(j+1)(j+2)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(j+1)^2(j+2)^2}}+2S_1^2(j+1)\right],`$ (3.32)
$`T_{\beta ,j}^{(2)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2j+3}{(1+j)(2+j)}}[{\displaystyle \frac{457}{48}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\zeta (3){\displaystyle \frac{7}{3}}\zeta (2)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(j+1)(j+2)}}({\displaystyle \frac{115}{36}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^j}{2}}\zeta (2)`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}S_1(j+1)2S_1^2(j+1)(1)^jS_2(j+1)){\displaystyle \frac{18S_1(j+1)}{2(j+1)^2(j+2)^2}}`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{5}{2(j+1)^3(j+2)^3}}+{\displaystyle \frac{19}{9}}S_1(j+1)+{\displaystyle \frac{10}{3}}S_1^2(j+1)+{\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}S_1^3(j+1)+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}S_3(j+1)].`$
After inspection of Eqs. (3.16) and (3.1) one notes that the conformal moments of the terms proportional to $`\mathrm{ln}(2Q^2/\mu _{f,(r)}^2)`$ can be conveniently expressed using the conformal moments of the kernels $`v`$ and $`v_\beta `$. For the definition of conformal moments of the kernels, we refer to Appendix C, Eq. (C.7). The conformal moments of the diagonal kernel $`[v(x,y)]_+`$, given in Eq. (3.9), are denoted by $`v_jv_{jj}`$:

$`v_j=2S_1(j+1)+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(1+j)(2+j)}}.`$ (3.34)
The conformal moments of $`T^{(0)}[v]_+`$, determined using (C.10), are given by $`T_j^0v_j`$. On the other hand, the kernel $`[v_\beta ]_+`$ in Eq. (3.11) is non-diagonal, and as shown in (C.8), both the diagonal $`v_{\beta ,j}v_{\beta ,jj}`$ as well as the non-diagonal $`v_{\beta ,kj}`$ ($`k>j`$ and $`kj`$ even) conformal moments contribute to the conformal moments of $`T^{(0)}[v_\beta ]_+`$, i.e. one obtains $`_{k>j}T_k^0v_{\beta ,kj}`$. After performing the convolution and making use of the results for the conformal moments summarized in Appendix C, one can express the conformal moment of $`T^{(0)}[v_\beta ]_+`$ in a form $`T_j^0v_{\beta ,j}^\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, where we introduce the “effective” conformal moment of the $`v_\beta `$ kernel amounting to

$$v_{\beta ,j}^\mathrm{\Sigma }=\frac{5}{3}v_j+\zeta (2)\frac{9}{4}\frac{1}{(1+j)^2(2+j)^2}.$$
(3.35)
Finally, we summarize our $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ results. The LO contribution is given in Eq. (3.31), the NLO contribution takes the form

$$T_j^{(1)}=T_{F,j}^{(1)}+\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{2Q^2}{\mu _f^2}\right)\frac{2j+3}{(j+1)(j+2)}v_j,$$
(3.36)
while the $`(\beta _0/2)`$ proportional NNLO term is given by

$`T_{\beta ,j}^{(2)}+\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{2j+3}{(j+1)(j+2)}}\left[v_{\beta ,j}^\mathrm{\Sigma }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right)v_j\right]\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2Q^2}{\mu _r^2}}\right)T_j^{(1)}.`$ (3.37)
Note that owing to the fact that $`v_\beta `$ is non-diagonal, even the lowest partial wave, i.e., $`j=0`$, of the NNLO correction depends on the factorization scale as well as the renormalization one.

### 3.3 NNLO result in the CS and $`\overline{\text{CS}}`$ schemes in the limit $`|\omega |1`$

Let us now turn to the conformal schemes CS and $`\overline{\text{CS}}`$. We make a distinction between the renormalization and factorization scale. Consequently, the argument of the coupling in the Wilson–coefficients depends on $`\mu _r`$ and, as discussed in Section 2.3, we require that the matrix elements of conformal operators depend only on the scale $`\mu _f`$. We use the COPE, where for $`|\omega |=1`$ the Wilson–coefficients (2.2) simplify to

$`\overline{C}_j=c_j(\alpha _s(\mu _r))\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu _f^2}{2Q^2}}\right)^{\frac{\gamma _j}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(j+1)\mathrm{\Gamma }(j+2)\mathrm{\Gamma }(2j+4+\gamma _j)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(j+2+\gamma _j/2)\mathrm{\Gamma }(j+3+\gamma _j/2)\mathrm{\Gamma }(2j+3)}}.`$ (3.38)
The anomalous dimensions are given by

$`\gamma _j`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu _r)}{2\pi }}\gamma _j^{(0)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu _r)}{(2\pi )^2}}\gamma _j^{(1)}+O(\alpha _s^3)`$
$`=`$ $`2\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu _r)}{2\pi }}C_Fv_j+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu _r)}{(2\pi )^2}}C_F\left[C_Fv_{F,j}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}v_{\beta ,j}\left(C_F{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}C_A\right)v_{G,j}\right]+O(\alpha _s^3)\right\},`$
where $`v_j`$, $`v_{F,j}`$, $`v_{G,j}`$, and $`v_{\beta ,j}`$ are the diagonal conformal moments of the evolution kernels $`[v(x,y)]_+`$, $`[v_F(x,y)]_+`$, $`[v_G(x,y)]_+`$ and $`[v_\beta (x,y)]_+`$, respectively, and they coincide with the moments of the DGLAP kernels. The LO moments are given by Eq. (3.34), while other entries can be found in Refs. . Analogously, we decompose the normalization factor

$`c_j=1+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{2\pi }}C_Fc_j^{(1)}+\left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{2\pi }}\right)^2C_F\left[C_Fc_{F,j}^{(2)}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}c_{\beta ,j}^{(2)}\left(C_F{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}C_A\right)c_{G,j}^{(2)}\right]+O\left(\alpha _s^3\right).`$ (3.40)
Its NLO contribution reads

$`c_j^{(1)}`$ $`=`$ $`S_1^2(1+j)+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}S_1(j+2){\displaystyle \frac{9}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{32S_1(j)}{2(j+1)(j+2)}}S_2(j+1),`$ (3.41)
while the NNLO contributions can be determined from the Mellin moments of the coefficient functions calculated from the $`\alpha _s^2`$ corrections to the polarized structure function $`g_1`$ . A consistency check of the $`\beta _0`$ proportional part of these results is given in Appendix B.

As discussed in Section 2.3, the Wilson–coefficients in the CS scheme are obtained in a straightforward manner by means of Eq. (2.3.2), where $`C_{\beta ,j}^{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}(2)}(\alpha _s(\mu _r),Q/\mu _f,Q/\mu _r)`$ is given by the expression (3.37). Taking into account the proper normalization, i.e. identifying $`T^{(i)}`$ with $`C^{(i)}`$ by (2.25), the expansion of $`\overline{C}_j`$, defined by Eq. (3.38), leads to the complete NNLO result for the hard-scattering amplitude:

$`T_j^{\mathrm{CS}}(Q,\mu _f)={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}}{3Q^2}}\left[T_j^{(0)}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu _r)}{2\pi }}T_j^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}(Q/\mu _f)+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu _r)}{(2\pi )^2}}T_j^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}(Q/\mu _f,Q/\mu _r)+O(\alpha _s^3)\right],`$ (3.42)
where

$`T_j^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}`$ $`=`$ $`C_F\left(T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}+{\displaystyle \frac{2j+3}{(j+1)(j+2)}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right)v_j\right),`$ (3.43)
$`T_j^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}`$ $`=`$ $`C_F\{C_FT_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}T_{\beta ,j}^{(2)}(C_F{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}C_A)T_{G,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}+\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{2j+3}{(j+1)(j+2)}}`$ (3.44)
$`\times [C_F(v_{F,j}+c_j^{(1)}v_j+v_j^2(S_1(j+1)+S_1(j+2)2S_1(2j+3))`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{v_j^2}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right)){\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}v_{\beta ,j}^{\mathrm{CS},\mathrm{\Sigma }}(C_F{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}C_A)v_{G,j}]`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2Q^2}{\mu _r^2}}\right)T_j^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}(Q/\mu _f){\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{4}}\mathrm{ln}^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{2Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{2j+3}{(j+1)(j+2)}}v_j\},`$
and

$`T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2j+3}{(j+1)(j+2)}}\left\{c_j^{(1)}+v_j\left[S_1(j+2)+S_1(j+1)2S_1(2j+3)\right]\right\}`$ (3.45)
$`T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2j+3}{(j+1)(j+2)}}\{c_{F,j}^{(2)}+(c_j^{(1)}v_j+v_{F,j})[S_1(j+1)+S_1(j+2)2S_1(2j+3)]`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{v_j^2}{2}}([S_1(j+1)+S_1(j+2)2S_1(2j+3)]^2`$
$`+S_2(j+1)+S_2(j+2)4S_2(2j+3)+2\zeta (2))\},`$
$`T_{G,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2j+3}{(j+1)(j+2)}}\left\{c_{G,j}^{(2)}+v_{G,j}\left[S_1(j+1)+S_1(j+2)2S_1(2j+3)\right]\right\},`$ (3.47)
while $`T_{\beta ,j}^{(2)}`$ corresponds to the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ result given by Eq. (3.2). Note that, in accordance with the renormalization group invariance, the off-diagonal part of the anomalous dimension matrix proportional to $`\beta _0`$ has been changed and, consequently, also the conformal moments

$`v_{\beta ,j}^\mathrm{\Sigma }v_{\beta ,j}^{\mathrm{CS},\mathrm{\Sigma }}=v_{\beta ,j}^\mathrm{\Sigma }+{\displaystyle \frac{(j+1)(j+2)}{2j+3}}\left(T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}T_{F,j}^{(1)}\right).`$ (3.48)
Finally, we present the result for the $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ scheme, in which the conformal covariance of the partial wave decomposition is preserved. The modification concerns only the terms proportional to $`\beta _0`$ in which the off-diagonal entries in Eq. (3.44) are removed by making the following replacements:

$$\begin{array}{ccccc}v_{\beta ,j}^{\mathrm{CS},\mathrm{\Sigma }}\hfill & & v_{\beta ,j},\hfill & & \\ T_{\beta ,j}^{(2)}\hfill & & T_{\beta ,j}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(2)}\hfill & =& \frac{2j+3}{(j+1)(j+2)}\left\{c_{\beta ,j}^{(2)}+v_{\beta ,j}\left[S_1(j+1)+S_1(j+2)2S_1(2j+3)\right]\right\}\hfill \\ & & & & +\mathrm{ln}(2)\left[T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}+T_j^{(0)}\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{ln}(2)v_j\right].\hfill \end{array}$$
(3.49)
The $`\mathrm{ln}(2)`$ terms appear here artificially from the absorption of such terms into the factorization and renormalization log’s, i.e., $`\mathrm{ln}(Q^2/\mu _i^2)\mathrm{ln}(2Q^2/\mu _i^2)\mathrm{ln}(2)`$, see Eq. (2.43). All other expressions in Eqs. (3.433.47) remain unchanged, e.g.,

$`T_j^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(1)}=T_j^{\mathrm{CS}(1)},T_{F,j}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(2)}=T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)},T_{G,j}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(2)}=T_{G,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}.`$ (3.50)
### 3.4 NNLO predictions for small and intermediate values of $`|\omega |`$

Based on numerical observations on the small and intermediate $`|\omega |`$\- behaviour of the transition form factor predicted by perturbation theory, interesting phenomenological aspects have been pointed out in Ref. . Unfortunately, for these configurations both photons are virtual, cf. Eq. (1.1), and thus the statistics is rather low. Therefore, no measurements has been done yet, although they could be possible at the existing $`e^+e^{}`$ machines of the Babar, Belle and CLEO experiments. In the following we want to add some comments on the pion transition form factor in the small and intermediate $`|\omega |`$ regions and to give predictions at NNLO.

From the representation (2.3.1) it follows that the $`j`$th conformal moments for $`|\omega |<1`$ are suppressed by $`\omega ^j`$. In addition, the hypergeometric functions appearing in the Wilson–coefficients are sharply peaked at $`|\omega |=1`$ owing to a logarithmical enhancement caused by the $`\mathrm{ln}[(1\omega )/(1+\omega )]`$ term. For fixed $`|\omega |<1`$, one finds for growing $`j`$ an increasing suppression of the hypergeometrical functions, in addition to the power-like suppression due to $`\omega ^j`$. To study this behaviour in more detail, we employ the integral representation for the hypergeometrical functions:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{2^{j+1+\frac{\gamma _j}{2}}}{(1+\omega )^{j+1+\frac{\gamma _j}{2}}}}{}_{2}{}^{}F_{1}^{}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{j+1+\frac{1}{2}\gamma _j,j+2+\frac{1}{2}\gamma _j}{2(j+2+\frac{1}{2}\gamma _j)}}|{\displaystyle \frac{2\omega }{1+\omega }}\right)`$ (3.51)
$`={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(4+2j+\gamma _j)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(2+j+\gamma _j/2)^2}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑sse^{\frac{s^2}{2}}e^{\frac{1+j+\gamma _j/2}{2}\left\{s^2+\mathrm{ln}(1e^{s^2})\mathrm{ln}(1\omega ^2e^{s^2})\right\}}.`$
To evaluate this integral for large $`j`$, we rely on the saddle point approximation, which is valid as long as the condition

$`\left(j+1+{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _j}{2}}\right)\sqrt{1\omega ^2}>1`$ (3.52)
is satisfied. To clearly illustrate the suppression we mentioned above, we write the Wilson–coefficients in the form

$`\overline{C}_j=c_j(\alpha _s(\mu ),Q/\mu ,{\displaystyle \frac{}{\gamma }})\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{2Q^2}}\right)^{\frac{\gamma _j}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(j+1)\mathrm{\Gamma }(j+2)\mathrm{\Gamma }(2j+4+\gamma _j)\omega ^j}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(j+2+\gamma _j/2)\mathrm{\Gamma }(j+3+\gamma _j/2)\mathrm{\Gamma }(2j+3)}}E_j(\omega |\gamma _j).`$ (3.53)
Consequently, we have the following normalization for the function $`E_j(\omega =1|\gamma _j)=1`$, cf. Eq. (3.38). For $`|\omega |<1`$, the approximation

$`E_j(\omega |\gamma _j){\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{\pi }\sqrt{2\left(j+1+\frac{\gamma _j}{2}\right)\sqrt{1\omega ^2}}}{2\sqrt{1+\sqrt{1\omega ^2}}}}\mathrm{exp}\left\{\left(j+1+{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma _j}{2}}\right)\mathrm{ln}\left(1+\sqrt{1\omega ^2}\right)\right\}`$ (3.54)
shows an exponential decrease for $`(j+1)\mathrm{ln}(1+\sqrt{1\omega ^2})>\sqrt{2}`$ . The value of $`E_j(\omega |\gamma _j)`$ is then smaller than $`1/2`$. Note that perturbative corrections due to the anomalous dimensions, which are positive and grow logarithmically with $`j`$, give a logarithmical enhancement of this behaviour. In the case of rather small $`|\omega |`$, the suppression factor is proportional to $`2^{j1}\sqrt{j+1}`$, which affects even the lowest partial wave $`j=2`$. The suppression is already larger than 80% for given $`j6`$ as long as the inequality $`1|\omega |>4/(j+1)^2`$ is satisfied. Increasing $`|\omega |`$ will then abruptly increase the value of $`E_j`$ to reach the $`E_j=1`$ limit. To finish this general discussion, we estimate the partial wave that will be suppressed by a factor $`=E_j(\omega )1/e`$ depending on $`\omega `$:

$`j+1\left[{\displaystyle \frac{W_1\left(\frac{4^2(1+\sqrt{1\omega ^2})\mathrm{ln}(1+\sqrt{1\omega ^2}}{\pi \sqrt{1\omega ^2}}\right)}{2\mathrm{ln}(1+\sqrt{1\omega ^2})}}\right]\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}\left(4^2/\pi \right)}{4(1|\omega |)}}\right]`$ (3.55)
where $`W_1(x)`$ is the product log function that is real valued in the region $`0x1/e`$.

To estimate the contribution of the first few non-vanishing partial waves, we first consider the conformal moments $`\pi (P)|𝒪_{jj}(\mu _f)|\mathrm{\Omega }^{\mathrm{red}}=6N_jB_j`$. The distribution amplitude vanishes at the end–points  and from this behaviour it follows that $`N_jB_j`$ vanishes at $`j\mathrm{}`$:

$`\varphi (x)(1x)^ϵ\text{for}x16N_jB_jj^ϵ\text{for}j\mathrm{}\text{with}ϵ>0.`$ (3.56)
We want to add that different non-perturbative estimates, based on a lattice calculation, sum rules or a model calculation give quite different values of $`6N_2B_2`$ at a scale $`Q1`$ GeV, varying from $`1`$ to $`+1`$. Here the lower bound stems from a preliminary lattice calculation , while the upper one arises from sum rule estimates  and is also compatible with previous lattice calculations (see  for references). There are other estimates that favour a rather small value of $`B_2`$. This suggests that the absolute size of the lowest few conformal moments $`6N_jB_j`$ are of the order one or even smaller. In the following estimates we consider them of the order one, which serves us as an upper bound for the contribution of the $`j`$th partial wave to the transition form factor.

In the small $`|\omega |`$ region, i.e., $`|\omega |<0.4`$, the lowest partial wave contributes essentially. In LO the relative contribution of the second and the forth partial wave with respect to the first one is for $`|\omega |=0.2(0.4)`$ about $`0.08(2.3)\%`$ and $`0.004(0.05)\%`$, respectively. The $`\omega ^2`$ term of the zeroth partial wave varies in the same order as the relative correction to the second partial wave, which is in addition suppressed by a relative factor of 2/3. Thus, in the small $`|\omega |`$ region perturbative QCD provides us an (almost) parameter free, factorization scheme independent prediction:

$`F_{\gamma \pi }(\omega ,Q){\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}f_\pi }{3Q^2}}c_0(\alpha _s(\mu _r),Q/\mu _r)\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{\omega ^2}{5}}+O(\omega ^4)\right)\text{for}|\omega |<0.4.`$ (3.57)
The phenomenological consequences are obvious, since this prediction is practically independent of $`\omega `$ and its logarithmical $`Q^2`$ dependence is governed only by the running of the coupling.

For intermediate values of $`|\omega |`$, defined as $`0.4|\omega |<0.8`$, the second partial wave contributes between 2% and 13%, while the fourth one is at least more than five times suppressed with respect to the second one. Increasing $`|\omega |`$ to the value $`0.95`$, the relative contribution of the second and fourth partial wave grows to $`25\%`$ and $`10\%`$, respectively, while the sixth (eighth) partial wave contributes at the $`4\%(2\%)`$ level. It is illustrative to compare these numbers with the suppression arising in the limit $`|\omega |1`$ in which the contribution amounts to $`39\%,24\%,18\%,14\%`$ for $`j=2,4,6,8`$ partial waves, respectively.

As we have realized,only the first two non-vanishing partial waves are essential for an intermediate value of $`|\omega |`$. It could, therefore, be justified to employ the Taylor expansion of the hypergeometric functions at $`\omega =0`$ and hence, the transition form factor reads in the $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ scheme

$`F_{\gamma \pi }(\omega ,Q)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}f_\pi }{3Q^2}}[c_0\{1+{\displaystyle \frac{\omega ^2}{5}}+{\displaystyle \frac{3\omega ^4}{35}}\}+c_2\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^2}{Q^2}}\right)^{\frac{\gamma _2}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2\omega ^2}{15}}\{1+{\displaystyle \frac{(8+\gamma _2)(6+\gamma _2)}{8(9+\gamma _2)}}\omega ^2\}`$ (3.58)
$`\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}6}N_2B_2(\mu ^2)+O(\omega ^6)],\text{for}0.4|\omega |<0.8,`$
where the Wilson–coefficient $`c_2(\alpha _s(\mu ),\frac{Q}{\mu },\frac{}{\gamma _j})`$ is defined by Eq. (2.43) to NNLO accuracy and a consequent expansion in $`\alpha _s`$ should be done to this accuracy. For $`|\omega |=0.8`$, the higher-order terms in $`O(\omega ^6)`$ contribute at the 2% and 20% level for the $`j=0`$ and $`j=2`$ partial wave, respectively. These contributions can be reduced by a factor of two \[four\] by taking the order $`\omega ^6`$ \[$`\omega ^8`$\] corrections into account. For larger values of $`|\omega |`$, the convergence of the Taylor expansion at $`\omega =0`$ is rather slow for higher partial waves. For instance, to approximate the third non-vanishing partial wave at $`|\omega |=0.9`$ to an accuracy of better than 10%, one has to take into account the first ten non-vanishing terms, i.e., up to $`O(\omega ^{24})`$.

For ultra-large values of $`|\omega |`$, let us say $`|\omega |>0.95`$, partial waves with higher conformal spin start to contribute with increasing $`|\omega |`$. However, as we have discussed, as long as we do not reach the $`|\omega |1`$ limit, there will be an exponential suppression for higher values of $`j`$. Note that this limit can never be reached in any experiment at an $`e^+e^{}`$ machine, where the mean value of the virtuality of the untagged photon is set by the electron mass and there are further kinematical restrictions arising from the detector geometry and kinematical cuts. Just for illustration, we would like to mention that for $`|\omega |=0.99`$ and $`|\omega |=0.999`$, the contributions of the 12th and 38th partial waves are reduced by a factor $`1/e0.37`$ compared to their contributions in the limit $`|\omega |1`$, while higher ones start to be exponentially suppressed, since the $`(j+1)\mathrm{ln}(1+\sqrt{1\omega ^2})>\sqrt{2}`$ condition is fulfilled.

We now present the general result of the photon-to-pion transition form factor for $`|\omega |<1`$ in its expanded form to the NNLO approximation. Notation analogous to that in Eqs. (3.42) will be used and the Taylor expansions in $`\omega ^2`$ for the contributing terms of the first five non-vanishing partial waves are listed in Appendix D. At leading order the hypergeometrical functions can be expressed in terms of elementary arctanh functions555The result can be expressed in terms of $`\mathrm{ln}`$ functions by means of $`\mathrm{arctanh}(\omega )=1/2\mathrm{ln}[(1+\omega )/(1\omega )]`$., e.g.,

$`T_0^{(0)}(\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2\omega ^2}}\left[1(1\omega ^2){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{arctanh}(\omega )}{\omega }}\right],`$ (3.59)
$`T_2^{(0)}(\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{7}{24\omega ^2}}\left[1513\omega ^2(56\omega ^2+\omega ^4){\displaystyle \frac{3\mathrm{a}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{h}(\omega )}{\omega }}\right],`$
and the expansion in $`\omega `$ is given in (D). The radiative corrections for $`\omega 0`$ depend on the factorization scheme even for the lowest partial waves. In comparison with Eqs. (3.43) and (3.44), here we will not include $`\mathrm{ln}(2)`$ terms in the factorization and renormalization log’s, i.e. instead of $`2Q^2`$ we rather employ the underlying scale $`Q^21/z^2`$ of the OPE of two currents at the distance $`z`$. Thus, we have for the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme the NLO result (3.16)

$`T_j^{(1)}(\omega ,Q/\mu _f)`$ $`=`$ $`C_F\left(T_{F,j}^{(1)}(\omega )+T_j^{(0)}(\omega )\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right)v_j\right),`$ (3.60)
and analogous one for the CS scheme. Note that in comparison to this notation the definitions of conformal moments in the $`|\omega |1`$ limit, Eqs. (3.32) and (3.45), differ by a $`\mathrm{ln}(2)`$ proportional term:

$`\underset{\omega 1}{lim}T_{F,j}^{(1)}(\omega )=T_{F,j}^{(1)}+\mathrm{ln}(2)T_j^{(0)}v_j,\underset{\omega 1}{lim}T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}(\omega )=T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}+\mathrm{ln}(2)T_j^{(0)}v_j.`$ (3.61)
Expanding the $`T^{(0)}(\omega )\mathrm{LN}^i(\omega )`$ terms in Eq. (3.18) provides after convolution with the corresponding kernels the desired result in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme (D.8). In the considered order of $`\omega ^2`$, it coincides with the result of Ref. . The result in the CS scheme can be easily derived by expanding Eqs. (2.2) in order $`\alpha _s`$:

$`T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}(\omega )=\left[c^{(1)}v_js_j^{(1)}(\omega )\right]T_j^{(0)}(\omega ),`$ (3.62)
where $`c^{(1)}`$ and $`v_j`$ are given by Eqs. (3.41) and (3.34), respectively, and $`s_j^{(i)}(\omega )`$ is defined by the expansion

$`{\displaystyle \frac{{}_{2}{}^{}F_{1}^{}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{j+1+ϵ,j+2+ϵ}{2(j+2+ϵ)}|\frac{2\omega }{1+\omega }\right)}{(1+\omega )^{j+1+ϵ}}}=\left[1+s_j^{(1)}(\omega )ϵ+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}s_j^{(2)}(\omega )ϵ^2+O(ϵ^3)\right]{\displaystyle \frac{{}_{2}{}^{}F_{1}^{}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{j+1,j+2}{2(j+2)}|\frac{2\omega }{1+\omega }\right)}{(1+\omega )^{j+1}}}.`$ (3.63)
The corresponding expansions of $`s_j^{(1)}`$ and $`s_j^{(2)}`$ in $`\omega ^2`$ are given for $`j=2,4,6,8`$ (because of current conservation $`v_0=0`$ and, consequently, $`j=0`$ term does not contribute) given in Eqs. (D) and (D), respectively. The NNLO contribution in the CS scheme we write analogously to Eq. (3.44) as

$`T_j^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}(\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`C_F\{C_FT_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}(\omega ){\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}T_{\beta ,j}^{(2)}(\omega )(C_F{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}C_A)T_{G,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}(\omega )+\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right)T_j^{(0)}(\omega )`$
$`\times [C_F(v_{F,j}+c_j^{(1)}v_jv_j^2s_j^{(1)}(\omega )+{\displaystyle \frac{v_j^2}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right)){\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}v_{\beta ,j}^{\mathrm{CS},\mathrm{\Sigma }}(\omega )`$
$`(C_F{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}C_A)v_{G,j}]+{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{\mu _r^2}}\right)T_j^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}(\omega ,Q/\mu _f){\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{4}}\mathrm{ln}^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right)T_j^{(0)}(\omega )v_j\}.`$
In comparison to the definitions in Eqs. (3.3), (3.47), and (3.2), one has again to take care of $`\mathrm{ln}(2)`$ terms by means of the following correspondences:

$`\underset{\omega 1}{lim}T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}(\omega )=T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}+\mathrm{ln}(2)T_j^{(0)}\left[v_{F,j}+c_j^{(1)}v_jv_j^2\left(s_j^{(1)}(\omega =1)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{ln}(2)\right)\right],`$
$`\underset{\omega 1}{lim}T_{G,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}(\omega )=T_{G,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}+\mathrm{ln}(2)T_j^{(0)}v_{G,j},`$ (3.65)
$`\underset{\omega 1}{lim}T_{\beta ,j}^{(1)}(\omega )=T_{\beta ,j}^{(1)}+\mathrm{ln}(2)\left[T_j^{(0)}v_{\beta ,j}^{\mathrm{CS},\mathrm{\Sigma }}T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{ln}(2)T_j^{(0)}v_j\right],`$
and similarly for the quantities in the $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ scheme. Here we have also employed the identity (D.7). For $`T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}(\omega )`$ and $`T_{G,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}(\omega )`$, the expansion of the Wilson–coefficients (2.2) gives

$`T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}(\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`T_j^{(0)}(\omega )\left\{c_{F,j}^{(2)}\left(c_j^{(1)}v_j+v_{F,j}\right)s_j^{(1)}(\omega )+{\displaystyle \frac{v_j^2}{2}}s_j^{(2)}(\omega )\right\},`$ (3.66)
$`T_{G,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}(\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`T_j^{(0)}(\omega )\left\{c_{G,j}^{(2)}v_{G,j}s_j^{(1)}(\omega )\right\}.`$ (3.67)
The conformal moments proportional to $`\beta _0`$, are obtained from the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ result given by Eq. (3.1). The expansion in $`\omega ^2`$ of the term $`T_{\beta ,j}^{(2)}`$ is given by (D.9). As in the $`|\omega |=1`$ case (see the discussion of expression (3.35)), we define the conformal moments of $`T^{(0)}(\omega )\left[v_\beta \right]_+`$ by $`T_j^{(0)}(\omega )v_{\beta ,j}^\mathrm{\Sigma }(\omega )`$. Note that the “effective”conformal moment $`v_{\beta ,j}^\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ now depends on $`\omega `$ and its expansion in $`\omega ^2`$ is given in (D.10). Analogously to Eq. (3.48), $`v_{\beta ,j}^{\mathrm{CS},\mathrm{\Sigma }}(\omega )`$ is provided by

$`v_{\beta ,j}^{\mathrm{CS},\mathrm{\Sigma }}(\omega )=v_{\beta ,j}^\mathrm{\Sigma }(\omega )+{\displaystyle \frac{T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}(\omega )T_{F,j}^{(1)}(\omega )}{T_j^{(0)}(\omega )}},`$ (3.68)
and the expansion can easily be obtained by means of Eqs. (3.62), (D), and (D.8).

The $`\beta _0`$ proportional NNLO terms in the $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ scheme are obtained by making the replacements

$`T_{\beta ,j}^{(2)}(\omega )T_{\beta ,j}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(2)}(\omega )=T_j^{(0)}(\omega )\left\{c_{\beta ,j}^{(2)}v_{\beta ,j}s_j^{(1)}(\omega )\right\}\text{and}v_{\beta ,j}^{\mathrm{CS},\mathrm{\Sigma }}v_{\beta ,j}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}}=v_{\beta ,j}T_j^{(0)}(\omega ),`$ (3.69)
while the other terms remain the same as in the CS scheme.

## 4 Radiative corrections to the photon-to-pion transition form factor

This section is devoted to a model independent study of radiative corrections to the pion-to-photon transition form factor in the case of one quasi-real photon ($`|\omega |1`$) and in the small and intermediate $`|\omega |`$-regions. We also illustrate how the perturbative QCD approach to exclusive processes can be tested in a novel way by a sum rule and how the two lowest non-trivial conformal moments of the pion-distribution amplitude could be extracted from experimental data in the intermediate $`|\omega |`$-region.

In Section 4.1 we briefly review the features of the radiative corrections to the first few conformal moments of the hard-scattering amplitude in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ and CS schemes to NLO. We point out that asymptotic formulas with respect to the conformal spin $`j+1`$ provide a very good approximation of these moments in question for a rather low value of $`j4`$. As a byproduct, we propose a simple method for reconstructing the amplitude from its conformal moments, which is outlined in Appendix E.

In Section 4.2 we present the numerical values of the NNLO corrections to the first five non-vanishing conformal moments of the hard–scattering amplitude in the CS and $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ schemes. We point out their general features and discuss different possibilities for treating the $`\beta _0`$ terms. In particular, we consider the lowest conformal partial wave and compare its contribution to the photon-to-pion transition form factor with experimental data. We study the influence of radiative corrections to the sum rule and show that higher-order corrections will interfere only slightly in the extraction of the two lowest non-trivial conformal moments of the distribution amplitude.

### 4.1 Features of radiative corrections at NLO

Let us first compare the NLO corrections in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ and CS schemes for $`|\omega |1`$. The first ten non-vanishing moments $`T_{F,j}^{(1)}`$ and $`T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}`$, given by Eqs. (3.32) and (3.45), are shown in Table 1. From this table we realize that the main difference between the two schemes is in the first two moments which differ by about 50%, and in a seemingly faster decrease of the moments in the CS scheme for large $`j`$. Indeed, in the large $`j`$ asymptotics the leading terms are

$`T_{F,j}^{(1)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2j+3}{(j+1)(j+2)}}\left\{2S_1(1+j)^2{\displaystyle \frac{9}{2}}+O\left((j+2)^1\right)\right\},`$ (4.1)
$`T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2j+3}{(j+1)(j+2)}}\left\{S_1(1+j)\left[S_1(1+j)+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}+4\mathrm{ln}(2)\right]{\displaystyle \frac{9}{2}}\zeta (2)3\mathrm{ln}(2)+O\left((j+2)^1\right)\right\}.`$
Taking into account the large $`j`$ asymptotics of the $`S_1`$ functions, given by

$`\underset{j\mathrm{}}{lim}S_1(1+j)=\mathrm{ln}(2+j)+\gamma _\mathrm{E},`$ (4.2)
the ratio $`T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}/T_{F,j}^{(1)}`$ slowly approaches 1/2. The difference is caused by the (infinite) resummation of off-diagonal terms in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme. The asymptotic formulas (4.1) have a relative error of less than 2% already for $`j4`$. Thus, by knowing a few lowest moments and their asymptotics we gain a complete insight into the radiative corrections for $`|\omega |=1`$. In Appendix E we use this result to make an approximate reconstruction of the hard-scattering amplitude in the momentum fraction representation from its conformal moments. The consequence of the logarithmical behaviour in Eq. (4.2) is obviously an increase of radiative corrections with growing conformal spin. It is shown in Table 3 that already for $`j=8`$, radiative corrections are of the size of $`80\%`$ for $`\alpha _s/\pi 0.1`$ (i.e., $`\mu _r2`$ GeV for one-loop $`\alpha _s`$ with $`n_f=3`$). From this point of view, one might conclude that perturbation theory breaks down for rather large values of $`j`$. Fortunately, higher conformal spin contributions are suppressed by the non-perturbative input, see Eq. (3.56), and so perturbative QCD remains applicable. In the photon-to-pion transition form factor there might be also a cancellation of the lowest partial wave with the remainder, which is due to their relative minus sign. Of course, the net contribution of radiative corrections depends on the model of the distribution amplitude itself.

With decreasing $`|\omega |`$, higher conformal partial waves are starting to be exponentially suppressed, and as we have shown in Section 3.4, radiative corrections logarithmically enhance this suppression. Also note that off-diagonal contributions to each partial wave, which are relatively suppressed by powers of $`\omega ^2`$ with respect to the diagonal ones, are becoming small. If we approach the equal virtuality case, i.e., $`\omega =0`$, only a factorization scheme independent constant, arising from the lowest partial wave, will survive. Thus, by decreasing $`|\omega |`$ the differences between the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ and CS schemes must be washed out. In Table 1 we illustrate these effects for $`|\omega |=0.8`$. For the two lowest non-vanishing partial waves the differences between these two schemes is reduced to about $`\pm 14\%`$ and for higher ones below 2%. Also in the CS scheme the contributions from the functions $`s^{(i)}(\omega )=O(\omega ^2)`$, cf. Eq. (3.63), are power suppressed. So one expects from Eq. (3.62) that radiative corrections due to the normalization factors $`c_j^{(i)}`$ are the essential ones, but with one exception. Since the coefficient $`c_2^{(1)}`$ is relatively small compared to the anomalous dimension $`\gamma _2^{(1)}`$, $`O(\omega ^2)`$ corrections remain important for the second partial wave in the intermediate $`|\omega |`$ region.

### 4.2 Predictions to NNLO accuracy

#### 4.2.1 The quasi-real photon limit

We now turn to the discussion of NNLO effects in the CS and $`\overline{\text{CS}}`$ schemes starting with the limit $`|\omega |1`$. In Table 2 we present the numerical values of the Wilson–coefficients $`T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}`$, $`T_{G,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}`$, $`T_{\beta ,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}=T_{\beta ,j}^{(2)}`$, and $`T_{\beta ,j}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(2)}`$ corresponding to Eqs. (3.3), (3.47), (3.2), and (3.49), respectively. The values of $`T_{F,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}`$, $`T_{G,j}^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}`$, and $`T_{\beta ,j}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(2)}`$ have been obtained by means of the NNLO result for the deep inelastic scattering structure function $`g_1`$ .

Let us investigate in more detail the contribution of the lowest partial wave to the transition form factor, which is scheme dependent for $`\omega 0`$ and for $`|\omega |=1`$ reads:

* in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme:

$`F_{\gamma \pi }(Q)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}f_\pi }{2Q^2}}\{1{\displaystyle \frac{5}{3}}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu _r)}{\pi }}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu _r)}{\pi ^2}}[\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}(1.811+{\displaystyle \frac{5}{6}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2Q^2}{\mu _r^2}}\right)`$
$`\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0.285}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right))]+O(\alpha _s^3)\},`$
* in the CS scheme:

$`F_{\gamma \pi }(Q)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}f_\pi }{2Q^2}}\{1{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu _r)}{\pi }}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu _r)}{\pi ^2}}[0.917{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}(1.811+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2Q^2}{\mu _r^2}}\right)`$
$`+\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0.048}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2Q^2}{\mu _f^2}}\right))]+O(\alpha _s^3)\},`$
* in the $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ scheme:

$`F_{\gamma \pi }(Q)={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}f_\pi }{2Q^2}}\left\{1{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu _r)}{\pi }}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu _r)}{\pi ^2}}\left[0.917{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _0}{2}}\left(1.347+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2Q^2}{\mu _r^2}}\right)\right)\right]+O(\alpha _s^3)\right\}.`$ (4.5)

For $`\alpha _s(\mu _r^2)/\pi =0.1`$, the ratio of the NLO to the LO contribution is $`17\%`$ in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme, and $`10\%`$ in the CS scheme. This difference arises from the fact that in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme off-diagonal terms of the hard-scattering amplitude are resummed. In Eq. (4.2.1) we see that the $`\mathrm{ln}(2Q^2/\mu _f^2)`$ term is rather small compared to the $`\mathrm{ln}(2Q^2/\mu _r^2)`$ one. This is even more the case in the CS scheme, while in the $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ scheme the $`\mathrm{ln}(2Q^2/\mu _f^2)`$ term vanishes completely, since all off-diagonal entries in the NLO evolution have been removed. The sign alternating series of the $`\beta _0`$ non-proportional terms is due to the Sudakov effect, see Ref.  for a detailed discussion.

Since factorization scale changing effects in the hard scattering amplitude are for the lowest partial wave quite small and since they will be compensated by the evolution of the non-perturbative part (see Section 2.4), we set $`\mu _f^2=2Q^2`$ in the following and discuss the scale setting of the residual $`\mu _r`$ dependence. First, let us equate $`\mu _r^2=2Q^2`$:

$$F_{\gamma \pi }(Q)=\frac{\sqrt{2}f_\pi }{2Q^2}[1\frac{\alpha _s(2Q^2)}{\pi }\left\{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{7.23}{5.14}\right\}\frac{\alpha _s^2(2Q^2)}{\pi ^2}+O(\alpha _s^3)]\text{for}\{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\text{CS}}{\overline{\text{CS}}}\text{-scheme}.$$
(4.6)
Hence, for $`\alpha _s(\mu _r^2)/\pi =0.1`$, the ratio of the NNLO to the LO contribution is $`7.2\%`$ and $`5.1\%`$, and the ratio of the NNLO to the NLO contribution (the measure of the convergence of the perturbative QCD expansion) is $`70\%`$ and $`50\%`$, in the CS and $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ schemes, respectively.

The main part of these rather large NNLO contributions arises from the $`\beta _0`$-proportional term. Owing to the off-diagonal parts, it is larger by about a factor of two in the CS scheme than in the $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ scheme. It is appealing to resum this large contribution by the Brodsky–Lepage–McKenzie proposal  (for application to exclusive processes see also ), in which all terms proportional to $`\beta `$ are absorbed in the coupling by the scale setting $`\mu _r=\mu _{\mathrm{BLM}}`$:

$$F_{\gamma \pi }(Q)=\frac{\sqrt{2}f_\pi }{2Q^2}\left\{1\frac{\alpha _s(\mu _{\mathrm{BLM}})}{\pi }+0.92\frac{\alpha _s^2(\mu _r)}{\pi ^2}+O(\alpha _s^3)\right\},$$
(4.7)
with

$`\mu _{\mathrm{BLM}}^2=2Q^2\left\{{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{1/37.43}{1/14.78}}\right\}\text{for}\{{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{CS}}{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}}}\text{-scheme}.`$ (4.8)
The ratio of the NNLO to the NLO coefficient is now only minus one and reflects the Sudakov effect in the conformal theory. However, as we realize, combining the COPE result with the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ result of the $`\beta _0`$-proportional piece induces a rather low scale. For instance, for $`2Q^2=4\text{GeV}^2`$ we have $`\mu _{\mathrm{BLM}}^20.1\text{GeV}^2`$ in the CS scheme and hence the non-perturbative behaviour of the coupling is needed. If we completely remove the off-diagonal terms, the BLM scale squared is enlarged by a factor of $`2.7`$ and is now closer to that in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme  given in Table 4. What one is actually doing here is to combine perturbative QCD with speculations about the non-perturbative behaviour of the QCD coupling and so, strictly speaking, one is leaving the perturbative ground on which the whole analysis was based. However, one advantage of this proposal is that the result predicted by conformal symmetry is recovered if we consequently assume a hypothetical fixed-point of the $`\beta `$-function during our considerations. What we in fact do by the freezing of the coupling, is to assume that this non-perturbative fixed-point is at $`Q^2=0`$.

In Fig. 1 we compare the experimental data from the CLEO experiment with the prediction arising from the lowest conformal moment, the only one that survives in the asymptotic limit $`Q^2\mathrm{}`$. Without further considerations, we assume, as has also been done in the employed method of data extraction (see Section 3 of Ref. ), that the quasi-real photon limit has been reached. The prediction for the asymptotically large $`Q^2`$ in this $`|\omega |1`$ limit is displayed as a dotted line. As we have discussed, radiative corrections reduce the size of this prediction for realistic values of $`Q^2`$. The dash-dotted line represent the NLO and the solid line the NNLO prediction for the standard $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ definition of the coupling in the corresponding approximation with the normalization $`\alpha _s(\mu _r=M_Z)=0.118`$. The dashed line is the prediction for the BLM scale setting and accumulates non-perturbative effects by freezing the coupling to $`\alpha _s(\mu _r=0)=0.6`$ by adding an effective gluon mass. Let us note that the scale setting ambiguities at $`2Q^2=1\mathrm{GeV}^2`$ are of the order of $`20\%`$ if we vary the renormalization scale $`\mu _r^2`$ from $`0.5\mathrm{GeV}^2`$ to $`2\mathrm{GeV}^2`$. This ambiguity can be further reduced by going to higher orders in $`\alpha _s`$.

This comparison shows that theoretical uncertainties due to higher order radiative corrections and scale setting ambiguities are much smaller than the error of the experimental data. At larger value of $`Q^2`$ there is no significant contribution of higher partial waves. However, there is a significant discrepancy of the results in Fig. 1 in the region $`0.5\mathrm{GeV}^2<2Q^2<2\mathrm{GeV}^2`$, which may indicate the presence of higher partial waves. Since evolution effects in this kinematical region are rather strong, we could employ them to pin down the size of higher partial waves. However, the question arises: Can we in this kinematical window rely on the leading twist result?

By considering the size of power suppressed contributions, we will now argue that the answer to this question is positive. Since the (local) matrix elements of any operator appearing in the OPE can only be built with the momentum four-vectors $`P`$, Lorentz covariance immediately tells us that power suppressed contributions are of even power in $`Q`$. The only dimensional parameters that can appear are the mass of the pion $`m_\pi 0.14\mathrm{GeV}`$ and the QCD scale parameter $`\mathrm{\Lambda }0.2\mathrm{GeV}`$. Assuming that multi–partonic correlation functions will not have a strong numerical enhancement, we expect that the contributions proportional to $`m_\pi ^2`$ will provide a relative correction of the order of $`0.02\mathrm{GeV}^2/2Q^2`$. The size of the remaining non-perturbative corrections arises from ambiguities in summing the perturbative series and can be estimated in the framework of renormalons. In the conformal scheme, we might again borrow the results from the analysis of the coefficient of the structure function $`g_1`$, which gives for the lowest moment an uncertainty of a similar size, see Ref.  and references therein. Thus, we might conclude that the non-perturbative effects to the contribution of the zero partial wave are smaller than $`10\%`$ at a scale of $`2Q^21\mathrm{GeV}^2`$. Certainly, this rather optimistic speculation should be confronted with other methods used. The lowest conformal moments of twist-four quark-gluon-quark operators have been obtained by means of QCD sum rules . Here it has been found that, relative to $`m_\pi ^2`$, a certain matrix element is numerically enhanced by a factor of ten. This certainly would strike our point of view and indicate that the so-called Wandzura-Wilczek approximation, in which higher multi-parton correlations are neglected, fails. Renormalon induced corrections have been studied in a model-dependent way in Ref. , where their relative size has been estimated to be $`0.2\mathrm{GeV}^2/2Q^2`$. Note, however, that in this analysis excitations of higher conformal partial waves have been included. Making it short, we stress that the estimate of higher twist-contributions has to be made in a consistent framework that is set by the scheme in which one started. Combining estimates from different approaches is a popular but rather awkward procedure.

In this process with a quasi-real photon higher partial waves are summed. Even if the $`|\omega |1`$ limit is not reached in the experiment, a rather large number of terms will contribute. Without any knowledge about the shape of the distribution amplitude, it is a rather vague assumption to truncate this series by hand to extract the values of the lowest partial waves from the normalization of the pion-to-pion transition form factor. Figure 1 clearly shows that the dominant contribution, at least for $`2Q^2>2\mathrm{GeV}^2`$, arises from the lowest partial wave and the remainder is small. The fact that the contributions of higher partial waves cancel each other is not excluded and it remains a claim that the asymptotic shape of the distribution amplitude is established by experimental data. In principle, one can gain more information on the remainder if one also employs the evolution of the distribution amplitude. However, even if rather high precision data are available, the deconvolution problem is not easy to solve. As we have already mentioned, at NLO the perturbative correction will increase with growing conformal spin. The same tendency can be read off from Table 3 also in NNLO, where the $`\beta _0`$ proportional term is the dominant one. This is also reflected by the decrease of the BLM scale as shown in Table 4, where we can also see that the remaining corrections at NNLO are moderate. Note that the BLM scale is rather low for $`2j`$ in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ and CS schemes, which is due to off-diagonal terms.

#### 4.2.2 What can we learn from the small and intermediate $`|\omega |`$ regions ?

As it has been clearly spelt out in Ref.  and explained in a more general way in Section 3.4, the small $`|\omega |`$ region is suitable for a novel test of the perturbative QCD approach to the class of exclusive light-cone dominated processes. As we noted in Section 4.1, for decreasing $`|\omega |`$ the differences between different schemes will decrease too. This is illustrated for $`|\omega |=0.8`$ in Tables 5 and 6. For the lowest \[second\] partial wave we have about a $`40\%`$ $`[10\%]`$ effect at NNLO compared to NLO or a $`4\%`$ $`[<1\%]`$ correction compared to LO for $`\mu _r^2=\mu _f^2=Q^2`$ and $`\alpha _s/\pi 0.1`$. Altogether, we find $`15\%`$ reduction of the LO prediction for the lowest partial wave and an increase of about $`7\%`$ and $`33\%`$ for the second and fourth one, respectively. The main part of the NNLO corrections arises from the $`\beta _0`$ proportional term. Its absorption in the running coupling via the BLM scale setting prescription again requires the knowledge of the non-perturbative behaviour of $`\alpha _s`$. Table 6 shows that then a sign change occurs at NNLO, where the BLM scale for the second partial wave is quite low and its remaining NNLO correction is rather large.

Certainly, the resummation of the $`\beta `$ proportional corrections is associated with a new input that is not well known. Thus, in the following discussion concerning the extraction of non-perturbative conformal moments of the distribution amplitude we prefer the naive scale setting prescription $`\mu _r^2=\mu _f^2=Q^2`$. In panels (a) and (b) of Fig. 2 we display the $`\omega `$–dependence for the scaled photon-to-pion transition form factor evaluated in the $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ scheme at LO and NNLO, respectively. One clearly sees that the prediction is almost independent of $`\omega `$ for $`|\omega |0.2`$ and only a negligible dependence arises for $`0.2<|\omega |<0.4`$. Radiative corrections will only shift this prediction downward. Note that this shift will slightly increase, if we go to higher orders of $`\alpha _s`$. For the lowest partial wave they can be taken from the calculation of the radiative corrections to the Bjorken sum rule, which are evaluated in the third-loop approximation  and roughly estimated at four loops . Consequently, confronting these predictions with experimental measurements would provide either a novel test of perturbative QCD or an insight into the size of higher-twist contributions. To enhance statistics, one can even integrate over the small $`|\omega |`$ region:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{\omega ^{\mathrm{cut}}}}{\displaystyle _0^{\omega ^{\mathrm{cut}}}}d\omega F_{\gamma \pi }(\omega ,Q)={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}f_\pi }{3}}\{1`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(Q)}{\pi }}3.583{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^2(Q)}{\pi ^2}}20.215{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^3(Q)}{\pi ^3}}`$
$``$ $`(200){\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s^4(Q^2)}{\pi ^4}}+O(\alpha _s^5)+O(m_\pi ^2/Q^2,\mathrm{\Lambda }^2/Q^2)\},`$
where $`\omega ^{\mathrm{cut}}<0.4`$ and $`n_f=3`$.

If we vary the unknown $`B_2`$ and $`B_4`$ parameters in the range that is suggested by non-perturbative estimates, i.e., $`1/2B_21/2`$ and $`1/4B_41/4`$, it can be realized that in the intermediate $`|\omega |`$ region the perturbative QCD predictions start to be dependent on the value of $`B_2`$ and for larger $`|\omega |`$ even on that of $`B_4`$, while higher partial waves can be safely neglected. Here it is important that radiative corrections do not spoil a possible extraction. They rather shift the curves in the whole region and slightly enhance the spread of the curves associated with $`B_4`$. This is caused by the fact that the radiative corrections to the lowest two partial waves are negative and approximately of the same size, while they are positive in all other cases. Since the gap between the curves for both extreme cases, where $`B_2=\pm 0.5`$ is about 30% or even larger, we might expect that these curves can be distinguished by a measurement. This would also test the reliability of non-perturbative methods. Certainly, a precise extraction of $`B_2`$ or even $`B_4`$ also requires high precision measurements with high statistics. Assuming that such data are available, the extraction of the non-perturbative parameter itself is rather simple. First, a measurement in the small $`|\omega |`$ region should be confronted with the parameter free prediction that depends only on the running of the coupling. As we argued, we do not expect higher twist corrections to be essential. If that were experimentally established, a simple two parameter dependent fit

$`F_{\gamma \pi }(\omega ,Q)=f_\pi \left[T_0(\omega ,Q)+{\displaystyle \frac{18}{7}}T_2(\omega ,Q)B_2(Q)+{\displaystyle \frac{45}{11}}T_4(\omega ,Q)B_4(Q)\right]`$ (4.10)
could be used to extract the two conformal moments $`B_2(Q)`$ and $`B_4(Q)`$ as long as the statistics is high enough. Moreover, a consistency check is provided by the $`Q`$-dependence of these parameters. Note that in the $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ scheme the mixing between different partial waves is caused by evolution at NNLO, while in the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$-scheme the mixing appears already at NLO in both the hard-scattering amplitude and the evolution of $`B_i`$. In the CS scheme the mixing appears first in the evolution to NLO accuracy.

Finally, we want to comment on the size of evolution effects which are caused by the off-diagonal entries in the anomalous dimension matrix. We numerically observe that the conformal symmetry breaking terms at NLO, (compare the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme results with the CS ones in Table 1, as well as at NNLO, see Table 2) can provide an enhancement of the corresponding corrections up to 50%. A similar relative effect one would naively expect from the evolution due to the unknown mixing in the $`\overline{\text{CS}}`$ scheme arising at NNLO. However, since it does not appear at the input scale $`Q_0`$ due to the initial condition (2.50), this mixing effect is in fact small . For instance, at NLO in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ and CS schemes this mixing effect in the lowest partial wave goes up to -1.3% and 2.3%, respectively, for the evolution from $`Q_0=0.5`$ GeV to $`Q=20`$ GeV and $`|\omega |=1`$. Note, however, that in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme cancellation appears in the off-diagonal terms between the $`C_F^2`$ and $`C_F\beta _0`$ proportional parts and that the contribution from only the $`C_F^2`$ proportional term might be of the order of 2%. This number should be compared with the correction in the hard-scattering induced by the off-diagonal terms, which is of about 7%. As we discussed above, these corrections are reduced for $`|\omega |<1`$. Since the ratio of diagonal entries in NNLO to those in NLO is smaller than $`3\alpha _s/\pi `$ for the first five even diagonal terms, we might argue that the ratio of off-diagonal entries in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme is of the same size. Assuming so, one would expect that unknown mixing effects, induced by $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(1)}`$ due to evolution are reduced by a factor 1/3 or even more with respect to those at NLO. Thus, we expect from the numbers given above at NLO that the contribution of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{jk}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(1)}`$ is smaller than 0.5% in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme. In the $`\overline{\text{CS}}`$ scheme, the contribution of the log term in Eq. (2.61) can be estimated by comparison with the NLO effect in the CS scheme. Here one finds a relative contribution smaller than $`\alpha _s(Q)\mathrm{ln}[Q/Q_0]/\pi `$. For the example discussed above that would produce a mixing effect smaller than 1%. Therefore, for higher values of the input scale, e.g., $`Q_01`$ GeV, we expect a rather tiny mixing in the $`\overline{\text{CS}}`$ scheme.

## 5 Conclusions

We have employed conformal symmetry in the perturbative sector to evaluate the NNLO corrections for the pion production through two-photon fusion. The requirement of a manifestly conformal invariant result partly removes the ambiguities arising from the factorization. However, the ambiguities are retained in the scheme dependence of the forward Wilson-coefficients and anomalous dimensions and in the treatment of the conformal symmetry breaking induced by the trace anomaly, proportional to the $`\beta `$-function. The latter ambiguity has been studied here in two alternative schemes: (i) combining the conformal predictions with the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ result and (ii) improving the partial wave decomposition of the conformal invariant theory by the renormalization group equation. The second possibility minimizes the mixing of partial waves and gives us an almost good quantum number, namely, the conformal spin. For decreasing values of $`|\omega |`$, the differences between these schemes are removed, since off-diagonal terms are suppressed by powers in $`\omega ^2`$.

As it has been known before, for $`|\omega |=1`$ NLO corrections can be considered to be small for only the two lowest partial waves, since the NLO corrections logarithmically increase with the conformal spin. This behaviour is analogous to the large $`j`$ behaviour of the Wilson-coefficients in DIS arising from soft gluon configurations. The effect is manifested by $`\mathrm{ln}(1x)`$ \- terms that are associated with factorization log’s and, consequently, are absent in the lowest partial wave in the conformal schemes. Other $`\mathrm{ln}(1x)`$ terms are related to the Sudakov effect and are manifested in a sign alternating series for $`\beta =0`$. However, the numerical study has shown that the NNLO corrections are dominated by the $`\beta _0`$ proportional term, as expected. In general, this term is rather large compared with the NLO coefficient and thus the BLM scale is rather low, which drives the coupling in the non-perturbative region.

We have compared the NNLO predictions with the existing data for the quasi-real photon case and have found that for $`2Q^2>2\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}^2`$ the contribution from the lowest partial wave is compatible with the data. The deviation below this scale is induced by non-perturbative effects or by the contribution of higher partial waves and it requires a deeper insight in power suppressed contributions. Although, there is no doubt in the literature that the CLEO measurement can be analyzed in this limit, we should state here that partial waves with sufficiently large conformal spin will be exponentially suppressed. This can affect the analysis only if the matrix elements of conformal operators with rather large conformal spin will contribute. On the other hand, we know that the net effect of all partial waves with the conformal spin $`j+13`$ is small. Obviously, this does not necessarily mean that the matrix elements themselves are small and therefore we cannot say that the asymptotic form of the pion distribution amplitude is experimentally established. Also, having a look at non-perturbative results from other methods given in the literature, a strong statement that the asymptotic form is suggested by those estimates cannot in fact be made.

These problems we have spelled out, can be separately studied apart from the $`|\omega |1`$ limit. Indeed, in the small $`|\omega |`$ region, perturbative QCD predicts a sum rule that has the same status as the Bjorken sum rule in deep inelastic scattering, evaluated at order $`\alpha _s^3`$. A first test of this sum rule might be possible with existing $`e^+e^{}`$ machines and would offer us a first insight into the size of power suppressed contributions for exclusive processes from experimental data. We expect that such contributions will turn out to be small. If this should be established experimentally, one might attack the extraction of the first and second lowest conformal moments of the distribution amplitude. This is an important task, since it would open a window to testing the reliability of non-perturbative methods applied to exclusive quantities. Having in mind that the collinear factorization, applied here to the photon-to-pion transition form factor, is also adopted for the analysis of exclusive B-physics, it is timely to confront such methods with experimental measurements.

Let us finally give a short outlook for the application of the conformal approach to other processes. After a simple replacement of the decay constant and matrix elements the NNLO result obtained can be used for the analysis of $`\eta `$ production, i.e., its flavour octet component. Moreover, the formalism can be extended in a straightforward manner to the $`\eta ^{}`$-to-photon transition form factor. Guided by the large $`j+1`$ asymptotics of the conformal moments, it is also possible to reconstruct the hard-scattering amplitude in DVCS. The reliability of this technique can be tested at NLO and partly also in NNLO, i.e., for $`\beta `$ proportional terms. We also want to add that one can go one order further in $`\alpha _s`$ in the approximation of the first few conformal moments of the hard-scattering amplitude, since we can borrow the forward Wilson–coefficients from the non-singlet sector of the deep-inelastic structure function $`F_3`$, evaluated in $`\mathrm{N}^3`$LO .

Acknowledgments  We would like to thank M. Diehl and P. Kroll for useful discussions. One of us (B.M.) acknowledges the support by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. This work was partially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Croatia under Contract No. 0098002.

## Appendix A Structure of the hard-scattering amplitude in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme

Here we prove that the $`\mathrm{LN}(\omega ,x)`$ terms, appearing in Eqs. (3.18\- 3.21), are related to the factorization log’s. We do not distinguish between the renormalization and the factorization scales, since the difference appears only in the $`\omega `$-independent term $`\mathrm{ln}(\mu _r/\mu _f)`$. The hard-scattering amplitude is given by the sum over all Feynman diagram $``$ contributions

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{Q^2}}T(\omega ,x,Q/\mu )={\displaystyle \underset{}{}}T_{}(\omega ,x,Q/\mu ),`$ (A.1)
where we have rescaled the individual contributions by $`Q^2`$ to have dimensionless amplitudes. Each of these contributions is given as a product of propagators and vertices integrated over the virtual loop momenta. The two photon vertices are connected by a chain of quark propagators $`S`$ and quark-gluon-quark vertices $`V`$:

$`/S([12x]P/2+ql)V_1/S([12x]P/2+ql+k_1)\mathrm{}/S([12x]P/2+ql+\mathrm{}+k_n),`$ (A.2)
where $`P=q_1+q_2`$ and the large momentum $`q=(q_1q_2)/2`$ flows only into this chain. Momentum conservation requires that $`l+l^{}=_{i=1}^nk_i`$, where $`l`$ and $`l^{}`$ is the sum of virtual momenta flowing into the first and flowing out of the second photon vertex, respectively. Interchanging the two photon vertices will give the crossed contributions with $`|\omega |\omega `$. Obviously, there are further propagators that depend only on the virtual momenta and $`xP`$ or $`(1x)P`$, but not on $`q`$. Introducing the Feynman-Schwinger representation for the propagators, integrating over the virtual momenta and making use of the on-shell condition $`P^2=0`$, give us the following representation for the regularized contribution:

$`T_{}(\omega ,x,Q/\mu )={\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑z_1{\displaystyle _0^{z_1}}𝑑z_2\mathrm{}{\displaystyle _0^{z_{m1}}}𝑑z_m{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^{2ϵ}𝒯_{}(\underset{¯}{z}|ϵ)}{Q^{2ϵ}\left[x\omega _1(\underset{¯}{z})+(1x)\omega _2(\underset{¯}{z})+1\right]^{1+ϵ}}}.`$ (A.3)
Here $`ϵ`$ is the dimensional regularization parameter and the functions $`_i(\underset{¯}{z})`$ depend on the Feynman–Schwinger variables $`\underset{¯}{z}=\{z_1,\mathrm{},z_m\}`$ with $`nm`$. We introduce the new variable

$`y={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{x}{2}}_1(\underset{¯}{z}){\displaystyle \frac{1x}{2}}_2(\underset{¯}{z})`$ (A.4)
and write

$`T_{}(\omega ,x,Q/\mu )={\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑y{\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^{2ϵ}}{Q^{2ϵ}\left[1(2y1)\omega \right]^{1+ϵ}}}V_{}(y,x|ϵ),`$ (A.5)
where the unrenormalized convolution kernel is defined by

$`V_{}(y,x|ϵ)={\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑z_1{\displaystyle _0^{z_1}}𝑑z_2\mathrm{}{\displaystyle _0^{z_{m1}}}𝑑z_m\delta \left(y{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{x}{2}}_1(\underset{¯}{z})+{\displaystyle \frac{1x}{2}}_2(\underset{¯}{z})\right)𝒯_{}(\underset{¯}{z}|ϵ).`$ (A.6)
The renormalization procedure provides the factorization log’s $`\mathrm{ln}(Q^2/\mu ^2)`$, which always appear in combination with $`\mathrm{LN}(\omega ,x)`$ terms. The factorization theorem tells us that after resummation of all Feynman diagrams the corresponding convolution kernel is given by the evolution one. Obviously, the log independent terms can also be represented as convolution. The support of all these kernels is known and follows from the restrictions of the $`_i(\underset{¯}{z})`$, which are obtained from their definition and the topology of Feynman graphs (see, for instance ).

## Appendix B Consistency check with the forward-limit results

In this section we present a consistency check between the results for the non-singlet coefficient function of the DIS polarized structure function $`g_1`$  and the hard-scattering amplitude of the pion transition form factor . The former quantity is known to NNLO, while for the latter one discussed in Sect. 3.1 the calculation has been performed up to $`\beta _0`$-proportional NNLO terms. Both results have been obtained in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme. Making use of the fact that both quantities, the photon-to-pion transition form factor and the structure function $`g_1`$, are defined by the two-photon amplitudes belonging to a general class of the scattering amplitudes for the two-photon process at light-like distances, we are able to transform the results for the photon-to-pion transition form factor to the results for $`g_1`$.

The general scattering amplitude for the two-photon processes is given by the time-ordered product of two electromagnetic currents sandwiched between the in- and out- hadronic states with momenta $`P_1`$ and $`P_2`$, respectively. Using the notation $`q=(q_1+q_2)/2`$ ($`q_1`$ and $`q_2`$ are incoming and outgoing photon momenta), $`P=P_1+P_2`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }=P_2P_1`$, the following generalized Bjorken region can be defined :

$$\nu =Pq\mathrm{}\text{and}Q^2=q^2\mathrm{},$$
(B.1)
with the scaling variables

$$\omega =\frac{\nu }{Q^2}\text{and}\eta =\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }q}{\nu }.$$
(B.2)
In the forward case, corresponding to DIS, $`1/\omega `$ can be identified with the Bjorken variable $`x_{Bj}`$ and $`\eta `$ vanishes, while for the two-photon production of a hadron $`\eta =1`$. The relations between the non-forward ER-BL kernels and forward DGLAP kernels were extensively studied and derived in Ref. , while in Ref.  the consistency between the transition form factor and $`g_1`$ results has been reported up to NLO. Here we explain in more detail the technical side of these consistency checks and extend them to $`\beta _0`$-proportional NNLO terms.

The building blocks of the hard-scattering amplitude for the photon-to-pion transition form factor $`T(\omega ,x,Q,\mu _f)`$ given in Eqs. (1.2), (1.3) and (3.16-3.23) can generally be written as

$`𝒜_1^{(\gamma ^{}\pi )}(\omega ,x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1\omega (2y1)i\epsilon }}\delta (yx),`$
$`𝒜_{2,n}^{(\gamma ^{}\pi )}(\omega ,x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}^n(1\omega (2y1)i\epsilon )}{1\omega (2y1)i\epsilon }}[\stackrel{~}{v}(y,x)]_+,`$ (B.3)
where $`n=0,1,2`$. Note that we have reintroduced the $`i\epsilon `$ term, originally present in the definition of Feynman propagators. For the kernels that appear in Eqs. (3.16-3.23) we use a generic symbol $`\stackrel{~}{v}(y,x)`$. Furthermore, for the kernels of interest, given in (3.7-3.1) and (3.11), the function $`\stackrel{~}{v}`$ is of the general form

$$\stackrel{~}{v}(x,y)=\theta (yx)\stackrel{~}{f}(x,y)+\left\{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{x\overline{x}}{y\overline{y}}\right\}.$$
(B.4)
We have to extend our restricted non-forward kinematics to the whole kinematical region. The extension of the BL kernels $`\stackrel{~}{v}`$ to the whole $`x,y`$ region ($`\mathrm{}<x,y<\mathrm{}`$)  is accompanied by the change of the $`\theta `$ function as

$$\stackrel{~}{v}^{ext}(x,y)=\stackrel{~}{v}(x,y)_{|\theta (yx)\theta (1\frac{x}{y})\theta \left(\frac{x}{y}\right)\text{sign}(y)}.$$
(B.5)
Furthermore, the dependence on $`\eta `$ has to be restored and one performs the following change of variables:

$$x\frac{1+t/\eta }{2},y\frac{1+t^{}/\eta }{2},\omega \eta \omega .$$
(B.6)
The definition of the distribution amplitudes, with which the hard-scattering amplitude is convoluted, as well as the definition of its generalized counterpart, introduce the restriction $`1<t<1`$. After examining the $`\theta `$ functions in the kernels (B.5) and taking into account $`|\eta |1`$, one obtains $`1<t^{}<1`$. The building blocks of the generalized two-photon scattering amplitude are thus obtained and they are of the form

$`𝒜_1(\omega ,\eta ,t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1\omega ti\epsilon }},`$
$`𝒜_{2,n}(\omega ,\eta ,t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _1^1}𝑑t^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}^n(1\omega t^{}i\epsilon )}{1\omega t^{}i\epsilon }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\eta }}\left[\stackrel{~}{v}^{ext}({\displaystyle \frac{1+t^{}/\eta }{2}},{\displaystyle \frac{1+t/\eta }{2}})\right]_+.`$ (B.7)
It is easy to see that relations (B.3) indeed represent the $`\eta =1`$ limit of (B.7).

The forward limit (i.e. the forward Compton amplitude) corresponds to $`\eta 0`$ and, due to the optical theorem, the non-singlet coefficient functions of the DIS polarized structure function $`g_1`$ (contributing to the total cross-section) are determined by taking the imaginary part of the forward amplitude. Taking into account the definition of $`g_1`$ and its coefficient functions (see ), one arrives at the following recipe666 Factor $`1/(2\pi )`$ comes from the dispersion relation, and the additional factor of $`2`$ from the definition of $`g_1`$. The origin of the factor $`\omega `$ in Eq. (B.8) lies in the fact that the transition form factor is scaled by $`Q^2`$, while the forward Compton amplitude is scaled by $`Pq`$. for the building blocks of the non-singlet coefficient functions $`C_q^{NS}`$:

$$𝒜_i^{(g_1)}(z)=\frac{\omega }{\pi }\text{Im}\left[\underset{\eta 0}{lim}𝒜_i(\omega ,\eta ,t)\right]_{|\omega =1/z,t=1}.$$
(B.8)
The $`\eta 0`$ limit of the extended ER-BL kernels  results in the corresponding DGLAP kernels $`\stackrel{~}{P}`$ of the general form

$$\stackrel{~}{P}(z)=\theta (z)\theta (1z)\stackrel{~}{p}(z)\text{with}\left[\stackrel{~}{P}\left(z\right)\right]_+=\stackrel{~}{P}(z)\delta (1z)_0^1𝑑z^{}\stackrel{~}{P}(z^{}).$$
(B.9)
It is straightforward to derive

$$\underset{\eta 0}{lim}\frac{1}{2\eta }\left[\stackrel{~}{v}^{ext}(\frac{1+t^{}/\eta }{2},\frac{1+t/\eta }{2})\right]_+=\text{sign}(t)\frac{1}{t}\left[\stackrel{~}{P}\left(\frac{t^{}}{t}\right)\right]_+,$$
(B.10)
with $`\stackrel{~}{p}`$ given by

$$\frac{1}{t}\stackrel{~}{p}\left(\frac{t^{}}{t}\right)=\underset{\eta 0}{lim}\frac{1}{2\eta }\left[\stackrel{~}{f}(\frac{1+t^{}/\eta }{2},\frac{1+t/\eta }{2})\stackrel{~}{f}(\frac{1t^{}/\eta }{2},\frac{1t/\eta }{2})\right]_+.$$
(B.11)
The imaginary part of expressions (B.7) is obtained by making use of

$$\text{Im}\frac{1}{1t^{}\omega i\epsilon }=\pi \delta (1t^{}\omega ),$$
(B.12)
and for more complicated functions, containing $`\mathrm{ln}^n(1t^{}\omega i\epsilon )`$ ($`n=1,2`$), we derive the following decompositions

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}(1\omega t^{}i\epsilon )}{1\omega t^{}i\epsilon }}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(1s)_+}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1st^{}\omega i\epsilon }},`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}^2(1\omega t^{}i\epsilon )}{1\omega t^{}i\epsilon }}`$ $`=`$ $`2\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}(1s)\mathrm{ln}s}{1s}}\right)_+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1st^{}\omega i\epsilon }}.`$ (B.13)
Alternatively, for the imaginary parts of expressions, containing logarithms, one can refer to . Finally, we present the results relevant to the NNLO calculation:

$`𝒜_1^{(g_1,\mathrm{NS})}(z)`$ $`=`$ $`\delta (1z),`$
$`𝒜_{2,0}^{(g_1,\mathrm{NS})}(z)`$ $`=`$ $`\left[\stackrel{~}{P}(z)\right]_+,`$
$`𝒜_{2,1}^{(g_1,\mathrm{NS})}(z)`$ $`=`$ $`\theta \left({\displaystyle \frac{z}{z^{}}}\right)\theta \left(1{\displaystyle \frac{z}{z^{}}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(z^{}z\right)_+}}\left[\stackrel{~}{P}(z^{})\right]_+,`$
$`𝒜_{2,2}^{(g_1,\mathrm{NS})}(z)`$ $`=`$ $`\theta \left({\displaystyle \frac{z}{z^{}}}\right)\theta \left(1{\displaystyle \frac{z}{z^{}}}\right)\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}(z^{}z)\mathrm{ln}z}{z^{}z}}\right)_+\left[\stackrel{~}{P}(z^{})\right]_+.`$ (B.14)
Hence, the building blocks for the hard-scattering amplitude of the photon-to-pion transition form factor, $`𝒜_i^{(\gamma ^{}\pi )}(\omega ,x)`$ given in (B.3), can be brought into correspondence with the building blocks of the non-singlet coefficient function of the polarized structure function $`g_1`$, $`𝒜_i^{(g_1,\mathrm{NS})}(z)`$ displayed in (B.14). For various ER-BL kernels $`\stackrel{~}{v}(x,y)`$, the corresponding DGLAP kernels $`\stackrel{~}{P}(z)`$ are obtained by taking the limit (B.11) with $`t=1`$ (and $`t^{}z`$) taken into account. In Table 7 we list some selected results. We mention here that the integration of two “+” forms results again in the “+” form, but the contributing terms should be appropriately rearranged.

Following the procedure explained above, we finally obtain the forward counterparts of the elements of the hard-scattering amplitude for the photon-to-pion transition form factor:

$`T^{(0)}(\omega ,x)`$ $``$ $`\delta (1z),`$ (B.15)
$`T_F^{(1)}(\omega ,x)`$ $``$ $`\left[(1z)+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2(1z)}}{\displaystyle \frac{3z}{(1z)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1+z^2}{1z}}\left(\mathrm{ln}(1z)\mathrm{ln}z\right)\right]_+`$ (B.16)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}\delta (1z),`$
$`T_\beta ^{(2)}(\omega ,x)`$ $``$ $`[{\displaystyle \frac{31}{12}}(1z)+{\displaystyle \frac{19}{4(1z)}}{\displaystyle \frac{209(1+z^2)}{36(1z)}}`$ (B.17)
$`+\left({\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}(1z){\displaystyle \frac{3}{2(1z)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{19(1+z^2)}{6(1z)}}\right)\mathrm{ln}(1z)`$
$`+\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(1z)+{\displaystyle \frac{5}{2}}z{\displaystyle \frac{19(1+z^2)}{4(1z)}}\right)\mathrm{ln}(z)`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1+z^2}{1z}}({\displaystyle \frac{5}{4}}\mathrm{ln}^2z{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{ln}^2(1z)+2\mathrm{ln}z\mathrm{ln}(1z)+\text{Li}_2(1z)+{\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^2}{3}})]_+`$
$`3\delta (1z).`$
Here, the expressions on the r.h.s. represent the scale independent LO, NLO and $`\beta _0`$-proportional NNLO terms of the non-singlet coefficient function ($`C_q^{NS}`$) of $`g_1`$. Similar expressions can be written for the terms proportional to $`\mathrm{ln}^n(Q^2/\mu ^2)`$. Following the notation of , the $`\theta (z)\theta (1z)`$ factors are not shown in Eqs. (B.15-B.17). We note that the limit of $`T^{(i)}(\omega ,1x)=T^{(i)}(\omega ,x)`$ corresponds to the antiquark case ($`C_{\overline{q}}^{NS}`$).

Our results (B.15-B.17)777 The representation of the coefficient functions in a form $`A\delta (1z)+\left[F(z)\right]_+`$, as given in Eqs. (B.15-B.17) and naturally emerging in our calculation, is convenient for the determination of the Mellin moments $`c_j=_0^1z^jc(z)`$ since the $`j=0`$ Mellin moment corresponds to the term proportional to $`\delta (1z)`$.  are numerically in agreement with the Mellin moments and up to a typo also with the analytical expression of the $`n_f`$-proportional term displayed in the appendix of Ref. . Namely, in Eq. (A.2) the term $`1/3(1+11z)\mathrm{ln}z`$ should read $`1/3(111z)\mathrm{ln}z`$.

## Appendix C Determination of conformal moments

In this section we present a method for computing moments with respect to conformal partial waves with the index $`k`$. We introduce the notation

$$F(x)_k_0^1𝑑xF(x)\frac{x(1x)}{N_k}C_k^{3/2}(2x1),$$
(C.1)
while $`N_k`$ is defined in (2.1). It follows trivially that $`F(1x)_k=(1)^kF(x)_k`$. In the calculation of the photon-to-pion transition form factor for the special case $`|\omega |=1`$ we encounter the functions $`F(x)`$ of the forms $`f(x)/x`$ and $`f(x)/(1x)`$, with $`f(x)\{1`$, $`\mathrm{ln}^n(x)\mathrm{ln}^m(1x)`$, $`\text{Li}_2(x)`$, $`\text{Li}_3(x)`$, $`\text{S}_{12}(x)`$ $`\}`$.

It is convenient to use the following expression for the Gegenbauer polynomials:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{x(1x)}{N_k}}C_k^{3/2}(2x1)`$ $`=`$ $`(1)^k{\displaystyle \frac{2(2k+3)}{(k+1)!}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^k}{dx^k}}\left[x(1x)\right]^{k+1}`$ (C.2)
$`=`$ $`(1)^k{\displaystyle \frac{2(2k+3)}{(k+1)}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=0}{\overset{k+1}{}}}(1)^i\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k+1}{i}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k+i+1}{i+1}}\right)x^{i+1}.`$
The evaluation of the conformal moments, i.e., in our case the evaluation of the expressions

$$\frac{f(x)}{x}_k=(1)^k\frac{2(2k+3)}{(k+1)}\underset{i=0}{\overset{k+1}{}}(1)^i\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k+1}{i}\right)\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k+i+1}{i+1}\right)_0^1x^if(x),$$
(C.3)
and

$$\frac{f(x)}{1x}_k=\frac{2(2k+3)}{(k+1)}\underset{i=0}{\overset{k+1}{}}(1)^i\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k+1}{i}\right)\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k+i+1}{i+1}\right)_0^1x^if(1x),$$
(C.4)
consists then in calculating the Mellin moments and performing the summation. The Mellin moments for the functions we encounter in our calculation are well known (see, for example ), and most of the nontrivial sums we are left with can be found in . The sums that usually appear are

$$\begin{array}{cc}\text{S}_m(n)=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\frac{1}{i^m},\hfill & \text{S}_{m,j_1,\mathrm{},j_p}(n)=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\frac{1}{i^m}\text{S}_{j_1,\mathrm{},j_p}(i),\hfill \\ \text{S}_m(n)=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\frac{(1)^i}{i^m},\hfill & \text{S}_{m,j_1,\mathrm{},j_p}(n)=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\frac{(1)^i}{i^m}\text{S}_{j_1,\mathrm{},j_p}(i).\hfill \end{array}$$
(C.5)
The functions $`S_m(z)`$ are expressed by $`\psi (z)=d\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Gamma }(z)/dz`$ ones:

$`\psi (z)=\gamma _\mathrm{E}+S_1(z1),{\displaystyle \frac{d^m}{dz^m}}\psi (z)=m!(1)^{(m+1)}\left[\zeta (m+1)S_{m+1}(z1)\right].`$ (C.6)
For $`\text{Li}_3(x)/(1x)_k`$ and $`\text{S}_{12}(x)/(1x)_k`$, the corresponding sums are missing in , and to obtain them we turn to expressing the relevant functions as convolutions of appropriate functions with the known diagonal kernels. Generally, the conformal moments of a kernel $`[\stackrel{~}{v}]_+`$ are defined by

$$\stackrel{~}{v}_{lk}[\stackrel{~}{v}(x,y)]_+_{lk}=_0^1𝑑x_0^1𝑑yC_l^{3/2}(2x1)[\stackrel{~}{v}(x,y)]_+\frac{y(1y)}{N_k}C_k^{3/2}(2y1),$$
(C.7)
and for the kernels appearing in this calculation $`\stackrel{~}{v}_{lk}=0`$ for $`l<k`$ and $`lk`$ odd. The conformal moments of the convolution $`F(x)=G(y)[\stackrel{~}{v}(y,x)]_+`$ then take the form

$$F(x)_k=G(y)[\stackrel{~}{v}(y,x)]_+_k=\underset{lk}{}G(y)_l\stackrel{~}{v}_{lk}.$$
(C.8)
As before we use the simplified notation for the diagonal moments

$$\stackrel{~}{v}_{kk}\stackrel{~}{v}_k,$$
(C.9)
i.e., for the diagonal conformal moments we retain just one index and the relation (C.8) simplifies to

$$F(x)_k=G(y)[\stackrel{~}{v}(y,x)]_+_k=G(y)_k\stackrel{~}{v}_k.$$
(C.10)
Hence, in order to determine $`\text{Li}_3(x)/(1x)_k`$ and $`\text{S}_{12}(x)/(1x)_k`$, we make use of the identities

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\text{Li}_2(1y)}{1y}}[v^a(y,x)]_+`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\text{Li}_3(1x)}{x}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta (3)}{x}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}(x)}{1x}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}(x)\mathrm{ln}(1x)}{2(1x)}}`$ (C.11)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\text{Li}_2(x)}{1x}}{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta (2)}{1x}}\right)+\left({\displaystyle \frac{\text{Li}_2(1x)}{x}}{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta (2)}{x}}\right),`$
and

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\text{Li}_2(y)}{1y}}[v(y,x)]_+`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\text{S}_{12}(x)}{1x}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta (3)}{1x}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}(1x)}{x}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\text{Li}_2(x)}{2(1x)}}`$ (C.12)
$`+\zeta (2)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}(1x)}{1x}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1x}}\right).`$
The kernels $`v^a`$ and $`v`$ are defined in (3.2), (3.3) and (3.9), while the corresponding moments can be read off from Eqs. (3.6) (for $`ϵ=0`$) and (3.34), respectively.

Finally, in Table 8 we summarize the conformal moments of the functions relevant to our calculation.

As a byproduct of this calculation, we list the following nontrivial sums:

$`{\displaystyle \underset{i=0}{\overset{n}{}}}(1)^j\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{j}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n+j}{j+1}}\right)S_{1,2}(j+1)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n+1}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n(n+1)}}(1)^n\left(S_2(n+1)+S_2(n1)\right)\right]`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{i=0}{\overset{n}{}}}(1)^j\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{j}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n+j}{j+1}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{S_{1,2}(j+1)}{j+1}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n+1}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^n}{n(n+1)}}\left(S_2(n+1)+S_2(n1)\right)\right]`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{i=0}{\overset{n}{}}}(1)^j\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{j}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n+j}{j+1}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{S_3(j+1)}{j+1}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n+1}}[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n^2(n+1)^2}}+(S_1(n+1)+S_1(n1))`$ (C.13)
$`\times ({\displaystyle \frac{1}{n(n+1)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n^2(n+1)^2}})],`$
which complement the collection of sums found in .

## Appendix D Taylor expansions in $`\omega `$

We now present the results for the five lowest even partial waves, which are expanded in $`\omega ^2`$ to the first seven non-vanishing terms. For brevity, we will not denote the neglected terms.

The LO result can be simply expanded by means of its representation in terms of hypergeometrical functions. Employing the identity

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(1+\omega )^{j+1+ϵ}}}{}_{2}{}^{}F_{1}^{}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{j+1+ϵ,j+2+ϵ}{2(j+2+ϵ)}}|{\displaystyle \frac{2\omega }{1+\omega }}\right)={}_{2}{}^{}F_{1}^{}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{j/2+ϵ/2+1/2,j/2+ϵ/2+1}{j+ϵ+5/2}}|\omega ^2\right)`$
and representing the hypergeometrical functions as power series in $`\omega `$, after a few simple manipulation with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ functions we find:

$`T_j^{(0)}(\omega )={\displaystyle \frac{3+2j}{4}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{\pi }\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+j+2n)}{n!\mathrm{\Gamma }(5/2+j+n)}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\omega }{2}}\right)^{2n+j}.`$ (D.1)
The first few moments read

$`T_0^{(0)}`$ $``$ $`1+0.2\omega ^2+0.0857\omega ^4+0.0476\omega ^6+0.0303\omega ^8+0.0210\omega ^{10}+0.0154\omega ^{12},`$
$`T_2^{(0)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2\omega ^2}{15}}\left(1+0.6667\omega ^2+0.4545\omega ^4+0.3263\omega ^6+0.2448\omega ^8+0.1900\omega ^{10}+0.1517\omega ^{12}\right),`$
$`T_4^{(0)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{8\omega ^4}{315}}\left(1+1.1538\omega ^2+1.0769\omega ^4+0.9502\omega ^6+0.8252\omega ^8+0.7152\omega ^{10}+0.6219\omega ^{12}\right),`$ (D.2)
$`T_6^{(0)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{16\omega ^6}{3003}}\left(1+1.6471\omega ^2+1.9505\omega ^4+2.0433\omega ^6+2.0211\omega ^8+1.9403\omega ^{10}+1.8325\omega ^{12}\right),`$
$`T_8^{(0)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{128\omega ^8}{109395}}\left(1+2.1429\omega ^2+3.0745\omega ^4+3.7304\omega ^6+4.1449\omega ^8+4.3736\omega ^{10}+4.4677\omega ^{12}\right).`$
The relative error of these approximations is for $`j=\{0,2,4,6,8\}`$ about $`\{0.1\%,0.7\%,2\%,4.4\%,8\%\}`$ for $`|\omega |=0.8`$ and increases to $`\{0.6\%,4\%,10\%,19\%,30\%\}`$ for $`|\omega |=0.9`$ .

The expansion of the $`s_j^i(\omega )`$ functions from Eq. (3.63) can be found in an analogous way:

$`s_j^{(i)}(\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{_{n=0}^{\mathrm{}}𝒮^{(i)}(j,n)\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+j+2n)}{n!\mathrm{\Gamma }(5/2+j+n)}\left(\frac{\omega }{2}\right)^{2n}}{_{n=0}^{\mathrm{}}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+j+2n)}{n!\mathrm{\Gamma }(5/2+j+n)}\left(\frac{\omega }{2}\right)^{2n}}}`$ (D.3)
$`𝒮^{(1)}(j,n)`$ $`=`$ $`S_1(j+2n)S_1(3/2+j+n)S_1(j)+S_1(3/2+j),`$ (D.4)
$`𝒮^{(2)}(j,n)`$ $`=`$ $`\left[𝒮^{(1)}(j,n)\right]^2S_2(j+2n)+S_2(3/2+j+n)+S_2(j)S_2(3/2+j).`$
The approximation of $`s_j^1(\omega )`$ reads

$`s_2^{(1)}(\omega )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{13\omega ^2}{54}}\left(1+0.3642\omega ^2+0.1973\omega ^4+0.1266\omega ^6+0.0894\omega ^8+0.0670\omega ^{10}\right),`$
$`s_4^{(1)}(\omega )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{83\omega ^2}{338}}\left(1+0.3694\omega ^2+0.2025\omega ^4+0.1313\omega ^6+0.0935\omega ^8+0.0707\omega ^{10}\right),`$ (D.5)
$`s_6^{(1)}(\omega )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{143\omega ^2}{578}}\left(1+0.3716\omega ^2+0.2048\omega ^4+0.1334\omega ^6+0.0953\omega ^8+0.0723\omega ^{10}\right),`$
$`s_8^{(1)}(\omega )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{73\omega ^2}{294}}\left(1+0.3727\omega ^2+0.2059\omega ^4+0.1344\omega ^6+0.0963\omega ^8+0.0732\omega ^{10}\right).`$
Note that the prefactor of these series is given by $`\left(1\frac{3}{\left(5+2j\right)^2}\right)\omega ^2/4\omega ^2/4`$ and that for $`j=\{2,4,6,8\}`$ and $`|\omega |=0.8`$ the relative error of these approximations is about $`\{1.2\%,2.5\%,4.4\%,6.7\%\}`$ and increases to $`\{6\%,10\%,14\%,19\%\}`$ for $`|\omega |=0.9`$. The approximation of $`s_j^2(\omega )`$ is given by

$`s_2^{(2)}(\omega )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\omega ^2}{243}}\left(1+14.7002\omega ^2+10.7004\omega ^4+7.7684\omega ^6+5.8690\omega ^8+4.5967\omega ^{10}\right),`$
$`s_4^{(2)}(\omega )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3\omega ^2}{2197}}\left(1+44.8125\omega ^2+33.1180\omega ^4+24.3070\omega ^6+18.5325\omega ^8+14.6322\omega ^{10}\right),`$ (D.6)
$`s_6^{(2)}(\omega )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3\omega ^2}{4913}}\left(1+100.913\omega ^2+75.0187\omega ^4+55.3152\omega ^6+42.3458\omega ^8+33.5573\omega ^{10}\right),`$
$`s_8^{(2)}(\omega )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\omega ^2}{3087}}\left(1+191.007\omega ^2+142.411\omega ^4+105.261\omega ^6+80.7569\omega ^8+64.1255\omega ^{10}\right).`$
Here we mention that the analytical expansion reads $`3\omega ^2/(5+2j)^3+\omega ^4(1+O(1/(5+2j)^2)/16`$. Thus, the $`\omega ^2`$ term is numerically suppressed. In the $`|\omega |1`$ limit, the functions $`s_j^{(1,2)}`$ take the values:

$`s_j^{(1)}(\omega =1)`$ $``$ $`2S_1(2j+3)S_1(j+1)S_1(j+2)\mathrm{ln}(2),`$ (D.7)
$`s_j^{(2)}(\omega =1)`$ $``$ $`\left[s_j^{(1)}(\omega =1)\right]^24S_2(2j+3)+S_2(j+2)+S_2(j+1)+2\zeta (2).`$
The quantities in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme are evaluated from Eqs. (3.163.23). For $`\mu _f^2=Q^2`$ the NLO contribution $`T_j^{(1)}(\omega ,\mu _f^2/Q^2=1)`$ reads

$`T_0^{(1)}`$ $``$ $`2\left(1+0.3333\omega ^2+0.1873\omega ^4+0.1245\omega ^6+0.0904\omega ^8+0.0694\omega ^{10}+0.0554\omega ^{12}\right),`$ (D.8)
$`T_2^{(1)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\omega ^2}{9}}\left(1+1.2815\omega ^2+1.0293\omega ^4+0.7770\omega ^6+0.5844\omega ^8+0.4436\omega ^{10}+0.3407\omega ^{12}\right),`$
$`T_4^{(1)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4184\omega ^4}{42525}}\left(1+1.4076\omega ^2+1.4571\omega ^4+1.3683\omega ^6+1.2370\omega ^8+1.1013\omega ^{10}+0.9754\omega ^{12}\right),`$
$`T_6^{(1)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{96182\omega ^6}{2837835}}\left(1+1.8560\omega ^2+2.3723\omega ^4+2.6207\omega ^6+2.6949\omega ^8+2.6644\omega ^{10}+2.5747\omega ^{12}\right),`$
$`T_8^{(1)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{568352\omega ^8}{57432375}}\left(1+2.3324\omega ^2+3.5542\omega ^4+4.5116\omega ^6+5.1921\omega ^8+5.6346\omega ^{10}+5.8894\omega ^{12}\right),`$
while the conformal moments of the factorization log proportional term, i.e., $`C_Fv_jT_j^{(0)}(\omega )`$, are obtained by multiplying the results (D) with the values of $`C_Fv_j`$, given in Table 9. At NNLO, only the $`\beta _0`$ proportional term has been evaluated:

$`T_{\beta ,0}^{(2)}`$ $``$ $`3\left(1+0.3505\omega ^2+0.1785\omega ^4+0.1098\omega ^6+0.0750\omega ^8+0.0548\omega ^{10}+0.0420\omega ^{12}\right),`$ (D.9)
$`T_{\beta ,2}^{(2)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4369\omega ^2}{8640}}\left(1+0.9159\omega ^2+0.7298\omega ^4+0.5740\omega ^6+0.4566\omega ^8+0.3691\omega ^{10}+0.3031\omega ^{12}\right),`$
$`T_{\beta ,4}^{(2)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2356859\omega ^4}{8505000}}\left(1+1.3588\omega ^2+1.4063\omega ^4+1.3333\omega ^6+1.2209\omega ^8+1.1022\omega ^{10}+0.9899\omega ^{12}\right),`$
$`T_{\beta ,6}^{(2)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{20352710029\omega ^6}{222486264000}}\left(1+1.8408\omega ^2+2.3592\omega ^4+2.6233\omega ^6+2.7190\omega ^8+2.7108\omega ^{10}+2.6415\omega ^{12}\right),`$
$`T_{\beta ,8}^{(2)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{363260060687\omega ^8}{13676945782500}}\left(1+2.3308\omega ^2+3.5655\omega ^4+4.5516\omega ^6+5.2715\omega ^8+5.7582\omega ^{10}+6.0576\omega ^{12}\right).`$
To restore the factorization log, one needs

$`v_{\beta ,0}^\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\omega ^2}{6}}\left(1+0.5657\omega ^2+0.3830\omega ^4+0.2837\omega ^6+0.2220\omega ^8+0.1804\omega ^{10}\right),`$ (D.10)
$`v_{\beta ,2}^\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{83\omega ^2}{216}}(1.+0.0488\omega ^2+0.0308\omega ^4+0.0225\omega ^6+0.0177\omega ^8+0.0146\omega ^{10}+0.0123\omega ^{12}),`$
$`v_{\beta ,4}^\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{7783\omega ^4}{70875}}(1.+0.0261\omega ^2+0.0172\omega ^4+0.0130\omega ^6+0.0105\omega ^8+0.0088\omega ^{10}+0.0076\omega ^{12}),`$
$`v_{\beta ,6}^\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3745727\omega ^6}{132432300}}(1.+0.0174\omega ^2+0.0118\omega ^4+0.0091\omega ^6+0.0075\omega ^8+0.0064\omega ^{10}+0.0056\omega ^{12}),`$
$`v_{\beta ,8}^\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{76991788\omega ^8}{10854718875}}\left(1+0.0130\omega ^2+0.0089\omega ^4+0.0070\omega ^6+0.0058\omega ^8+0.0050\omega ^{10}+0.0044\omega ^{12}\right).`$
In the CS scheme, the NLO result $`T_j^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}(\omega ,\mu _f/Q^2=1)`$ we find from Eq. (3.62):

$`T_0^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}`$ $``$ $`2\left(1+0.2\omega ^2+0.0857\omega ^4+0.0476\omega ^6+0.0303\omega ^8+0.0210\omega ^{10}+0.0154\omega ^{12}\right),`$ (D.11)
$`T_2^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\omega ^2}{9}}\left(1+1.4691\omega ^2+1.2818\omega ^4+1.0443\omega ^6+0.8466\omega ^8+0.6933\omega ^{10}+0.5752\omega ^{12}\right),`$
$`T_4^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4184\omega ^4}{42525}}\left(1+1.4102\omega ^2+1.4674\omega ^4+1.3875\omega ^6+1.2644\omega ^8+1.1354\omega ^{10}+1.0148\omega ^{12}\right),`$
$`T_6^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{96182\omega ^6}{2837835}}\left(1+1.8373\omega ^2+2.3344\omega ^4+2.5697\omega ^6+2.6372\omega ^8+2.6050\omega ^{10}+2.5171\omega ^{12}\right),`$
$`T_8^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{568352\omega ^8}{57432375}}\left(1+2.3052\omega ^2+3.4829\omega ^4+4.3926\omega ^6+5.0299\omega ^8+5.4373\omega ^{10}+5.6655\omega ^{12}\right).`$
while the factorization log proportional term is the same as in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme. The NNLO correction $`T_j^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}(\omega ,\mu _f/Q^2=1,\mu _r/Q^2=1)`$ for $`\beta _0=0`$ reads

$`T_0^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}`$ $``$ $`3.6667(1+0.2\omega ^2+0.0857\omega ^4+0.0476\omega ^6+0.0303\omega ^8+0.021\omega ^{10}+0.0154\omega ^{12})_{|\beta _0=0},`$ (D.12)
$`T_2^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}`$ $``$ $`3.2331\omega ^2(1+0.6769\omega ^2+0.4557\omega ^4+0.3224\omega ^6+0.2386\omega ^8+0.1832\omega ^{10}+0.1448\omega ^{12})_{|\beta _0=0},`$
$`T_4^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}`$ $``$ $`0.9338\omega ^4(1+1.0967\omega ^2+0.9764\omega ^4+0.8272\omega ^6+0.6939\omega ^8+0.5838\omega ^{10}+0.4949\omega ^{12})_{|\beta _0=0},`$
$`T_6^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}`$ $``$ $`0.21\omega ^6(1+1.5133\omega ^2+1.6617\omega ^4+1.6285\omega ^6+1.5184\omega ^8+1.3829\omega ^{10}+1.2459\omega ^{12})_{|\beta _0=0},`$
$`T_8^{\mathrm{CS}(2)}`$ $``$ $`0.0427\omega ^8(1+1.905\omega ^2+2.4505\omega ^4+2.6858\omega ^6+2.7134\omega ^8+2.6181\omega ^{10}+2.4577\omega ^{12})_{|\beta _0=0}.`$
The $`Q^2`$ independent and $`\beta _0`$-proportional term in the CS scheme is the same as in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ one, given in Eq. (D.12). The factorization and renormalization log proportional terms, appearing in Eq. (3.4) can be easily restored by means of the results from Table 9, Eqs. (D,D) as well as Eqs. (3.68, D.8,D.10,D.11).

The difference between the CS and $`\overline{\mathrm{CS}}`$ schemes arises only from the $`\beta _0`$-proportional terms (3.69). The $`\beta _0`$-proportional NNLO term $`T_{\beta ,j}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(2)}(\omega )`$ reads

$`T_{\beta ,0}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(2)}`$ $``$ $`3(1+0.2\omega ^2+0.0857\omega ^4+0.0476\omega ^6+0.0303\omega ^8+0.0210\omega ^{10}+0.0154\omega ^{12}),`$ (D.13)
$`T_{\beta ,2}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(2)}`$ $``$ $`0.50567\omega ^2(1.+0.8496\omega ^2+0.6431\omega ^4+0.4900\omega ^6+0.3820\omega ^8+0.3048\omega ^{10}+0.2482\omega ^{12}),`$
$`T_{\beta ,4}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(2)}`$ $``$ $`0.277114\omega ^4(1+1.2512\omega ^2+1.2252\omega ^4+1.1162\omega ^6+0.9919\omega ^8+0.8747\omega ^{10}+0.7710\omega ^{12}),`$
$`T_{\beta ,6}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(2)}`$ $``$ $`0.0914785\omega ^6(1.+1.7236\omega ^2+2.1049\omega ^4+2.2550\omega ^6+2.2689\omega ^8+2.2076\omega ^{10}+2.1078\omega ^{12}),`$
$`T_{\beta ,8}^{\overline{\mathrm{CS}}(2)}`$ $``$ $`0.02656\omega ^8(1+2.2092\omega ^2+3.2413\omega ^4+4.0009\omega ^6+4.5064,\omega ^8+4.8081\omega ^{10}+4.9570\omega ^{12}).`$
The restoration of the factorization log in the $`\beta _0`$ sector requires the knowledge of $`v_{\beta ,j}`$, given in Table 9.

## Appendix E Reconstruction of the hard-scattering amplitude in the momentum fraction representation

Let us now discuss the reconstruction of the hard-scattering amplitude in the momentum fraction representation from the conformal moments. This technical problem is of immense importance for the discussion of two-photon processes in which the operator product expansion is not convergent. The solution is known in forward kinematics and is given by the Mellin transformation of moments. In non-forward kinematics, the problem is solved in principle , however, one has to evaluate rather cumbersome integrals. Here we propose a simple approximative solution which is based on the asymptotic behaviour, presented in Section 4.1, and it is applicable to deeply virtual Compton scattering. In the following we demonstrate this method at NLO order and its generalization to higher orders is straightforward.

First, we consider the quality of the asymptotic formulas (4.1). Since the neglected terms are of the order $`1/(j+2)`$, we expect that the approximations (4.1) have an accuracy of the level of 10% for $`j=10`$. Surprisingly, the accuracy is already below 1% in both cases, which indicates that the $`1/(j+2)`$ term is small. Thus, we completely neglect such terms and improve the approximate formula by adding subleading terms of the form

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha +\beta S_1(j+1)}{(j+1)(j+2)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma +\delta S_1(j+1)}{(j+1)^2(j+2)^2}}+\mathrm{},`$
where the coefficients $`\alpha ,\mathrm{},\delta `$ are determined from a fit of the lowest moments. In this way, we obtain an approximation that is better than 1% for all moments. Now we can recover an approximate expression for the hard-scattering amplitude as a convolution by the following recipe:

* Substitute the LO Wilson–coefficients by the corresponding hard-scattering amplitude:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{2j+3}{(j+1)(j+2)}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2(1x)}}.`$
* Restore kernels:

$`\mathrm{cons}\mathrm{cons}𝐈,{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(j+1)(j+2)}}v_a(x,y),S_1(1+j){\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}[v_b(x,y)]_++1𝐈.`$
* Consider the multiplication of the above given conformal moments, which corresponds to convolution in the momentum fraction space.

Here we have introduced a shorthand notation for the identity $`𝐈\delta (xy)`$. In the $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ scheme, using Eq. (3.32) and the recipe given above we restore the exact expression (3.28) in the momentum fraction space. For the CS scheme, using the improved form (4.1), we get a good approximation of Eq. (3.45), for the lowest moments also, by taking

$`\alpha ={\displaystyle \frac{83}{10}}+8\zeta (2)26\mathrm{ln}(2)3.438,\gamma ={\displaystyle \frac{73}{5}}12\zeta (2)+48\mathrm{ln}(2)1.068,\beta =\delta =0`$ (E.1)
and the hard-scattering part reads

$`T_F^{\mathrm{CS}(1)}(x)`$ $``$ $`T^{(0)}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}[v_b]_+\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}[v_b]_+6.273𝐈\right)2.952𝐈+3.438v_a1.068v_av_a\right\}(x)`$ (E.2)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{0.25\mathrm{ln}^2(1x)2.136\mathrm{ln}(1x)8.224}{2(1x)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}(1x)\left[0.25\mathrm{ln}(1x)6.642\right]}{2x}}`$
$`+1.068{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{Li}_2(x)\mathrm{Li}_2(1)}{2(1x)}}.`$
After analytical continuation in $`x`$ this result corresponds to the NLO correction of the deeply virtual Compton scattering for the quark-quark channel in the parity odd sector.