Regularization Schemes and Higher Order Corrections

William B. Kilgore

Published 2011-02-25, updated 2011-10-03Version 2

I apply commonly used regularization schemes to a multi-loop calculation to examine the properties of the schemes at higher orders. I find complete consistency between the conventional dimensional regularization scheme and dimensional reduction, but I find that the four dimensional helicity scheme produces incorrect results at next-to-next-to-leading order and singular results at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order. It is not, therefore, a unitary regularization scheme.