NNLO $N$-jettiness soft function for processes with massless and massive partons

Abstract

We compute the NNLO QCD contribution to the $N$-jettiness soft function for processes with two massive and an arbitrary number of massless final-state hard partons. The cancellation of all divergencies is demonstrated analytically. The finite remainder of the soft function is calculated numerically without an infrared regulator. The calculation employs the recently proposed method that uses the so-called inclusive $N$-jettiness variable to simplify the computation of the non-iterative contribution to the soft function.