Strong-Coupling Constant with Flavor Thresholds at Five Loops in the Modified Minimal-Subtraction Scheme

Abstract

We present in analytic form the matching conditions for the strong-coupling constant alphas(nf) (mu) at the flavor thresholds to four loops in the modified minimal-subtraction scheme. Taking into account the present knowledge on the coefficient beta4 of the Callan-Symanzik beta function of quantum chromodynamics, we thus derive a five-loop formula for alphas(nf) (mu) together with appropriate relationships between the asymptotic scale parameters Lamda(nf) for different numbers of flavors nf.