Local analytic sector subtraction for initial- and final-state radiation at NLO in massless QCD

Abstract: Within the framework of local analytic sector subtraction, we present the subtraction of next-to-leading-order QCD singularities for processes featuring massless coloured particles in the initial as well as in the final state. The features of the method are explained in detail, including the introduction of an optimisation procedure aiming at improving numerical stability at the cost of no extra analytic complexity. A numerical validation is provided for a variety of processes relevant to lepton as well as hadron colliders. This work constitutes a relevant step in view of the application of our subtraction method to processes involving initial-state radiation at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD.