Energy–energy correlation in electron–positron annihilation at NNLL + NNLO accuracy

We present the computation of energy–energy correlation in e⁺e⁻ collisions in the back-to-back region at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy matched with the next-to-next-to-leading order perturbative prediction. We study the effect of the fixed higher-order corrections in a comparison of our results to LEP and SLC data. The next-to-next-to-leading order correction has a sizable impact on the extracted value of α _S(MZ ), hence its inclusion is mandatory for a precise measurement of the strong coupling using energy–energy correlation.