On the Dimensional Regularization of QCD Helicity Amplitudes With Quarks

We study QCD helicity amplitudes with an arbitrary number of (massive) quarks, keeping unobserved (loop) particles in fixed integer $D_s$ dimensions. We find a suitable embedding of external four-dimensional fermion states into higher dimensional spaces. This allows to identify the $D_s$ dependence of amplitudes with external quarks at one and two loops, permitting an analytic continuation in $D_s$. Explicitly we focus on 't Hooft-Veltman and four-dimensional helicity schemes for which we provide a compact prescription for the computation of one- and two-loop amplitudes amenable for numerical implementation.