A general analysis of the Slavnov-Taylor identity connecting the triple gluon and ghost-ghost-gluon vertices and its consequences for two momentum subtraction (symmetric and asymmetric) renormalization schemes are given. It is shown that in the asymmetric scheme proposed in this paper the relation $$Z_3 Z_{1^{ - 1} } = \tilde Z_8 \tilde Z_{1^{ - 1} }$$follows directly from the identity for a simple and natural definition of the renormalization constants. Explicit one-loop expressions for the renormalization constants $$\left( {Z_1 ,Z_3 ,\tilde Z_1 \tilde Z_3 } \right)$$in an arbitrary covariant gauge, including quark masses are given in support of the general analysis.

It has recently been shown that any physical quantity ℛ, in perturbation theory, can be obtained as a function of only the renormalization scheme (rs) invariants,ρ₀,ρ₁,ρ₂, … Physical predictions, to any given order, are renormalization scheme independent in this approach. Quantum chromodynamics (qcd) predictions to second order, within thisrs-invariant perturbation theory, are given here for several processes. These lead to some novel relations between experimentally measurable quantities, which do not involve the unknownqcd scale parameter Λ. They can therefore be directly confronted with experiments and this has been done wherever possible. It is suggested that these relations can be used to probe the neglected higher order corrections.