Amplitudes In Yang-Mills Theory Research Articles

Kinematic Hopf algebra for amplitudes from higher-derivative operators

Recently it has been shown that Bern-Carrasco-Johansson (BCJ) numerators of colour-kinematic duality for tree-level scattering amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory (coupled with scalars) can be determined using a quasi-shuffle Hopf algebra. In this paper we consider the same theory, but with higher-derivative corrections of the forms α′F3 and α′2F4, where F is the field strength. In the heavy mass limit of the scalars, we show that the BCJ numerators of these higher-derivative theories are governed by the same Hopf algebra. In particular, the kinematic algebraic structure is unaltered and the derivative corrections only arise when mapping the abstract algebraic generators to physical BCJ numerators. The underlying kinematic Hopf algebra enables us to obtain a compact expression for the BCJ numerators of any number of gluons and two heavy scalars for amplitudes with higher-derivative operators. The pure gluon BCJ numerators can also be obtained from our results by a simple factorisation limit where the massive particles decouple.

Lagrangians manifesting color-kinematics duality in the NMHV sector of Yang-Mills

Scattering amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory are known to exhibit kinematic structures which hint to an underlying kinematic algebra that is dual to the gauge group color algebra. This color-kinematics duality is still poorly understood in terms of conventional Feynman rules, or from a Lagrangian formalism. In this work, we present explicit Lagrangians whose Feynman rules generate duality-satisfying tree-level BCJ numerators, to any multiplicity in the next-to-MHV sector of pure Yang-Mills theory. Our Lagrangians make use of at most three pairs of auxiliary fields (2, 1, 0-forms) — surprisingly few compared to previous attempts of Lagrangians at low multiplicities. To restrict the Lagrangian freedom it is necessary to make several non-trivial assumptions regarding field content, kinetic terms, and interactions, which we discuss in some detail. Future progress likely hinges on relaxing these assumptions.

Double copy of spontaneously broken Abelian gauge theory

Similarity in the structure of scattering amplitudes in Yang-Mills theories and General Relativity led to the idea that graviton could be described as the double copy of a vector gauge field. In this letter we discuss a realization of this idea emerging directly from solutions of equations of General Relativity. A general form of the energy momentum tensor for the electric field is derived that leads to the metric tensor in terms of the double copy of a corresponding gauge potential. We then use this general property to find the double copy of spontaneously broken scalar electrodynamics. The result is a screened Reissner-Nordström-like metric. When the horizon radius and the Compton wavelength of the massive photon become comparable the black hole becomes a quantum object. An exact solution of the horizon wave equation is found and the corresponding energy spectrum is described. It turns out that highly excited states show a characteristic string-like behavior.

Covariant color-kinematics duality

We show that color-kinematics duality is a manifest property of the equations of motion governing currents and field strengths. For the nonlinear sigma model (NLSM), this insight enables an implementation of the double copy at the level of fields, as well as an explicit construction of the kinematic algebra and associated kinematic current. As a byproduct, we also derive new formulations of the special Galileon (SG) and Born-Infeld (BI) theory.For Yang-Mills (YM) theory, this same approach reveals a novel structure — covariant color-kinematics duality — whose only difference from the conventional duality is that 1/□ is replaced with covariant 1/D2. Remarkably, this structure implies that YM theory is itself the covariant double copy of gauged biadjoint scalar (GBAS) theory and an F3 theory of field strengths encoding a corresponding kinematic algebra and current. Directly applying the double copy to equations of motion, we derive general relativity (GR) from the product of Einstein-YM and F3 theory. This exercise reveals a trivial variant of the classical double copy that recasts any solution of GR as a solution of YM theory in a curved background.Covariant color-kinematics duality also implies a new decomposition of tree-level amplitudes in YM theory into those of GBAS theory. Using this representation we derive a closed-form, analytic expression for all BCJ numerators in YM theory and the NLSM for any number of particles in any spacetime dimension. By virtue of the double copy, this constitutes an explicit formula for all tree-level scattering amplitudes in YM, GR, NLSM, SG, and BI.

Next-to-MHV Yang-Mills kinematic algebra

Kinematic numerators of Yang-Mills scattering amplitudes possess a rich Lie algebraic structure that suggest the existence of a hidden infinite-dimensional kinematic algebra. Explicitly realizing such a kinematic algebra is a longstanding open problem that only has had partial success for simple helicity sectors. In past work, we introduced a framework using tensor currents and fusion rules to generate BCJ numerators of a special subsector of NMHV amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory. Here we enlarge the scope and explicitly realize a kinematic algebra for all NMHV amplitudes. Master numerators are obtained directly from the algebraic rules and through commutators and kinematic Jacobi identities other numerators can be generated. Inspecting the output of the algebra, we conjecture a closed-form expression for the master BCJ numerator up to any multiplicity. We also introduce a new method, based on group algebra of the permutation group, to solve for the generalized gauge freedom of BCJ numerators. It uses the recently introduced binary BCJ relations to provide a complete set of NMHV kinematic numerators that consist of pure gauge.

On Sugawara construction on celestial sphere

Conformally soft gluons are conserved currents of the Celestial Conformal Field Theory (CCFT) and generate a Kac-Moody algebra. We study celestial amplitudes of Yang-Mills theory, which are Mellin transforms of gluon amplitudes and take the double soft limit of a pair of gluons. In this manner we construct the Sugawara energy-momentum tensor of the CCFT. We verify that conformally soft gauge bosons are Virasoro primaries of the CCFT under the Sugawara energy-momentum tensor. The Sugawara tensor though does not generate the correct conformal transformations for hard states. In Einstein-Yang- Mills theory, we consider an alternative construction of the energy-momentum tensor, similar to the double copy construction which relates gauge theory amplitudes with gravity ones. This energy momentum tensor has the correct properties to generate conformal transformations for both soft and hard states. We extend this construction to supertranslations.

Two-loop scattering amplitudes: double-forward limit and colour-kinematics duality

We propose new formulae for the two-loop n-point D-dimensional integrands of scattering amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory and gravity. The loop integrands are written as a double-forward limit of tree-level trivalent diagrams, and are inferred from the formalism of the two-loop scattering equations. We discuss the relationship between the formulae for non-supersymmetric theories and the Neveu-Schwarz sector of the formulae for maximally supersymmetric theories, which can be derived from ambitwistor strings. An important property of the loop integrands is that they are expressed in a representation that includes linear-type propagators. This representation exhibits a loop-level version of the colour- kinematics duality, which follows directly from tree level via the double-forward limit.

Scattering amplitude recursion relations in Batalin-Vilkovisky–quantizable theories

Tree-level scattering amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory satisfy a recursion relation due to Berends and Giele which yields e.g. the famous Parke-Taylor formula for MHV amplitudes. We show that the origin of this recursion relation becomes clear in the BV formalism, which encodes a field theory in an $L_\infty$-algebra. The recursion relation is obtained in the transition to a smallest representative in the quasi-isomorphism class of that $L_\infty$-algebra, known as a minimal model. In fact, the quasi-isomorphism contains all the information about the scattering theory. As we explain, the computation of such a minimal model is readily performed in any BV quantisable theory, which, in turn, produces recursion relations for its tree-level scattering amplitudes.

Soft limits of Yang-Mills amplitudes and conformal correlators

We study tree-level celestial amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory — Mellin transforms of multi-gluon scattering amplitudes that convert them into the correlators of conformal primary fields on two-dimensional celestial sphere. By using purely field-theoretical methods, we show that the soft conformal limit of celestial amplitudes, in which one of the primary field operators associated to gauge bosons becomes a dimension one current, is dominated by the contributions of low-energy soft particles. This result confirms conclusions reached by using Yang-Mills theory formulated in curvilinear coordinates, as pioneered by Strominger. By using well-known collinear limits of Yang-Mills amplitudes, we derive the OPE rules for the primary fields and the holomorphic currents arising in the conformally soft limit. The Ward identities following from OPE have the same form as the identities derived by using soft theorems.

New factorization relations for Yang-Mills amplitudes

A double-cover extension of the scattering equation formalism of Cachazo, He and Yuan (CHY) leads us to conjecture covariant factorization formulas of n-particle scattering amplitudes in Yang-Mills theories. Evidence is given that these factorization relations are related to Berends-Giele recursions through repeated use of partial fraction identities involving linearized propagators.

Analytic helicity amplitudes for two-loop five-gluon scattering: the single-minus case

We present a compact analytic expression for the leading colour two-loop five-gluon amplitude in Yang-Mills theory with a single negative helicity and four positive helicities. The analytic result is reconstructed from numerical evaluations over finite fields. The numerical method combines integrand reduction, integration-by-parts identities and Laurent expansion into a basis of pentagon functions to compute the coefficients directly from six-dimensional generalised unitarity cuts.

A complete two-loop, five-gluon helicity amplitude in Yang-Mills theory

We compute the integrand of the full-colour, two-loop, five-gluon scattering amplitude in pure Yang-Mills theory with all helicities positive, using generalized unitarity cuts. Tree-level BCJ relations, satisfied by amplitudes appearing in the cuts, allow us to deduce all the necessary non-planar information for the full-colour amplitude from known planar data. We present our result in terms of irreducible numerators, with colour factors derived from the multi-peripheral colour decomposition. Finally, the leading soft divergences are checked to reproduce the expected infrared behaviour.

Color kinematic symmetric (BCJ) numerators in a light-like gauge

Color-ordered tree level scattering amplitudes in Yang-Mills theories can be written as a sum over terms which display the various propagator poles of Feynman diagrams. The numerators in these expressions which are obtained by straightforward application of Feynman rules are not satisfying any particular relations, typically. However, by reshuffling terms, it is known that one can arrive at a set of numerators which satisfy the same Jacobi identity as the corresponding color factors. By extending previous work by us we show how this can be systematically accomplished within a Lagrangian framework. We construct an effective Lagrangian which yields tree-level color-kinematic symmetric numerators in Yang-Mills theories in a light-like gauge at five-points. The five-point effective Lagrangian is non-local and it is zero by Jacobi identity. The numerators obtained from it respect the original pole structure of the color-ordered amplitude. We discuss how this procedure can be systematically extended to higher order.

Cluster polylogarithms for scattering amplitudes

Motivated by the cluster structure of two-loop scattering amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory we define cluster polylogarithm functions. We find that all such functions of weight four are made up of a single simple building block associated with the A2 cluster algebra. Adding the requirement of locality on generalized Stasheff polytopes, we find that these A2 building blocks arrange themselves to form a unique function associated with the A3 cluster algebra. This A3 function manifests all of the cluster algebraic structure of the two-loop n-particle MHV amplitudes for all n, and we use it to provide an explicit representation for the most complicated part of the n = 7 amplitude as an example. This article is part of a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical devoted to ‘Cluster algebras in mathematical physics’.

Boundary behaviors for general off-shell amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory

The boundary behavior of amplitudes---the amplitudes' behavior under a large Britto-Cachazo-Feng-Witten (BCFW) momenta deformation for a pair of legs---in Yang-Mills theory is of great interest recently. In this article we analyze the boundary behavior of off-shell Yang-Mills amplitudes in Feynman gauge. The deformed legs can be either adjacent or nonadjacent. We find that a set of reduced vertices can be used to simplify the analysis and calculation of the boundary behavior of amplitudes. Boundary behavior for amplitudes with adjacent BCFW deformation is read off from the reduced vertices. Then we discover a relationship between a permutation sum with fixed color ordering of the legs and the improved boundary behavior for the off-shell amplitudes with a nonadjacent BCFW momenta deformation. Based on the boundary behavior, we generalize the BCFW recursion relation to calculate general tree-level off-shell amplitudes and analyze the relations between them.

Complex factorization and recursion for one-loop amplitudes

We consider the factorization of one-loop amplitudes at complex kinematic points. By determining the terms that are absent for real kinematics, we can construct a recursive ansatz for the purely rational pieces of one-loop amplitudes in massless theories. We illustrate this method by verifying the Bern et al. $n$-point ansatze for the single-minus one-loop amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory and by constructing the scalar contribution to the one-loop five-graviton maximal-helicity-violating scattering amplitude.

New relations for scattering amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory at loop level

The calculation of scattering amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory at loop level is important for the analysis of background processes at particle colliders as well as our understanding of perturbation theory at the quantum level. We present tools to derive relations for especially one-loop amplitudes, as well as several explicit examples for gauge theory coupled to a wide variety of matter. These tools originate in certain scaling behavior of permutation and cyclic sums of Yang-Mills tree amplitudes and loop integrands. In the latter case evidence exists for relations at all loop orders.

Monodromy-like relations for finite loop amplitudes

We investigate the existence of relations for finite one-loop amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory. Using a diagrammatic formalism and a remarkable connection between tree and loop level, we deduce sequences of amplitude relations for any number of external legs.

The momentum kernel of gauge and gravity theories

We derive an explicit formula for factorizing an $n$-point closed string amplitude into open string amplitudes. Our results are phrased in terms of a momentum kernel which in the limit of infinite string tension reduces to the corresponding field theory kernel. The same momentum kernel encodes the monodromy relations which lead to the minimal basis of color-ordered amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory. There are interesting consequences of the momentum kernel pertaining to soft limits of amplitudes. We also comment on surprising links between gravity and certain combinations of kinematic and color factors in gauge theory.

TWISTORS, YANG-MILLS AMPLITUDES AND LANDAU LEVELS

We give a short discussion/review of the recent developments expressing the perturbative scattering amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory, specifically for the [Formula: see text] theory, in terms of holomorphic curves in a supersymmetric twistor space. Holomorphic curves, which are maps of CP1 to the supertwistor space, can also be interpreted as the lowest Landau level wave functions; this point of view is also briefly explained.