Parke-Taylor Factors Research Articles

On universal splittings of tree-level particle and string scattering amplitudes

In this paper, we study the newly discovered universal splitting behavior for tree-level scattering amplitudes of particles and strings [1]: when a set of Mandelstam variables (and Lorentz products involving polarizations for gluons/gravitons) vanish, the n-point amplitude factorizes as the product of two lower-point currents with n+3 external legs in total. We refer to any such subspace of the kinematic space of n massless momenta as “2-split kinematics”, where the scattering potential for string amplitudes and the corresponding scattering equations for particle amplitudes nicely split into two parts. Based on these, we provide a systematic and detailed study of the splitting behavior for essentially all ingredients which appear as integrands for open- and closed-string amplitudes as well as Cachazo-He-Yuan (CHY) formulas, including Parke-Taylor factors, correlators in superstring and bosonic string theories, and CHY integrands for a variety of amplitudes of scalars, gluons and gravitons. These results then immediately lead to the splitting behavior of string and particle amplitudes in a wide range of theories, including bi-adjoint ϕ3 (with string extension known as Z and J integrals), non-linear sigma model, Dirac-Born-Infeld, the special Galileon, etc., as well as Yang-Mills and Einstein gravity (with bosonic and superstring extensions). Our results imply and extend some other factorization behavior of tree amplitudes considered recently, including smooth splittings [2] and factorizations near zeros [3], to all these theories. A special case of splitting also yields soft theorems for gluons/gravitons as well as analogous soft behavior for Goldstone particles near their Adler zeros.

One-loop Bern-Carrasco-Johansson numerators on quadratic propagators from the worldsheet

We introduce a novel approach for deriving one-loop Bern-Carrasco-Johansson (BCJ) numerators and reveal the world-sheet origin of the one-loop double copy. Our work shows that expanding Cachazo-He-Yuan half-integrands into generalized Parke-Taylor factors intrinsically generates BCJ numerators on quadratic propagators satisfying Jacobi identities. We validate our methodology by successfully reproducing one-loop BCJ numerators for the nonlinear sigma model as well as those of pure Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions with all-plus or single-minus helicities. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

One-loop diagrams with quadratic propagators from the worldsheet

It is well known that forward limits of tree-level amplitudes (and those trivalent diagrams they consist of) produce one-loop amplitudes and trivalent diagrams with propagators linear in the loop momentum. They naturally arise from one-loop worldsheet formulae, and an important open problem is how to recombine them into usual one-loop diagrams with quadratic propagators. In this paper, we study a new collection of worldsheet functions: generalized one-loop Parke-Taylor factors with tensor numerators, which are conjectured to serve as a basis for one-loop worldsheet functions with this nice property. We present all-multiplicity, closed-form expressions for combinations of one-loop trivalent diagrams with quadratic propagators and tensor numerators to arbitrary rank (including possible tadpole contributions), produced by any pair of Parke-Taylor factors. We also briefly comment on reducing worldsheet functions onto such a basis, and applications to one-loop amplitudes in physical theories.

String correlators: recursive expansion, integration-by-parts and scattering equations

We further elaborate on the general construction proposed in [1], which connects, via tree-level double copy, massless string amplitudes with color-ordered QFT amplitudes that are given by Cachazo-He-Yuan formulas. The current paper serves as a detailed study of the integration-by-parts procedure for any tree-level massless string correlator outlined in the previous letter. We present two new results in the context of heterotic and (compactified) bosonic string theories. First, we find a new recursive expansion of any multitrace mixed correlator in these theories into a logarithmic part corresponding to the CHY integrand for Yang-Mills-scalar amplitudes, plus correlators with the total number of traces and gluons decreased. By iterating the expansion, we systematically reduce string correlators with any number of subcycles to linear combinations of Parke-Taylor factors and similarly for the case with gluons. Based on this, we then derive a CHY formula for the corresponding (DF)2 + YM + ϕ3 amplitudes. It is the first closed-form result for such multitrace amplitudes and thus greatly extends our result for the single-trace case. As a byproduct, it gives a new CHY formula for all Yang-Mills-scalar amplitudes. We also study consistency checks of the formula such as factorizations on massless poles.

Two-loop scattering amplitudes from ambitwistor strings: from genus two to the nodal Riemann sphere

We derive from ambitwistor strings new formulae for two-loop scattering amplitudes in supergravity and super-Yang-Mills theory, with any number of particles. We start by constructing a formula for the type II ambitwistor string amplitudes on a genus-two Riemann surface, and then study the localisation of the moduli space integration on a degenerate limit, where the genus-two surface turns into a Riemann sphere with two nodes. This leads to scattering amplitudes in supergravity, expressed in the formalism of the two-loop scattering equations. For super-Yang-Mills theory, we import ‘half’ of the supergravity result, and determine the colour dependence by considering a current algebra on the nodal Riemann sphere, thereby completely specifying the two-loop analogue of the Parke-Taylor factor, including non-planar contributions. We also present in appendices explicit expressions for the Szegő kernels and the partition functions for even spin structures, up to the relevant orders in the degeneration parameters, which may be useful for related investigations in conventional superstring theory.

Non-planar one-loop Parke-Taylor factors in the CHY approach for quadratic propagators

In this work we have studied the Kleiss-Kuijf relations for the recently introduced Parke-Taylor factors at one-loop in the CHY approach, that reproduce quadratic Feynman propagators. By doing this, we were able to identify the non-planar one-loop Parke-Taylor factors. In order to check that, in fact, these new factors can describe non-planar amplitudes, we applied them to the bi-adjoint Φ3 theory. As a byproduct, we found a new type of graphs that we called the non-planar CHY-graphs. These graphs encode all the information for the subleading order at one-loop, and there is not an equivalent of these in the Feynman formalism.

Labelled tree graphs, Feynman diagrams and disk integrals

In this note, we introduce and study a new class of “half integrands” in Cachazo-He-Yuan (CHY) formula, which naturally generalize the so-called Parke-Taylor factors; these are dubbed Cayley functions as each of them corresponds to a labelled tree graph. The CHY formula with a Cayley function squared gives a sum of Feynman diagrams, and we represent it by a combinatoric polytope whose vertices correspond to Feynman diagrams. We provide a simple graphic rule to derive the polytope from a labelled tree graph, and classify such polytopes ranging from the associahedron to the permutohedron. Furthermore, we study the linear space of such half integrands and find (1) a closed-form formula reducing any Cayley function to a sum of Parke-Taylor factors in the Kleiss-Kuijf basis (2) a set of Cayley functions as a new basis of the space; each element has the remarkable property that its CHY formula with a given Parke-Taylor factor gives either a single Feynman diagram or zero. We also briefly discuss applications of Cayley functions and the new basis in certain disk integrals of superstring theory.

One-loop Parke-Taylor factors for quadratic propagators from massless scattering equations

In this paper we reconsider the Cachazo-He-Yuan construction (CHY) of the so called scattering amplitudes at one-loop, in order to obtain quadratic propagators. In theories with colour ordering the key ingredient is the redefinition of the Parke-Taylor factors. After classifying all the possible one-loop CHY-integrands we conjecture a new one-loop amplitude for the massless Bi-adjoint Φ3 theory. The prescription directly reproduces the quadratic propagators of the traditional Feynman approach.

String-theoretic deformation of the Parke-Taylor factor

Scattering amplitudes in a range of quantum field theories can be computed using the Cachazo-He-Yuan (CHY) formalism. In theories with colour ordering, the key ingredient is the so-called Parke-Taylor factor. In this note we give a fully $\text{SL}(2,\mathbb{C})$-covariant definition and study the properties of a new integrand called the string Parke-Taylor factor. It has an $\alpha'$ expansion whose leading coefficient is the field-theoretic Parke-Taylor factor. Its main application is that it leads to a CHY formulation of open string tree-level amplitudes. In fact, the definition of the string Parke-Taylor factor was motivated by trying to extend the compact formula for the first $\alpha'$ correction found by He and Zhang, while the main ingredient in its definition is a determinant of a matrix introduced in the context of string theory by Stieberger and Taylor.

Connected formulas for amplitudes in standard model

Witten’s twistor string theory has led to new representations of S-matrix in massless QFT as a single object, including Cachazo-He-Yuan formulas in general and connected formulas in four dimensions. As a first step towards more realistic processes of the standard model, we extend the construction to QCD tree amplitudes with massless quarks and those with a Higgs boson. For both cases, we find connected formulas in four dimensions for all multiplicities which are very similar to the one for Yang-Mills amplitudes. The formula for quark-gluon color-ordered amplitudes differs from the pure-gluon case only by a Jacobian factor that depends on flavors and orderings of the quarks. In the formula for Higgs plus multi-parton amplitudes, the massive Higgs boson is effectively described by two additional massless legs which do not appear in the Parke-Taylor factor. The latter also represents the first twistor-string/connected formula for form factors.

Two-loop scattering amplitudes from the Riemann sphere

The scattering equations give striking formulae for massless scattering amplitudes at tree level and, as shown recently, at one loop. The progress at loop level was based on ambitwistor string theory, which naturally yields the scattering equations. We proposed that, for ambitwistor strings, the standard loop expansion in terms of the genus of the worldsheet is equivalent to an expansion in terms of nodes of a Riemann sphere, with the nodes carrying the loop momenta. In this paper, we show how to obtain two-loop scattering equations with the correct factorization properties. We adapt genus-two integrands from the ambitwistor string to the nodal Riemann sphere and show that these yield correct answers, by matching standard results for the four-point two-loop amplitudes of maximal supergravity and super-Yang-Mills theory. In the Yang-Mills case, this requires the loop analogue of the Parke-Taylor factor carrying the colour dependence, which includes non-planar contributions.

Direct evaluation of n-point single-trace MHV amplitudes in 4d Einstein-Yang-Mills theory using the CHY formalism

In this paper we extend our techniques, developed in a previous paper (Du, etc, JHEP 05(2016)086) for direct evaluation of arbitrary $n$-point tree-level MHV amplitudes in 4d Yang-Mills and gravity theory using the Cachazo-He-Yuan (CHY) formalism, to the 4d Einstein-Yang-Mills (EYM) theory. Any single-trace color-ordered $n$-point tree-level MHV amplitude in EYM theory, obtained by a direct evaluation of the CHY formula, is of an elegant factorized form of a Parke-Taylor factor and a Hodges determinant, much simpler and more compact than the existing formulas in the literature. We prove that our new expression is equivalent to the conjectured Selivanov-Bern-De Freitas-Wong (SBDW) formula, with the help of a new theorem showing that the SBDW generating function has a graph theory interpretation. Together with Ref. (Du, etc, JHEP 05(2016)086), we provide strong analytic evidence for hidden simplicity in quantum field theory.

On-shell structures of MHV amplitudes beyond the planar limit

We initiate an exploration of on-shell functions in N = 4 SYM beyond the planar limit by providing compact, combinatorial expressions for all leading singularities of MHV amplitudes and showing that they can always be expressed as a positive sum of dierently ordered Parke-Taylor tree amplitudes. This is understood in terms of an ex- tended notion of positivity in G(2;n), the Grassmannian of 2-planes in n dimensions: a single on-shell diagram can be associated with many dierent \positive regions, of which the familiar G+(2;n) associated with planar diagrams is just one example. The decom- position into Parke-Taylor factors is simply a \triangulation of these extended positive regions. The U(1) decoupling and Kleiss-Kuijf (KK) relations satised by the Parke-Taylor amplitudes also follow naturally from this geometric picture. These results suggest that non-planar MHV amplitudes inN = 4 SYM at all loop orders can be expressed as a sum of polylogarithms weighted by color factors and (unordered) Parke-Taylor amplitudes.

Fermions and the scattering equations

This paper investigates how tree-level amplitudes with massless quarks, gluons and/or massless scalars transforming under a single copy of the gauge group can be expressed in the context of the scattering equations as a sum over the inequivalent solutions of the scattering equations. In the case where the amplitudes satisfy cyclic invariance, KK- and BCJ-relations the only modification is the generalisation of the permutation invariant function E(z, p, e). We present a method to compute the modified E(z, p, e). The most important examples are tree amplitudes in $$ \mathcal{N}=4 $$ SYM and QCD amplitudes with one quark-antiquark pair and an arbitrary number of gluons. QCD amplitudes with two or more quark-antiquark pairs do not satisfy the BCJ-relations and require in addition a generalisation of the Parke-Taylor factors C σ(z). The simplest case of the QCD tree-level four-point amplitude with two quark-antiquark pairs is discussed explicitly.