Twistor String Theory Research Articles

All-order celestial OPE in the MHV sector

On-shell kinematics for gluon scattering can be parametrized with points on the celestial sphere; in the limit where these points collide, it is known that tree-level gluon scattering amplitudes exhibit an operator product expansion (OPE)-like structure. While it is possible to obtain singular contributions to this celestial OPE, getting regular contributions from both holomorphic and anti-holomorphic sectors is more difficult. In this paper, we use twistor string theory to describe the maximal helicity violating (MHV) sector of tree-level, four-dimensional gluon scattering as an effective 2d conformal field theory on the celestial sphere. By organizing the OPE between vertex operators in this theory in terms of soft gluon descendants, we obtain all-order expressions for the celestial OPE which include all regular contributions in the collinear expansion. This gives new, all-order formulae for the collinear splitting function (in momentum space) and celestial OPE coefficients (in the conformal primary basis) of tree-level MHV gluon scattering. We obtain these results for both positive and negative helicity gluons, and for any incoming/outgoing kinematic configuration within the MHV sector.

Gluon Scattering on Self-Dual Radiative Gauge Fields

We present all-multiplicity formulae, derived from first principles in the MHV sector and motivated by twistor string theory for general helicities, for the tree-level S-matrix of gluon scattering on self-dual radiative backgrounds. These backgrounds are chiral, asymptotically flat gauge fields characterised by their free radiative data, and their underlying integrability is captured by twistor theory. Tree-level gluon scattering scattering amplitudes are expressed as integrals over the moduli space of holomorphic maps from the Riemann sphere to twistor space, with the degree of the map related to the helicity configuration of the external gluons. In the MHV sector, our formula is derived from the Yang–Mills action; for general helicities the formulae are obtained using a background-coupled twistor string theory and pass several consistency tests. Unlike amplitudes on a trivial vacuum, there are residual integrals due to the functional freedom in the self-dual background, but for scattering of momentum eigenstates we are able to do many of these explicitly and even more is possible in the special case of plane wave backgrounds. In general, the number of these integrals is always less than expected from standard perturbation theory, but matches the number associated with space-time MHV rules in a self-dual background field, which we develop for self-dual plane waves.

String Dual to Free N=4 Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory.

We propose a worldsheet description for the AdS_{5}×S^{5} string theory dual to large N, free N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions. The worldsheet theory is a natural generalization of the recently investigated tensionless string on AdS_{3}×S^{3}×T^{4}. As in the case of AdS_{3} it has a free field description, with spectrally flowed sectors, and is closely related to an (ambi-)twistor string theory. Here, however, we view it as a critical N=4 (closed) string background. We argue that the corresponding worldsheet gauge constraints reduce the degrees of freedom to a finite number of oscillators (string bits) in each spectrally flowed sector. Imposing a set of residual gauge constraints on this reduced oscillator Fock space then determines the physical spectrum of the string theory. Quite remarkably, we find that this prescription reproduces precisely the entire planar spectrum-of single trace operators-of the free supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory.

On divergences in non-minimal conformal supergravity

We review the question of quantum consistency of conformal supergravity in 4 dimensions. The UV divergences and anomalies of the standard (‘minimal’) conformal supergravity where the complex scalar is not coupled to the Weyl graviton kinetic term can be cancelled by coupling this theory to super Yang–Mills with gauge group of dimension 4. The same turns out to be true also for the ‘non-minimal’ conformal supergravity with the action (recently constructed (Butter et al 2017 Phys. Rev. Lett. 118 081602)) depending on an arbitrary holomorphic function . The special case of the ‘non-minimal’ conformal supergravity with appears in the twistor-string theory. We show that divergences and anomalies do not depend on the form of the function f and thus can be cancelled just as in the ‘minimal’ case by coupling the theory to four vector multiplets.

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.

A note on connected formula for form factors

In this note we study the connected prescription, originally derived from Witten's twistor string theory, for tree-level form factors in ${\cal N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills theory. The construction is based on the recently proposed four-dimensional scattering equations with $n$ massless on-shell states and one off-shell state, which we expect to work for form factors of general operators. To illustrate the universality of the prescription, we propose compact formulas for super form factors with chiral stress-tensor multiplet operator, and bosonic ones with scalar operators ${\rm Tr}(\phi^m)$ for arbitrary $m$.

Scattering equations, twistor-string formulas and double-soft limits in four dimensions

We study scattering equations and formulas for tree amplitudes of various theories in four dimensions, in terms of spinor helicity variables and on-shell superspace for supersymmetric theories. As originally obtained in Witten's twistor string theory and other twistor-string models, the equations can take either polynomial or rational forms, and we clarify the simple relation between them. We present new, four-dimensional formulas for all tree amplitudes in the non-linear sigma model, a special Galileon theory and the maximally supersymmetric completion of the Dirac-Born-Infeld theory. Furthermore, we apply the formulas to study various double-soft theorems in these theories, including the emissions of a pair of soft photons, fermions and scalars for super-amplitudes in super-DBI theory.

Ambitwistor strings in four dimensions.

We develop ambitwistor string theories for four dimensions to obtain new formulas for tree-level gauge and gravity amplitudes with arbitrary amounts of supersymmetry. Ambitwistor space is the space of complex null geodesics in complexified Minkowski space, and in contrast to earlier ambitwistor strings, we use twistors rather than vectors to represent this space. Although superficially similar to the original twistor string theories of Witten, Berkovits, and Skinner, these theories differ in the assignment of world sheet spins of the fields, rely on both twistor and dual twistor representatives for the vertex operators, and use the ambitwistor procedure for calculating correlation functions. Our models are much more flexible, no longer requiring maximal supersymmetry, and the resulting formulas for amplitudes are simpler, having substantially reduced moduli. These are supported on the solutions to the scattering equations refined according to helicity and can be checked by comparison with corresponding formulas of Witten and of Cachazo and Skinner.

Ambitwistor strings and the scattering equations

We show that string theories admit chiral infinite tension analogues in which only the massless parts of the spectrum survive. Geometrically they describe holomorphic maps to spaces of complex null geodesics, known as ambitwistor spaces. They have the standard critical space-time dimensions of string theory (26 in the bosonic case and 10 for the superstring). Quantization leads to the formulae for tree-level scattering amplitudes of massless particles found recently by Cachazo, He and Yuan. These representations localize the vertex operators to solutions of the same equations found by Gross and Mende to govern the behaviour of strings in the limit of high energy, fixed angle scattering. Here, localization to the scattering equations emerges naturally as a consequence of working on ambitwistor space. The worldsheet theory suggests a way to extend these amplitudes to spinor fields and to loop level. We argue that this family of string theories is a natural extension of the existing twistor string theories.

Twistor-strings and gravity tree amplitudes

Recently we discussed how Einstein supergravity tree amplitudes might be obtained from the original Witten and Berkovits twistor-string theory when external conformal gravitons are restricted to be Einstein gravitons. Here we obtain a more systematic understanding of the relationship between conformal and Einstein gravity amplitudes in that twistor-string theory. We show that although it does not in general yield Einstein amplitudes, we can nevertheless obtain some partial twistor-string interpretation of the remarkable formulae recently been found by Hodges and generalized to all tree amplitudes by Cachazo and Skinner. The Hodges matrix and its higher degree generalizations encode the world sheet correlators of the twistor string. These matrices control both Einstein amplitudes and those of the conformal gravity arising from the Witten and Berkovits twistor-string. Amplitudes in the latter case arise from products of the diagonal elements of the generalized Hodges matrices and reduced determinants give the former. The reduced determinants arise if the contractions in the worldsheet correlator are restricted to form connected trees at MHV. The (generalized) Hodges matrices arise as weighted Laplacian matrices for the graph of possible contractions in the correlators and the reduced determinants of these weighted Laplacian matrices give the sum of the connected tree contributions by an extension of the matrix-tree theorem.

Moduli stacks of maps for supermanifolds

We consider the moduli problem of stable maps from a Riemann surface into a supermanifold; in twistor-string theory, this is the instanton moduli space. By developing the algebraic geometry of supermanifolds to include a treatment of super-stacks we prove that such moduli problems, under suitable conditions, give rise to Deligne-Mumford superstacks (where all of these objects have natural definitions in terms of super-geometry). We make some observations about the properties of these moduli super-stacks, as well as some remarks about their application in physics and their associated Gromov-Witten theory.

Integral Formula for Supersymmetric Scattering Amplitudes in Three Dimensions

We propose a new integral formula for all tree-level scattering amplitudes of N = 6 supersymmetric Chern-Simons theory. It resembles the Roiban-Spradlin-Volovich-Witten formula for N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory based on a twistor string theory formulation. Our formula implies that the (2k)-point tree-level amplitude is closely related to degree (k-1) curves in CP(k-1).

Einstein supergravity amplitudes from twistor-string theory

This paper gives a twistor-string formulation for all tree amplitudes of Einstein (super-)gravities for and 4. Formulae are given with and without cosmological constant and with various possibilities for the gauging. The formulae are justified by use of Maldacena's observation that conformal gravity tree amplitudes with Einstein wavefunctions and non-zero cosmological constant will correctly give the Einstein tree amplitudes. This justifies the construction of Einstein gravity amplitudes at from twistor-string theory and is extended to by requiring the standard relation between the MHV-degree and the degree of the rational curve for Yang–Mills; this systematically excludes the spurious conformal supergravity gravity contributions. For comparison, BCFW recursion is used to obtain twistor-string-like formulae at degree 0 and 1 (anti-MHV and MHV) for amplitudes with supersymmetry with and without cosmological constant.

Complete equivalence between gluon tree amplitudes in twistor string theory and in gauge theory

The gluon tree amplitudes of open twistor string theory, defined as contour integrals over the ACCK link variables, are shown to satisfy the BCFW relations, thus confirming that they coincide with the corresponding amplitudes in gauge field theory. In this approach, the integration contours are specified as encircling the zeros of certain constraint functions that force the appropriate relation between the link variables and the twistor string world-sheet variables. To do this, methods for calculating the tree amplitudes using link variables are developed further including diagrammatic methods for organizing and performing the calculations.

Complete equivalence between gluon tree amplitudes in twistor string theory and in gauge theory

Complete equivalence between gluon tree amplitudes in twistor string theory and in gauge theory

Unification of residues and Grassmannian dualities

The conjectured duality relating all-loop leading singularities of n-particle N^(k-2)MHV scattering amplitudes in N=4 SYM to a simple contour integral over the Grassmannian G(k,n) makes all the symmetries of the theory manifest. Every residue is individually Yangian invariant, but does not have a local space-time interpretation--only a special sum over residues gives physical amplitudes. In this paper we show that the sum over residues giving tree amplitudes can be unified into a single algebraic variety, which we explicitly construct for all NMHV and N^2MHV amplitudes. Remarkably, this allows the contour integral to have a "particle interpretation" in the Grassmannian, where higher-point amplitudes can be constructed from lower-point ones by adding one particle at a time, with soft limits manifest. We move on to show that the connected prescription for tree amplitudes in Witten's twistor string theory also admits a Grassmannian particle interpretation, where the integral over the Grassmannian localizes over the Veronese map from G(2,n) to G(k,n). These apparently very different theories are related by a natural deformation with a parameter t that smoothly interpolates between them. For NMHV amplitudes, we use a simple residue theorem to prove t-independence of the result, thus establishing a novel kind of duality between these theories.

A grassmannian étude in NMHV minors

Arkani-Hamed, Cachazo, Cheung and Kaplan have proposed a Grassmannian formulation for the S-matrix of N=4 Yang-Mills as an integral over link variables. In parallel work, the connected prescription for computing tree amplitudes in Witten's twistor string theory has also been written in terms of link variables. In this paper we extend the six- and seven-point results of arXiv:0909.0229 and arXiv:0909.0499 by providing a simple analytic proof of the equivalence between the two formulas for all tree-level NMHV superamplitudes. Also we note that a simple deformation of the connected prescription integrand gives directly the ACCK Grassmannian integrand in the limit when the deformation parameters equal zero.

General split helicity gluon tree amplitudes in open twistor string theory

We evaluate all split helicity gluon tree amplitudes in open twistor string theory. We show that these amplitudes satisfy the BCFW recurrence relations restricted to the split helicity case and, hence, that these amplitudes agree with those of gauge theory. To do this we make a particular choice of the sextic constraints in the link variables that determine the poles contributing to the contour integral expression for the amplitudes. Using the residue theorem to re-express this integral in terms of contributions from poles at rational values of the link variables, which we determine, we evaluate the amplitudes explicitly, regaining the gauge theory results of Britto et al. [25].

Twistor-strings, Grassmannians and leading singularities

We derive a systematic procedure for obtaining an explicit, L-loop leading singularities of planar N=4 super Yang-Mills scattering amplitudes in twistor space directly from their momentum space channel diagrams. The expressions are given as integrals over the moduli of connected, nodal curves in twistor space whose degree and genus matches expectations from twistor-string theory. We propose that a twistor-string theory for pure N=4 super Yang-Mills, if it exists, is determined by the condition that these leading singularity formulae arise as residues when an unphysical contour for the path integral is used, by analogy with the momentum space leading singularity conjecture. We go on to show that the genus g twistor-string moduli space for g-loop N^{k-2}MHV amplitudes may be mapped into the Grassmannian G(k,n). Restricting to a leading singularity, the image of this map is a 2(n-2)-dimensional subcycle of G(k,n) of exactly the type found from the Grassmannian residue formula of Arkani-Hamed, Cachazo, Cheung and Kaplan. Based on this correspondence and the Grassmannian conjecture, we deduce restrictions on the possible leading singularities of multi-loop N^pMHV amplitudes. In particular, we argue that no new leading singularities can arise beyond 3p loops.

From twistor string theory to recursion relations

Witten's twistor string theory gives rise to an enigmatic formula [1] known as the ``connected prescription'' for tree-level Yang-Mills scattering amplitudes. We derive a link representation for the connected prescription by Fourier transforming it to mixed coordinates in terms of both twistor and dual twistor variables. We show that it can be related to other representations of amplitudes by applying the global residue theorem to deform the contour of integration. For six and seven particles we demonstrate explicitly that certain contour deformations rewrite the connected prescription as the Britto-Cachazo-Feng-Witten representation, thereby establishing a concrete link between Witten's twistor string theory and the dual formulation for the $S$ matrix of the $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM recently proposed by Arkani-Hamed et al. Other choices of integration contour also give rise to ``intermediate prescriptions.'' We expect a similar though more intricate structure for more general amplitudes.