Vanishing of 3-Loop Jacobi Diagrams of Odd Degree

We prove the vanishing of the space of 3-loop Jacobi diagrams of odd degree. This implies that no 3-loop finite-type invariant can distinguish between a knot and its inverse.Comment: 13 pages. Section on the even degree case expanded. Various minor correction

New BCJ representations for one-loop amplitudes in gauge theories and gravity

We explain a procedure to manifest the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson duality between color and kinematics in $n$-point one-loop amplitudes of a variety of supersymmetric gauge theories. Explicit amplitude representations are constructed through a systematic reorganization of the integrands in the Cachazo-He-Yuan formalism. Our construction holds for any nonzero number of supersymmetries and does not depend on the number of spacetime dimensions. The cancellations from supersymmetry multiplets in the loop as well as the resulting power counting of loop momenta is manifested along the lines of the corresponding superstring computations. The setup is used to derive the one-loop version of the Kawai-Lewellen-Tye formula for the loop integrands of gravitational amplitudes.Comment: 58 + 15 page

Topological Field Theory Interpretation of String Topology

The string bracket introduced by Chas and Sullivan [math.GT/9911159] is reinterpreted from the point of view of topological field theories in the Batalin-Vilkovisky or BRST formalisms. Namely, topological action functionals for gauge fields (generalizing Chern-Simons and BF theories) are considered together with generalized Wilson loops. The latter generate a (Poisson or Gerstenhaber) algebra of functionals with values in the $S^1$-equivariant cohomology of the loop space of the manifold on which the theory is defined. It is proved that, in the case of $GL_n$ with standard representation, the (Poisson or BV) bracket of two generalized Wilson loops applied to two cycles is the same as the generalized Wilson loop applied to the string bracket of the cycles. Generalizations to other groups are briefly described.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figure

BCJ duality and double copy in the closed string sector

This paper is focused on the loop-level understanding of the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson double copy procedure that relates the integrands of gauge theory and gravity scattering amplitudes. At four points, the first non-trivial example of that construction is one-loop amplitudes in N=2 super-Yang-Mills theory and the symmetric realization of N=4 matter-coupled supergravity. Our approach is to use both field and string theory in parallel to analyze these amplitudes. The closed string provides a natural framework to analyze the BCJ construction, in which the left- and right-moving sectors separately create the color and kinematics at the integrand level. At tree level, in a five-point example, we show that the Mafra-Schlotterer-Stieberger procedure gives a new direct proof of the color-kinematics double copy. We outline the extension of that argument to n points. At loop level, the field-theoretic BCJ construction of N=2 SYM amplitudes introduces new terms, unexpected from the string theory perspective. We discuss to what extent we can relate them to the terms coming from the interactions between left- and right-movers in the string-theoretic gravity construction.Comment: 46 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables; v3 significantly revised published versio

On soft singularities at three loops and beyond

We report on further progress in understanding soft singularities of massless gauge theory scattering amplitudes. Recently, a set of equations was derived based on Sudakov factorization, constraining the soft anomalous dimension matrix of multi-leg scattering amplitudes to any loop order, and relating it to the cusp anomalous dimension. The minimal solution to these equations was shown to be a sum over color dipoles. Here we explore potential contributions to the soft anomalous dimension that go beyond the sum-over-dipoles formula. Such contributions are constrained by factorization and invariance under rescaling of parton momenta to be functions of conformally invariant cross ratios. Therefore, they must correlate the color and kinematic degrees of freedom of at least four hard partons, corresponding to gluon webs that connect four eikonal lines, which first appear at three loops. We analyze potential contributions, combining all available constraints, including Bose symmetry, the expected degree of transcendentality, and the singularity structure in the limit where two hard partons become collinear. We find that if the kinematic dependence is solely through products of logarithms of cross ratios, then at three loops there is a unique function that is consistent with all available constraints. If polylogarithms are allowed to appear as well, then at least two additional structures are consistent with the available constraints.Comment: v2: revised version published in JHEP (minor corrections in Sec. 4; added discussion in Sec. 5.3; refs. added); v3: minor corrections (eqs. 5.11, 5.12 and 5.29); 38 pages, 3 figure

Area versus Length Distribution for Closed Random Walks

Using a connection between the $q$-oscillator algebra and the coefficients of the high temperature expansion of the frustrated Gaussian spin model, we derive an exact formula for the number of closed random walks of given length and area, on a hypercubic lattice, in the limit of infinite number of dimensions. The formula is investigated in detail, and asymptotic behaviours are evaluated. The area distribution in the limit of long loops is computed. As a byproduct, we obtain also an infinite set of new, nontrivial identities.Comment: 17 page

Abelian Z-theory: NLSM amplitudes and alpha'-corrections from the open string

In this paper we derive the tree-level S-matrix of the effective theory of Goldstone bosons known as the non-linear sigma model (NLSM) from string theory. This novel connection relies on a recent realization of tree-level open-superstring S-matrix predictions as a double copy of super-Yang-Mills theory with Z-theory --- the collection of putative scalar effective field theories encoding all the alpha'-dependence of the open superstring. Here we identify the color-ordered amplitudes of the NLSM as the low-energy limit of abelian Z-theory. This realization also provides natural higher-derivative corrections to the NLSM amplitudes arising from higher powers of alpha' in the abelian Z-theory amplitudes, and through double copy also to Born-Infeld and Volkov-Akulov theories. The Kleiss-Kuijf and Bern-Carrasco-Johansson relations obeyed by Z-theory amplitudes thereby apply to all alpha'-corrections of the NLSM. As such we naturally obtain a cubic-graph parameterization for the abelian Z-theory predictions whose kinematic numerators obey the duality between color and kinematics to all orders in alpha'.Comment: 37 pages; v2: references, explanations and arguments for factorization added; published versio

Scattering in Mass-Deformed N>=4 Chern-Simons Models

We investigate the scattering matrix in mass-deformed N>=4 Chern-Simons models including as special cases the BLG and ABJM theories of multiple M2 branes. Curiously the structure of this scattering matrix in three spacetime dimensions is equivalent to (a) the two-dimensional worldsheet matrix found in the context of AdS/CFT integrability and (b) the R-matrix of the one-dimensional Hubbard model. The underlying reason is that all three models are based on an extension of the psu(2|2) superalgebra which constrains the matrix completely. We also compute scattering amplitudes in one-loop field theory and find perfect agreement with scattering unitarity.Comment: 63 pages, v2: minor corrections, v3: minor improvement