14 research outputs found
Local Spacetime Physics from the Grassmannian
A duality has recently been conjectured between all leading singularities of
n-particle N^(k-2)MHV scattering amplitudes in N=4 SYM and the residues of a
contour integral with a natural measure over the Grassmannian G(k,n). In this
note we show that a simple contour deformation converts the sum of Grassmannian
residues associated with the BCFW expansion of NMHV tree amplitudes to the CSW
expansion of the same amplitude. We propose that for general k the same
deformation yields the (k-2) parameter Risager expansion. We establish this
equivalence for all MHV-bar amplitudes and show that the Risager degrees of
freedom are non-trivially determined by the GL(k-2) "gauge" degrees of freedom
in the Grassmannian. The Risager expansion is known to recursively construct
the CSW expansion for all tree amplitudes, and given that the CSW expansion
follows directly from the (super) Yang-Mills Lagrangian in light-cone gauge,
this contour deformation allows us to directly see the emergence of local
space-time physics from the Grassmannian.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures; v2: minor updates, typos correcte
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.Comment: 56 pages, 11 figures; v2: typos corrected, minor improvement
Amplitudes at Weak Coupling as Polytopes in AdS_5
We show that one-loop scalar box functions can be interpreted as volumes of
geodesic tetrahedra embedded in a copy of AdS_5 that has dual conformal
space-time as boundary. When the tetrahedron is space-like, it lies in a
totally geodesic hyperbolic three-space inside AdS_5, with its four vertices on
the boundary. It is a classical result that the volume of such a tetrahedron is
given by the Bloch-Wigner dilogarithm and this agrees with the standard physics
formulae for such box functions. The combinations of box functions that arise
in the n-particle one-loop MHV amplitude in N=4 super Yang-Mills correspond to
the volume of a three-dimensional polytope without boundary, all of whose
vertices are attached to a null polygon (which in other formulations is
interpreted as a Wilson loop) at infinity.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure
The All-Loop Integrand For Scattering Amplitudes in Planar N=4 SYM
We give an explicit recursive formula for the all L-loop integrand for
scattering amplitudes in N=4 SYM in the planar limit, manifesting the full
Yangian symmetry of the theory. This generalizes the BCFW recursion relation
for tree amplitudes to all loop orders, and extends the Grassmannian duality
for leading singularities to the full amplitude. It also provides a new
physical picture for the meaning of loops, associated with canonical operations
for removing particles in a Yangian-invariant way. Loop amplitudes arise from
the "entangled" removal of pairs of particles, and are naturally presented as
an integral over lines in momentum-twistor space. As expected from manifest
Yangian-invariance, the integrand is given as a sum over non-local terms,
rather than the familiar decomposition in terms of local scalar integrals with
rational coefficients. Knowing the integrands explicitly, it is straightforward
to express them in local forms if desired; this turns out to be done most
naturally using a novel basis of chiral, tensor integrals written in
momentum-twistor space, each of which has unit leading singularities. As simple
illustrative examples, we present a number of new multi-loop results written in
local form, including the 6- and 7-point 2-loop NMHV amplitudes. Very concise
expressions are presented for all 2-loop MHV amplitudes, as well as the 5-point
3-loop MHV amplitude. The structure of the loop integrand strongly suggests
that the integrals yielding the physical amplitudes are "simple", and
determined by IR-anomalies. We briefly comment on extending these ideas to more
general planar theories.Comment: 46 pages; v2: minor changes, references adde
Tree-Level Formalism
We review two novel techniques used to calculate tree-level scattering
amplitudes efficiently: MHV diagrams, and on-shell recursion relations. For the
MHV diagrams, we consider applications to tree-level amplitudes and focus in
particular on the N=4 supersymmetric formulation. We also briefly describe the
derivation of loop amplitudes using MHV diagrams. For the recursion relations,
after presenting their general proof, we discuss several applications to
massless theories with and without supersymmetry, to theories with massive
particles, and to graviton amplitudes in General Relativity. This article is an
invited review for a special issue of Journal of Physics A devoted to
"Scattering Amplitudes in Gauge Theories".Comment: 40 pages, 8 figures, invited review for a special issue of Journal of
Physics A devoted to "Scattering Amplitudes in Gauge Theories", R.
Roiban(ed), M. Spradlin(ed), A. Volovich(ed); v2: minor corrections,
references adde
Hidden Simplicity of Gauge Theory Amplitudes
These notes were given as lectures at the CERN Winter School on Supergravity,
Strings and Gauge Theory 2010. We describe the structure of scattering
amplitudes in gauge theories, focussing on the maximally supersymmetric theory
to highlight the hidden symmetries which appear. Using the BCFW recursion
relations we solve for the tree-level S-matrix in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory,
and describe how it produces a sum of invariants of a large symmetry algebra.
We review amplitudes in the planar theory beyond tree-level, describing the
connection between amplitudes and Wilson loops, and discuss the implications of
the hidden symmetries.Comment: 46 pages, 15 figures. v2 ref added, typos fixe
Basics of Generalized Unitarity
We review generalized unitarity as a means for obtaining loop amplitudes from
on-shell tree amplitudes. The method is generally applicable to both
supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric amplitudes, including non-planar
contributions. Here we focus mainly on N=4 Yang-Mills theory, in the context of
on-shell superspaces. Given the need for regularization at loop level, we also
review a six-dimensional helicity-based superspace formalism and its
application to dimensional and massive regularizations. An important feature of
the unitarity method is that it offers a means for carrying over any identified
tree-level property of on-shell amplitudes to loop level, though sometimes in a
modified form. We illustrate this with examples of dual conformal symmetry and
a recently discovered duality between color and kinematics.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures. Invited review for a special issue of Journal
of Physics A devoted to "Scattering Amplitudes in Gauge Theories", R.
Roiban(ed), M. Spradlin(ed), A. Volovich(ed
Generic multiloop methods and application to N=4 super-Yang-Mills
We review some recent additions to the tool-chest of techniques for finding
compact integrand representations of multiloop gauge-theory amplitudes -
including non-planar contributions - applicable for N=4 super-Yang-Mills in
four and higher dimensions, as well as for theories with less supersymmetry. We
discuss a general organization of amplitudes in terms of purely cubic graphs,
review the method of maximal cuts, as well as some special D-dimensional
recursive cuts, and conclude by describing the efficient organization of
amplitudes resulting from the conjectured duality between color and kinematic
structures on constituent graphs.Comment: 42 pages, 18 figures, invited review for a special issue of Journal
of Physics A devoted to "Scattering Amplitudes in Gauge Theories", v2 minor
corrections, v3 added reference