A minimal approach to the scattering of physical massless bosons

Rutger Boels (II. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, Hamburg, D-22761, Germany) ; Hui Luo (II. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, Hamburg, D-22761, Germany)

Tree and loop level scattering amplitudes which involve physical massless bosons are derived directly from physical constraints such as locality, symmetry and unitarity, bypassing path integral constructions. Amplitudes can be projected onto a minimal basis of kinematic factors through linear algebra, by employing four dimensional spinor helicity methods or at its most general using projection techniques. The linear algebra analysis is closely related to amplitude relations, especially the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson relations for gluon amplitudes and the Kawai-Lewellen-Tye relations between gluons and graviton amplitudes. Projection techniques are known to reduce the computation of loop amplitudes with spinning particles to scalar integrals. Unitarity, locality and integration-by-parts identities can then be used to fix complete tree and loop amplitudes efficiently. The loop amplitudes follow algorithmically from the trees. A number of proof-of-concept examples are presented. These include the planar four point two-loop amplitude in pure Yang-Mills theory as well as a range of one loop amplitudes with internal and external scalars, gluons and gravitons. Several interesting features of the results are highlighted, such as the vanishing of certain basis coefficients for gluon and graviton amplitudes. Effective field theories are naturally and efficiently included into the framework. Dimensional regularisation is employed throughout; different regularisation schemes are worked out explicitly. The presented methods appear most powerful in non-supersymmetric theories in cases with relatively few legs, but with potentially many loops. For instance, in the introduced approach iterated unitarity cuts of four point amplitudes for non-supersymmetric gauge and gravity theories can be computed by matrix multiplication, generalising the so-called rung-rule of maximally supersymmetric theories. The philosophy of the approach to kinematics also leads to a technique to control colour quantum numbers of scattering amplitudes with matter, especially efficient in the adjoint and fundamental representations.

{
  "license": [
    {
      "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0", 
      "license": "CC-BY-3.0"
    }
  ], 
  "copyright": [
    {
      "material": "Article", 
      "holder": "The Author(s)", 
      "year": "2018"
    }
  ], 
  "control_number": "25571", 
  "_oai": {
    "updated": "2018-11-20T10:51:10Z", 
    "id": "oai:repo.scoap3.org:25571", 
    "sets": [
      "JHEP"
    ]
  }, 
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        {
          "country": "Germany", 
          "value": "II. Institut f\u00fcr Theoretische Physik, Universit\u00e4t Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, Hamburg, D-22761, Germany", 
          "organization": "Universit\u00e4t Hamburg"
        }
      ], 
      "surname": "Boels", 
      "email": "Rutger.Boels@desy.de", 
      "full_name": "Boels, Rutger", 
      "given_names": "Rutger"
    }, 
    {
      "affiliations": [
        {
          "country": "Germany", 
          "value": "II. Institut f\u00fcr Theoretische Physik, Universit\u00e4t Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, Hamburg, D-22761, Germany", 
          "organization": "Universit\u00e4t Hamburg"
        }
      ], 
      "surname": "Luo", 
      "email": "Hui.Luo@desy.de", 
      "full_name": "Luo, Hui", 
      "given_names": "Hui"
    }
  ], 
  "_files": [
    {
      "checksum": "md5:6d74a6076ed3769202d0c2464a9b188d", 
      "filetype": "xml", 
      "bucket": "731f26c9-ee56-45e3-894a-7c9f27ff87f0", 
      "version_id": "f5d8594a-920e-4063-a04d-cca27a429205", 
      "key": "10.1007/JHEP05(2018)063.xml", 
      "size": 10758
    }, 
    {
      "checksum": "md5:24b757a4c829afd82b3ea0e355efd1d2", 
      "filetype": "pdf/a", 
      "bucket": "731f26c9-ee56-45e3-894a-7c9f27ff87f0", 
      "version_id": "b310b26a-3aa0-41f1-8e21-6211c73035fb", 
      "key": "10.1007/JHEP05(2018)063_a.pdf", 
      "size": 984820
    }
  ], 
  "record_creation_date": "2018-07-17T16:21:23.057967", 
  "titles": [
    {
      "source": "Springer", 
      "title": "A minimal approach to the scattering of physical massless bosons"
    }
  ], 
  "collections": [
    {
      "primary": "Journal of High Energy Physics"
    }
  ], 
  "dois": [
    {
      "value": "10.1007/JHEP05(2018)063"
    }
  ], 
  "publication_info": [
    {
      "page_end": "64", 
      "journal_title": "Journal of High Energy Physics", 
      "material": "article", 
      "journal_volume": "2018", 
      "year": 2018, 
      "page_start": "1", 
      "journal_issue": "5"
    }
  ], 
  "$schema": "http://repo.scoap3.org/schemas/hep.json", 
  "abstracts": [
    {
      "source": "Springer", 
      "value": "Tree and loop level scattering amplitudes which involve physical massless bosons are derived directly from physical constraints such as locality, symmetry and unitarity, bypassing path integral constructions. Amplitudes can be projected onto a minimal basis of kinematic factors through linear algebra, by employing four dimensional spinor helicity methods or at its most general using projection techniques. The linear algebra analysis is closely related to amplitude relations, especially the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson relations for gluon amplitudes and the Kawai-Lewellen-Tye relations between gluons and graviton amplitudes. Projection techniques are known to reduce the computation of loop amplitudes with spinning particles to scalar integrals. Unitarity, locality and integration-by-parts identities can then be used to fix complete tree and loop amplitudes efficiently. The loop amplitudes follow algorithmically from the trees. A number of proof-of-concept examples are presented. These include the planar four point two-loop amplitude in pure Yang-Mills theory as well as a range of one loop amplitudes with internal and external scalars, gluons and gravitons. Several interesting features of the results are highlighted, such as the vanishing of certain basis coefficients for gluon and graviton amplitudes. Effective field theories are naturally and efficiently included into the framework. Dimensional regularisation is employed throughout; different regularisation schemes are worked out explicitly. The presented methods appear most powerful in non-supersymmetric theories in cases with relatively few legs, but with potentially many loops. For instance, in the introduced approach iterated unitarity cuts of four point amplitudes for non-supersymmetric gauge and gravity theories can be computed by matrix multiplication, generalising the so-called rung-rule of maximally supersymmetric theories. The philosophy of the approach to kinematics also leads to a technique to control colour quantum numbers of scattering amplitudes with matter, especially efficient in the adjoint and fundamental representations."
    }
  ], 
  "imprints": [
    {
      "date": "2018-05-09", 
      "publisher": "Springer"
    }
  ], 
  "acquisition_source": {
    "date": "2018-11-20T10:15:42.844651", 
    "source": "Springer", 
    "method": "Springer", 
    "submission_number": "9e1fd546eca411e89d1402163e01809a"
  }
}
Published on:
09 May 2018
Publisher:
Springer
Published in:
Journal of High Energy Physics , Volume 2018 (2018)
Issue 5
Pages 1-64
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2018)063
Copyrights:
The Author(s)
Licence:
CC-BY-3.0

Fulltext files: