The gluon Regge trajectory at three loops from planar Yang-Mills theory

Abstract

We compute the three-loop leading-colour corrections to the Yang-Mills Regge trajectory and gluon impact factor. Conjecturing that, in analogy with $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills (SYM), in a suitable scheme $N_c$-subleading terms are absent from the three-loop Regge trajectory, we understand our result as the first computation of the pure gauge, or $n_f = 0$, part of the QCD three-loop Regge trajectory. The results are presented both for the bare and renormalised amplitudes and are consistent with predictions from infrared factorisation along with reproducing known results in planar $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM through a maximal weight truncation. We also include the dependence on a Regge factorisation scale to facilitate future applications in BFKL theory at next-to-next-to leading logarithmic accuracy.