Scattering Amplitudes as Programs: Self-Evolving Search for Theory and Event Generation

Abstract

By viewing scattering amplitudes as computer programs, we connect two goals: exposing useful analytic structure and constructing efficient numerical evaluators for collider phenomenology. Equivalent programs can differ sharply in multiplicity scaling, arithmetic complexity, cancellation, and runtime. Amplitude calculation therefore defines a structured search problem over analytic representations, recursive algorithms, colour and helicity organisation, and reuse of intermediate objects. We embed repository-scale coding agents inside an external generate-evaluate-select loop with frozen evaluators and objectives, and study three optimisation targets. A scaling search moves from BCFW recursion to a specialised fixed-k split-helicity transfer algorithm, reaching an 805x geometric-mean speed-up on the scored grid. A structural search reorganises NMHV terms into R-invariant-style cells and glued supercells, reducing inter-term cancellation. Across twenty QCD and electroweak processes, an exact-operation search reduces counted arithmetic by 47.7x and gives a 5.9x post-hoc Python runtime improvement. In matched pure-gluon component tests from n=4 to n=6, the evolved engine's speed advantage over the tested Sherpa-Comix exact-sum call grows from 10x to 277x, while its gap to process-specialised MadGraph5_aMC@NLO Fortran compiled at -O3 narrows from 77.7x to 13.7x. The searches move between mathematical representations and combine recursion, symmetry, basis reduction, dynamic programming, and shared computation into hybrid amplitude programs. They provide initial evidence that parts of amplitude optimisation can be made systematic through self-evolving program search, while leaving native generator integration and end-to-end event throughput as future tests. The generator comparison is an isolated exact matrix-element call, not a modification of MadGraph or Sherpa.