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Einan Gardi

Publications and source records attributed to Einan Gardi.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Spacelike-Collinear Scattering by the Method of Regions

We study the spacelike-collinear limit of gauge-theory scattering amplitudes using the Method of Regions. The corresponding splitting amplitude violates strict collinear factorisation through its dependence on the non-collinear partons. While the associated colour dependence has long been known, starting at two loops the splitting amplitude also acquires dependence on their kinematics. We show that this kinematic dependence originates from a unique hidden region present in the asymptotic expansion of the five-point amplitude in the spacelike-collinear limit, but absent in the timelike limit. More generally, we propose that hidden regions provide the mechanism by which crossing-related asymptotic limits cease to be analytically connected. We develop a general algorithm for the systematic identification of hidden regions. Applying it to the five-point amplitude in super Yang-Mills theory, we compute the hidden-region contributions to the complete set of basis integrals and recover the exact kinematically dependent factorisation-violating splitting amplitude. In momentum space, the hidden region is characterised by soft and Glauber loop momenta. This explains why the Wilson-line calculation captures the complete kinematic dependence, thereby accounting for the observed universality across gauge theories.

hep-ph

Progress on the soft anomalous dimension in QCD

We review the state-of-the-art knowledge of IR singularities in multileg QCD amplitudes, identifying the key reasons for the remarkable simplicity of the soft anomalous dimension. We then present a novel strategy to compute this quantity using a lightcone expansion of correlators of semi-infinite Wilson lines by the Method of Regions. Recently, this strategy allowed us to determine the three-loop soft anomalous dimension for amplitudes consisting of a single massive coloured particle with any number of massless ones. It opens the way to computing this quantity for amplitudes involving two heavy particles at three loops and potentially going to higher loop orders.

hep-ph

Infrared singularities of multileg amplitudes with a massive particle at three loops

We determine the complete three-loop QCD soft anomalous dimension for multileg amplitudes involving a single massive coloured particle and any number of massless ones. This is achieved by applying a novel strategy based on a lightcone expansion of correlators of semi-infinite Wilson lines using the method of regions. The resulting region integrals depend exclusively on rescaling-invariant ratios that remain finite in the limit. We evaluate these integrals using differential equation techniques. The result is written in terms of uniform weight five generalised polylogarithms of a twelve letter alphabet in three variables, and is compatible with the massless limit as well as with two- and three-particle collinear factorization.

hep-ph

Computing the soft anomalous dimension with massless particles using the method of regions

It is well known that soft singularities of massless amplitudes are significantly simpler than those of massive ones. However, the computation of the soft anomalous dimension (AD) using Wilson-lines correctors is only straightforward in the massive case, thanks to the multiplicative renormalizability of correlators of non-lightlike Wilson lines. Instead, correlators involving lightlike lines, develop higher-order poles in dimensional regularization due to collinear singularities, on top of their ultraviolet divergences. We nevertheless show, using the method of regions, how correlators involving lightlike lines can be interpreted and used in the computation of the multileg soft AD. As a case study, we compute the two-loop soft AD for two massive and one massless particles. To this end, we start with the correlator of three timelike Wilson lines and apply the method of regions in the limit where one of the lines becomes lightlike. A correlator involving a strictly lightlike line then emerges as the "hard region" in this expansion. Its collinear divergences are removed upon adding the remaining regions, recovering the correct ultraviolet pole corresponding to the sought-after AD. By applying the method of regions, we are able to disentangle between ultraviolet and infrared divergences appearing in the strict limit. We also discover new phenomena, such as hard-virtuality collinear modes whose presence reflects the rescaling symmetry of semi-infinite Wilson lines. Our approach generalizes to any combination of massive and massless particles at higher loop order.

hep-ph

Infrared singularities and the collinear limits of multi-leg scattering amplitudes

Scattering amplitudes are expected to admit a factorised structure in special kinematic limits, such as the Regge, soft and collinear limits. However, less is known about the precise mechanisms through which factorisation of $n$-particle scattering amplitudes is realised at high perturbative orders, where more complex structures arise. Starting with the soft anomalous dimension, in this work we investigate the multi-particle collinear limits of massless amplitudes at three- and four-loop orders. Using colour conservation and rescaling symmetry, we show how strict collinear factorisation of multiple massless final-state coloured particles is realised, and provide results for the corresponding splitting amplitude soft anomalous dimensions. In particular, we demonstrate through four loops that the conditions on the structure of the soft anomalous dimension that are required by strict collinear factorisation in all two-particle collinear limits, are sufficient to guarantee such factorisation also in any multiple collinear limit. Then, assuming that strict collinear factorisation of massless partons holds also for amplitudes containing massive coloured particles, we derive new constraints on the soft anomalous dimension from multi-collinear limits.

hep-ph

Regge factorization of tree-level QCD amplitudes using a minimal set of lightcone variables

We represent the multi-leg tree-level amplitudes of quarks and gluons using a minimal set of lightcone variables, which incorporate all on-shell and momentum conservation conditions and naturally captures the separate longitudinal and transverse momentum components. These variables make it easy to eliminate spurious poles and consider multi-Regge kinematic limits. In this framework we examine the factorization of tree-level amplitudes in rapidity and extract all two, three and four parton Multi-Regge Emission Vertices (MREVs), both central and peripheral, and summarise them in a Mathematica library, MREV. We investigate in detail how relations between amplitudes translate into relations between MREVs. These relations, along with factorization properties in further kinematic limits, provide robust consistency checks of the results.

hep-ph

The Two-Loop Lipatov Vertex in QCD

High-energy factorization of 2 -> 2 amplitudes in QCD has been recently pushed to the next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic order by determining the three-loop gluon Regge trajectory. This was based on computing multi-Reggeon exchanges using rapidity evolution in the shock-wave formalism, and disentangling between the Regge pole and Regge cut contributions. In the present paper we extend the relevant theoretical framework to 2 -> 3 processes, and compute all multi-Reggeon exchanges necessary for extracting the two-loop Reggeon-gluon-Reggeon Lipatov vertex from 2 -> 3 amplitudes. Then, specializing general amplitude methods to multi-Regge kinematics, we derive analytic expressions for non-planar two-loop gg -> ggg, gq -> ggq and qq -> qgq QCD amplitudes in that limit. Matching these to the multi-Reggeon computation, we determine the QCD Lipatov vertex in dimensional regularization at two loops through finite terms. We also determine the one-loop vertex through O(epsilon^4). All results are expressed in a compact form in terms of a basis of single-valued generalised polylogarithms, manifesting target-projectile symmetry and reality properties. Furthermore, our basis of functions is explicitly finite in the soft limit, featuring delicate cancellation of spurious rational poles by transcendental functions. Agreement between all three partonic channels, as well agreement of the maximal weight contributions with the super Yang-Mills Lipatov vertex provide robust checks of the result.

hep-ph

Regge poles and cuts and the Lipatov vertex

Scattering amplitudes in the high-energy limit can be described in terms of their singularity structure in the complex angular momentum plane, consisting of Regge poles and cuts. In QCD, gluon Reggeization has long been understood as a manifestation of a Regge pole, but until recently Reggeization violation remained largely obscure. New methods, based on iterative solution of rapidity evolution equations, facilitate direct computation of components of the amplitude which are mediated by multi-Reggeon exchange, a manifestation of Regge cuts. Upon disentangling the Regge cut from the pole we are now able to extract the pole parameters from state-of-the-art fixed-order computations (3 loops) and make predictions regarding certain components of the amplitude to higher loop orders. In this talk I review the key ideas which led to this progress, describe where we stand in exploring the structure of 2 -> 2 and 2 -> 3 amplitudes in the (multi-) Regge limit, and comment on the interplay between this research and the study of infrared factorization.

hep-ph

Revealing Hidden Regions in Wide-Angle and Forward Scattering

We discuss a class of Feynman Integrals containing hidden regions that are not straightforwardly identified using the geometric, or Newton polytope, approach to the method of regions. Using Landau singularity analysis and existing analytic results, we study the appearance of such regions in wide-angle and forward scattering and discuss how they can be exposed in both the momentum and parametric representations. We demonstrate that in the strict on-shell limit such integrals contain Landau singularities that prevent their direct numerical evaluation in parameter space and describe how they can be re-parameterised and dissected to circumvent this problem.

hep-th

Dissecting polytopes: Landau singularities and asymptotic expansions in $2\to 2$ scattering

Parametric representations of Feynman integrals have a key property: many, frequently all, of the Landau singularities appear as endpoint divergences. This leads to a geometric interpretation of the singularities as faces of Newton polytopes, which facilitates algorithmic evaluation by sector decomposition and asymptotic expansion by the method of regions. Here we identify cases where some singularities appear instead as pinches in parametric space for general kinematics, and we then extend the applicability of sector decomposition and the method of regions algorithms to such integrals, by dissecting the Newton polytope on the singular locus. We focus on $2\to 2$ massless scattering, where we show that pinches in parameter space occur starting from three loops in particular nonplanar graphs due to cancellation between terms of opposite sign in the second Symanzik polynomial. While the affected integrals cannot be evaluated by standard sector decomposition, we show how they can be computed by first linearising the graph polynomial and then splitting the integration domain at the singularity, so as to turn it into an endpoint divergence. Furthermore, we demonstrate that obtaining the correct asymptotic expansion of such integrals by the method of regions requires the introduction of new regions, which can be systematically identified as facets of the dissected polytope. In certain instances, these hidden regions exclusively govern the leading power behaviour of the integral. In momentum space, we find that in the on-shell expansion for wide-angle scattering the new regions are characterised by having two or more connected hard subgraphs, while in the Regge limit they are characterised by Glauber modes.

hep-th

The on-shell expansion: from Landau equations to the Newton polytope

We study the application of the method of regions to Feynman integrals with massless propagators contributing to off-shell Green's functions in Minkowski spacetime (with non-exceptional momenta) around vanishing external masses, $p_i^2\to 0$. This on-shell expansion allows us to identify all infrared-sensitive regions at any power, in terms of infrared subgraphs in which a subset of the propagators become collinear to external lightlike momenta and others become soft. We show that each such region can be viewed as a solution to the Landau equations, or equivalently, as a facet in the Newton polytope constructed from the Symanzik graph polynomials. This identification allows us to study the properties of the graph polynomials associated with infrared regions, as well as to construct a graph-finding algorithm for the on-shell expansion, which identifies all regions using exclusively graph-theoretical conditions. We also use the results to investigate the analytic structure of integrals associated with regions in which every connected soft subgraph connects to just two jets. For such regions we prove that multiple on-shell expansions commute. This applies in particular to all regions in Sudakov form-factor diagrams as well as in any planar diagram.

hep-th

The Diagrammatic Coaction

The diagrammatic coaction underpins the analytic structure of Feynman integrals, their cuts and the differential equations they admit. The coaction maps any diagram into a tensor product of its pinches and cuts. These correspond respectively to differential forms defining master integrals, and integration contours which place a subset of the propagators on shell. In a canonical basis these forms and contours are dual to each other. In this talk I review our present understanding of this algebraic structure and its manifestation for dimensionally-regularized Feynman integrals that are expandable to polylogarithms around integer dimensions. Using one- and two-loop integral examples, I will explain the duality between forms and contours, and the correspondence between the local coaction acting on the Laurent coefficients in the dimensional regulator and the global coaction acting on generalised hypergeometric functions.

hep-th

High-energy limit of $2\to 2$ scattering amplitudes at NNLL

The high-energy limit of $2\to 2$ scattering amplitudes offers an excellent setting to explore the universal features of gauge theories. At Leading Logarithmic (LL) accuracy the partonic amplitude is governed by Regge poles in the complex angular momentum plane. Beyond LL, Regge cuts in this plane begin to play an important role. Specifically, the real part of the amplitude at Next-to-Next-to-Leading Logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy presents for the first time both a Regge pole and a Regge cut. Analysing this tower of logarithms and computing it explicitly through four loops we are able to systematically separate between the Regge pole and the Regge cut. The former involves two fundamental parameters, namely the gluon Regge trajectory and impact factors. We explain how to consistently define the impact factors at two loops and the Regge trajectory at three loops. We confirm that the singularities of the trajectory are given by the cusp anomalous dimension. We also show that the Regge-cut contribution at four loop is nonplanar.

hep-ph

One-loop central-emission vertex for two gluons in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory

A necessary ingredient for extending the BFKL equation to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy is the one-loop central emission vertex (CEV) for two gluons which are not strongly ordered in rapidity. Here we consider the one-loop six-gluon amplitude in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills (SYM) theory in a central next-to-multi-Regge kinematic (NMRK) limit, we show that its dispersive part factorises in terms of the two-gluon CEV, and we use it to extract the one-loop two-gluon CEV for any helicity configuration within this theory. This is a component of the two-gluon CEV in QCD. Although computed in the NMRK limit, both the colour structure and the kinematic dependence of the two-gluon CEV capture much of the complexity of the six-gluon amplitudes in general kinematics. In fact, the transcendental functions of the latter can be conveniently written in terms of impact factors, trajectories, single-emission CEVs and a remainder, which is a function of the conformally invariant cross ratios which characterise the six-gluon amplitudes in planar $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM. Finally, as expected, in the MRK limit the two-gluon CEV neatly factorises in terms of two single-emission CEVs.

hep-ph

Disentangling the Regge cut and Regge pole in perturbative QCD

The high-energy limit of gauge-theory amplitudes features both a Regge pole and Regge cuts. We show how to disentangle these, and hence how to determine the Regge trajectory beyond two loops. While the nonplanar part of multiple Reggeon $t$-channel exchange forms a Regge cut, the planar part contributes to the pole along with the single Reggeon. With this, we find that the infrared singularities of the trajectory are given by the cusp anomalous dimension. By matching to recent QCD results, we determine the quark and gluon impact factors to two loops and the Regge trajectory to three loops.

hep-ph

Scattering amplitudes in the Regge limit and the soft anomalous dimension through four loops

Using rapidity evolution equations we study two-to-two gauge-theory scattering amplitudes in the Regge limit. We carry out explicit computations at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy through four loops and present new results for both infrared-singular and finite contributions to the amplitude. New techniques are devised in order to derive the colour structure stemming from three-Reggeon exchange diagrams in terms of commutators of channel operators, obtaining results that are valid for any gauge group, and apply to scattered particles in any colour representation. We also elucidate the separation between contributions to the Regge cut and Regge pole in the real part of the amplitude to all loop orders. We show that planar contributions due to multiple-Reggeon exchange diagrams can be factorised as a Regge pole along with the single-Reggeon exchange, and when this is done, the singular part of the gluon Regge trajectory is directly determined by the cusp anomalous dimension. We explicitly compute the Regge cut component of the amplitude through four loops and show that it is non-planar. From a different perspective, the new results provide important information on soft singularities in general kinematics beyond the planar limit: by comparing the computed corrections to the general form of the four-loop soft anomalous dimension we derive powerful constraints on its kinematic dependence, opening the way for a bootstrap-based determination.

hep-ph

The Soft Anomalous Dimension at four loops in the Regge Limit

The soft anomalous dimension governs the infrared divergences of scattering amplitudes in general kinematics to all orders in perturbation theory. By comparing the recent Regge-limit results for $2\to2$ scattering (through Next-to-Next-to-Leading Logarithms) in full colour to a general form for the soft anomalous dimension at four loops we derive powerful constraints on its kinematic dependence, opening the way for a bootstrap-based determination.

hep-ph

Two-parton scattering in the high-energy limit: climbing two- and three-Reggeon ladders

We review recent progress on the calculation of scattering amplitudes in the high-energy limit. We start by illustrating the shockwave formalism, which allows one to calculate amplitudes as iterated solutions of rapidity evolution equations. We then focus on our recent results regarding $2\to 2$ parton scattering. We present the calculation of the imaginary part of the amplitude, at next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy in the high-energy logarithms, formally to all orders, and in practice to 13 loops. We then discuss the computation of the real part of the amplitude at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy and through four loops. Both computations are carried in full colour, and provide new insight into the analytic structure of scattering amplitudes and their infrared singularity structure.

hep-ph