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Kasper J. Larsen

Publications and source records attributed to Kasper J. Larsen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Uniqueness of two-loop master contours

Generalized-unitarity calculations of two-loop amplitudes are performed by expanding the amplitude in a basis of master integrals and then determining the coefficients by taking a number of generalized cuts. In this paper, we present a complete classification of the solutions to the maximal cut of integrals with the double-box topology. The ideas presented here are expected to be relevant for all two-loop topologies as well. We find that these maximal-cut solutions are naturally associated with Riemann surfaces whose topology is determined by the number of states at the vertices of the double-box graph. In the case of four massless external momenta we find that, once the geometry of these Riemann surfaces is properly understood, there are uniquely defined master contours producing the coefficients of the double-box integrals in the basis decomposition of the two-loop amplitude. This is in perfect analogy with the situation in one-loop generalized unitarity. In addition, we point out that the chiral integrals recently introduced by Arkani-Hamed et al. can be used as master integrals for the double-box contributions to the two-loop amplitudes in any gauge theory. The infrared finiteness of these integrals allow for their coefficients as well as their integrated expressions to be evaluated in strictly four dimensions, providing significant technical simplification. We evaluate these integrals at four points and obtain remarkably compact results.

hep-ph

Global Poles of the Two-Loop Six-Point N=4 SYM integrand

Recently, a recursion relation has been developed, generating the four-dimensional integrand of the amplitudes of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory for any number of loops and legs. In this paper, I provide a comparison of the prediction for the two-loop six-point maximally helicity-violating (MHV) integrand against the result obtained by use of the leading singularity method. The comparison is performed numerically for a large number of randomly selected momenta and in all cases finds agreement between the two results to high numerical accuracy.

hep-th

Two-Loop Maximal Unitarity with External Masses

We extend the maximal unitarity method at two loops to double-box basis integrals with up to three external massive legs. We use consistency equations based on the requirement that integrals of total derivatives vanish. We obtain unique formulae for the coefficients of the master double-box integrals. These formulae can be used either analytically or numerically.

hep-th

Maximal Unitarity for the Four-Mass Double Box

We extend the maximal-unitarity formalism at two loops to double-box integrals with four massive external legs. These are relevant for higher-point processes, as well as for heavy vector rescattering, VV -> VV. In this formalism, the two-loop amplitude is expanded over a basis of integrals. We obtain formulas for the coefficients of the double-box integrals, expressing them as products of tree-level amplitudes integrated over specific complex multidimensional contours. The contours are subject to the consistency condition that integrals over them annihilate any integrand whose integral over real Minkowski space vanishes. These include integrals over parity-odd integrands and total derivatives arising from integration-by-parts (IBP) identities. We find that, unlike the zero- through three-mass cases, the IBP identities impose no constraints on the contours in the four-mass case. We also discuss the algebraic varieties connected with various double-box integrals, and show how discrete symmetries of these varieties largely determine the constraints.

hep-th

Imaginary parts and discontinuities of Wilson line correlators

We introduce a notion of position-space cuts of eikonal diagrams, the set of diagrams appearing in the perturbative expansion of the correlator of a set of straight semi-infinite Wilson lines. The cuts are applied directly to the position-space representation of any such diagram and compute its imaginary part to the leading order in the dimensional regulator. Our cutting prescription thus defines a position-space analog of the standard momentum-space Cutkosky rules. Unlike momentum-space cuts which put internal lines on shell, position-space cuts constrain a number of the gauge bosons exchanged between the energetic partons to be lightlike, leading to a vanishing and a non-vanishing imaginary part for space- and timelike kinematics, respectively.

hep-th

MultivariateResidues: a Mathematica package for computing multivariate residues

Multivariate residues appear in many different contexts in theoretical physics and algebraic geometry. In theoretical physics, they for example give the proper definition of generalized-unitarity cuts, and they play a central role in the Grassmannian formulation of the S-matrix by Arkani-Hamed et al. In realistic cases their evaluation can be non-trivial. In this paper we provide a Mathematica package for efficient evaluation of multidimensional residues based on methods from computational algebraic geometry. The package moreover contains an implementation of the global residue theorem, which produces relations between residues at finite locations and residues at infinity.

hep-th

Differential equations for loop integrals in Baikov representation

We present a proof that differential equations for Feynman loop integrals can always be derived in Baikov representation without involving dimension-shift identities. We moreover show that in a large class of two- and three-loop diagrams it is possible to avoid squared propagators in the intermediate steps of setting up the differential equations.

hep-th

Complete sets of logarithmic vector fields for integration-by-parts identities of Feynman integrals

Integration-by-parts identities between loop integrals arise from the vanishing integration of total derivatives in dimensional regularization. Generic choices of total derivatives in the Baikov or parametric representations lead to identities which involve dimension shifts. These dimension shifts can be avoided by imposing a certain constraint on the total derivatives. The solutions of this constraint turn out to be a specific type of syzygies which correspond to logarithmic vector fields along the Gram determinant formed of the independent external and loop momenta. We present an explicit generating set of solutions in Baikov representation, valid for any number of loops and external momenta, obtained from the Laplace expansion of the Gram determinant. We provide a rigorous mathematical proof that this set of solutions is complete. This proof relates the logarithmic vector fields in question to ideals of submaximal minors of the Gram matrix and makes use of classical resolutions of such ideals.

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Differential equations for loop integrals without squared propagators

We provide a sufficient condition for avoiding squared propagators in the intermediate stages of setting up differential equations for loop integrals. This condition is satisfied in a large class of two- and three-loop diagrams. For these diagrams, the differential equations can thus be computed using "unitarity-compatible" integration-by-parts reductions, which simplify the reduction problem by avoiding integrals with higher-power propagators.

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Complete integration-by-parts reductions of the non-planar hexagon-box via module intersections

We present the powerful module-intersection integration-by-parts (IBP) method, suitable for multi-loop and multi-scale Feynman integral reduction. Utilizing modern computational algebraic geometry techniques, this new method successfully trims traditional IBP systems dramatically to much simpler integral-relation systems on unitarity cuts. We demonstrate the power of this method by explicitly carrying out the complete analytic reduction of two-loop five-point non-planar hexagon-box integrals, with degree-four numerators, to a basis of $73$ master integrals.

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Cristal and Azurite: new tools for integration-by-parts reductions

Scattering amplitudes computed at a fixed loop order, along with any other object computed in perturbative quantum field theory, can be expressed as a linear combination of a finite basis of loop integrals. To compute loop amplitudes in practice, such a basis of integrals must be determined. We discuss Azurite (A ZURich-bred method for finding master InTEgrals), a publicly available package for finding bases of loop integrals. We also discuss Cristal (Complete Reduction of IntegralS Through All Loops), a future package that produces the complete integration-by-parts reductions.

hep-ph

MultivariateResidues - a Mathematica package for computing multivariate residues

We present the Mathematica package MultivariateResidues, which allows for the efficient evaluation of multivariate residues based on methods from computational algebraic geometry. Multivariate residues appear in several contexts of scattering amplitude computations. Examples include applications to the extraction of master integral coefficients from maximal unitarity cuts, the construction of canonical bases of loop integrals and the construction of tree amplitudes from scattering equations.

hep-th

Azurite: An algebraic geometry based package for finding bases of loop integrals

For any given Feynman graph, the set of integrals with all possible powers of the propagators spans a vector space of finite dimension. We introduce the package {\sc Azurite} ({\bf A ZUR}ich-bred method for finding master {\bf I}n{\bf TE}grals), which efficiently finds a basis of this vector space. It constructs the needed integration-by-parts (IBP) identities on a set of generalized-unitarity cuts. It is based on syzygy computations and analyses of the symmetries of the involved Feynman diagrams and is powered by the computer algebra systems {\sc Singular} and {\sc Mathematica}. It can moreover analytically calculate the part of the IBP identities that is supported on the cuts.

hep-th

Integration-by-parts reductions from the viewpoint of computational algebraic geometry

Integration-by-parts reductions play a central role in perturbative QFT calculations. They allow the set of Feynman integrals contributing to a given observable to be reduced to a small set of basis integrals, and they moreover facilitate the computation of those basis integrals. We introduce an efficient new method for generating integration-by-parts reductions. This method simplifies the task by making use of generalized-unitarity cuts and turns the problem of finding the needed total derivatives into one of solving certain polynomial (so-called syzygy) equations.

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Position-space cuts for Wilson line correlators

We further develop the formalism for taking position-space cuts of eikonal diagrams introduced in [Phys.Rev.Lett. 114 (2015), no. 18 181602, arXiv:1410.5681]. These cuts are applied directly to the position-space representation of any such diagram and compute its discontinuity to the leading order in the dimensional regulator. We provide algorithms for computing the position-space cuts and apply them to several two- and three-loop eikonal diagrams, finding agreement with results previously obtained in the literature. We discuss a non-trivial interplay between the cutting prescription and non-Abelian exponentiation. We furthermore discuss the relation of the imaginary part of the cusp anomalous dimension to the static interquark potential.

hep-th

Cross-Order Integral Relations from Maximal Cuts

We study the ABDK relation using maximal cuts of one- and two-loop integrals with up to five external legs. We show how to find a special combination of integrals that allows the relation to exist, and how to reconstruct the terms with one-loop integrals squared. The reconstruction relies on the observation that integrals across different loop orders can have support on the same generalized unitarity cuts and can share global poles. We discuss the appearance of nonhomologous integration contours in multivariate residues. Their origin can be understood in simple terms, and their existence enables us to distinguish contributions from different integrals. Our analysis suggests that maximal and near-maximal cuts can be used to infer the existence of integral identities more generally.

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An Overview of Maximal Unitarity at Two Loops

We discuss the extension of the maximal-unitarity method to two loops, focusing on the example of the planar double box. Maximal cuts are reinterpreted as contour integrals, with the choice of contour fixed by the requirement that integrals of total derivatives vanish on it. The resulting formulae, like their one-loop counterparts, can be applied either analytically or numerically.

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