arXiv subjects

Lionel Mason

Publications and source records attributed to Lionel Mason.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Graviton scattering in self-dual radiative space-times

The construction of amplitudes on curved space-times is a major challenge, particularly when the background has non-constant curvature. We give formulae for all tree-level graviton scattering amplitudes in curved self-dual radiative space-times; these are chiral, source-free, asymptotically flat spaces determined by free characteristic data at null infinity. Such space-times admit an elegant description in terms of twistor theory, which provides the powerful tools required to exploit their underlying integrability. The tree-level S-matrix is written in terms of an integral over the moduli space of holomorphic maps from the Riemann sphere to twistor space, with the degree of the map corresponding to the helicity configuration of the external gravitons. For the MHV sector, we derive the amplitude directly from the Einstein-Hilbert action of general relativity, while other helicity configurations arise from a natural family of generating functionals and pass several consistency checks. The amplitudes in self-dual radiative space-times exhibit many novel features that are absent in Minkowski space, including tail effects. There remain residual integrals due to the functional degrees of freedom in the background space-time, but our formulae have many fewer such integrals than would be expected from space-time perturbation theory. In highly symmetric special cases, such as self-dual plane waves, the number of residual integrals can be further reduced, resulting in much simpler expressions for the scattering amplitudes.

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arXiv2022

From Twistor-Particle Models to Massive Amplitudes

In his twistor-particle programme of the 1970's, Roger Penrose introduced a representation of the massive particle phase space in terms of a pair of twistors subject to an internal symmetry group. Here we use this representation to introduce a chiral string whose target is a complexification of this space, extended so as to incorporate supersymmetry. We show that the gauge anomalies associated to the internal symmetry group vanish only for maximal supersymmetry, and that correlators in these string models describe amplitudes involving massive particles with manifest supersymmetry. The models and amplitude formulae exhibit a double copy structure from gauge theory on the Coulomb branch to gravity, although the graviton remains massless. The formulae are closely related to those obtained earlier by the authors expressed in terms of the polarised scattering equations.

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arXiv2022

The SAGEX Review on Scattering Amplitudes, Chapter 6: Ambitwistor Strings and Amplitudes from the Worldsheet

Starting with Witten's twistor string, chiral string theories have emerged that describe field theory amplitudes without the towers of massive states of conventional strings. These models are known as ambitwistor strings due to their target space; the space of complexified null geodesics, also called ambitwistor space. Correlators in these string theories directly yield compact formulae for tree-level amplitudes and loop integrands, in the form of worldsheet integrals fully localized on solutions to constraints known as the scattering equations. In this chapter, we discuss two incarnations of the ambitwistor string: a 'vector representation' starting in space-time and structurally resembling the RNS superstring, and a four-dimensional twistorial version closely related to, but distinct from Witten's original model. The RNS-like models exist for several theories, with 'heterotic' and type II models describing super-Yang-Mills and 10d supergravities respectively, and they manifest the double copy relations directly at the level of the worldsheet models. In the second half of the chapter, we explain how the underlying models lead to diverse applications, ranging from extensions to new sectors of theories, loop amplitudes and to scattering on curved backgrounds. We conclude with a brief discussion of connections to conventional strings and celestial holography.

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arXiv2022

Celestial $w_{1+\infty}$ Symmetries from Twistor Space

We explain how twistor theory represents the self-dual sector of four dimensional gravity in terms of the loop group of Poisson diffeomorphisms of the plane via Penrose's non-linear graviton construction. The symmetries of the self-dual sector are generated by the corresponding loop algebra $Lw_{1+\infty}$ of the algebra $w_{1+\infty}$ of these Poisson diffeomorphisms. We show that these coincide with the infinite tower of soft graviton symmetries in tree-level perturbative gravity recently discovered in the context of celestial amplitudes. We use a twistor sigma model for the self-dual sector which describes maps from the Riemann sphere to the asymptotic twistor space defined from characteristic data at null infinity ${\mathcal I}$. We show that the OPE of the sigma model naturally encodes the Poisson structure on twistor space and gives rise to the celestial realization of $Lw_{1+\infty}$. The vertex operators representing soft gravitons in our model act as currents generating the wedge algebra of $w_{1+\infty}$ and produce the expected celestial OPE with hard gravitons of both helicities. We also discuss how the two copies of $Lw_{1+\infty}$, one for each of the self-dual and anti-self-dual sectors, are represented in the OPEs of vertex operators of the 4d ambitwistor string.

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arXiv2022

Twistor sigma models for quaternionic geometry and graviton scattering

We reformulate the twistor construction for hyper- and quaternion-Kähler manifolds, introducing new sigma models that compute scalar potentials for the geometry. These sigma models have the twistor space of the quaternionic manifold as their target and encode finite non-linear perturbations of the flat structures. In the hyperkähler case our twistor sigma models compute both Plebanski fundamental forms (including the Kähler potential), while in the quaternion-Kähler setting the twistor sigma model computes the Kähler potential for the hyperkähler structure on non-projective twistor space. In four-dimensions, one of the models provides the generating functional of tree-level MHV graviton scattering amplitudes; perturbations of the hyperkähler structure corresponding to positive helicity gravitons. The sigma model's perturbation theory gives rise to a sum of tree diagrams observed previously in the literature, and their summation via a matrix tree theorem gives a first-principles derivation of Hodges' formula for MHV graviton amplitudes directly from general relativity. We generalise the twistor sigma model to higher-degree (defined in the first case with a cosmological constant), giving a new generating principle for the full tree-level graviton S-matrix.

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arXiv2021

Ambitwistor Strings in Six and Five Dimensions

Ambitwistor strings are chiral (holomorphic) strings whose target is the space of complex null geodesics, ambitwistor space. We introduce twistor representations of ambitwistor space in 6 and 5 dimensions. In 6d the twistor representation is naturally conformally invariant. Anomaly cancellation leads to models that describe biadjoint scalar amplitudes and certain conformally invariant gauge and gravity theories, respectively of 4$^{\rm th}$ and 6$^{\rm th}$ order. There are three such models, reflecting triality for the conformal group SO(8) associated to these 6d models. On reduction to five dimensions, gauge anomaly cancellation requires supersymmetry and the resulting models describe maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills and gravity. The twistor representation of these ambitwistor strings lead to formulæ for maximally supersymmetric gauge and gravity amplitudes based on the polarized scattering equations in 5d, found earlier by the first two authors.

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arXiv2020

A Lie bracket for the momentum kernel

We develop new mathematical tools for the study of the double copy and colour-kinematics duality for tree-level scattering amplitudes using the properties of Lie polynomials. We show that the $S$-map that was defined to simplify super-Yang--Mills multiparticle superfields is in fact a new Lie bracket on the dual space of Lie polynomials. We introduce {\it Lie polynomial currents} based on Berends-Giele recursion for biadjoint scalar tree amplitudes that take values in Lie polynomials. Field theory amplitudes are obtained from the Lie polynomial amplitudes by numerators characterized as homomorphisms from the free Lie algebra to kinematic data. Examples are presented for the biadjoint scalar, Yang--Mills theory and the nonlinear sigma model. That these theories satisfy the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson amplitude relations follows from the identities we prove for the Lie polynomial amplitudes and the existence of BCJ numerators. A KLT map from Lie polynomials to their dual is obtained by nesting the S-map Lie bracket; the matrix elements of this map yield a recently proposed `generalized KLT matrix', and this reduces to the usual KLT matrix when its entries are restricted to a basis. Using this, we give an algebraic proof for the cancellation of double poles in the KLT formula for gravity amplitudes. We finish with some remarks on numerators and colour-kinematics duality from this perspective.

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arXiv2020

MHV scattering of gluons and gravitons in chiral strong fields

We present all-multiplicity formulae for the tree-level scattering of gluons and gravitons in the maximal helicity violating (MHV) helicity configuration, calculated in certain chiral strong fields. The strong backgrounds we consider are self-dual plane waves in gauge theory and general relativity, which are treated exactly and admit a well-defined S-matrix. The gauge theory background-coupled MHV amplitude is simply a dressed analogue of the familiar Parke-Taylor formula, but the gravitational version has non-trivial new structures due to graviton tails. Both formulae have just one residual integral rather than the $n-2$ expected at $n$-points from space-time perturbation theory; this simplification arises from the integrability of self-dual backgrounds and their corresponding twistor description. The resulting formulae pass several consistency checks and limit to the well-known expressions for MHV scattering of gluons and gravitons when the background becomes trivial.

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arXiv2020

Recursion and worldsheet formulae for 6d superamplitudes

Recently two of the authors presented a spinorial extension of the scattering equations, the `polarized scattering equations' that incorporates spinor polarization data. These led to new worldsheet amplitude formulae for a variety of gauge, gravity and brane theories in six dimensions that naturally incorporate fermions and directly extend to maximal supersymmetry. This paper provides a number of improvements to the original formulae, together with extended details of the construction, examples and full proofs of some of the formulae by BCFW recursion and factorization. We show how our formulae reduce to corresponding formulae for maximally supersymmetric gauge, gravity and brane theories in five and four dimensions. In four dimensions our framework naturally gives the twistorial version of the 4d ambitwistor string, giving new insights into the nature of the refined and polarized scattering equations they give rise to, and on the relations between its measure and the CHY measure. Our formulae exhibit a natural double-copy structure being built from `half-integrands'. We give further discussion of the matrix of theories and formulae to which our half-integrands give rise, including controversial formulae for amplitudes involving Gerbes.

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arXiv2020

Supersymmetric S-matrices from the worldsheet in 10 and 11d

We obtain compact formulae for tree super-amplitudes for 10 and 11-dimensional supergravity and 10-dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills and Born-Infeld. These are based on the \emph{polarised scattering equations}. These incorporate polarization data into a spinor field on the Riemann sphere and arise from a twistorial representation of ambitwistor strings in 10 and 11 dimensions. They naturally extend amplitude formulae to manifest maximal supersymmetry. The framework is the natural generalization of twistorial ambitwistor string formulae found previously in four and six dimensions and is informally motivated from a vertex operator prescription for a family of supersymmetric worldsheet ambitwistor string models.

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arXiv2020

Lie Polynomials and a Twistorial Correspondence for Amplitudes

We review Lie polynomials as a mathematical framework that underpins the structure of the so-called double copy relationship between gauge and gravity theories (and a network of other theories besides). We explain how Lie polynomials naturally arise in the geometry and cohomology of $\mathcal{M}_{0,n}$, the moduli space of $n$ points on the Riemann sphere up to Mobiüs transformation. We introduce a twistorial correspondence between the cotangent bundle $T^*_D\mathcal{M}_{0,n}$, the bundle of forms with logarithmic singularities on the divisor $D$ as the twistor space, and $\mathcal{K}_n$ the space of momentum invariants of $n$ massless particles subject to momentum conservation as the analogue of space-time. This gives a natural framework for Cachazo He and Yuan (CHY) and ambitwistor-string formulae for scattering amplitudes of gauge and gravity theories as being the corresponding Penrose transform. In particular we show that it gives a natural correspondence between CHY half-integrands and scattering forms, certain $n-3$-forms on $\mathcal{K}_n$, introduced by Arkani-Hamed, Bai, He and Yan (ABHY). We also give a generalization and more invariant description of the associahedral $n-3$-planes in $\mathcal{K}_n$ introduced by ABHY.}

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arXiv2019

Celestial amplitudes and conformal soft theorems

Scattering amplitudes in $d+2$ dimensions can be expressed in terms of a conformal basis, for which the S-matrix behaves as a CFT correlation function on the celestial $d$-sphere. We explain how compact expressions for the full tree-level S-matrix of gauge theory, gravity and other QFTs extend to this conformal basis, and are easily derived from ambitwistor strings. Using these formulae and their worldsheet origins, we prove various tree-level 'conformal soft theorems' in gauge theory and gravity in any dimension; these arise from limits where the scaling dimension of an external state in the scattering process takes special values. These conformally soft limits are obscure from standard methods, but they are easily derived with ambitwistor strings. Additionally, we make an identification between the residues of conformally soft vertex operator insertions in ambitwistor strings and charges generating asymptotic symmetries.

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arXiv2019

Supertwistor description of ambitwistor strings

A new ambitwistor string is constructed based on a ten-dimensional supertwistor model for the massless superparticle. Although covariant quantization is complicated by reducibility issues, a light-cone gauge analysis can be easily performed. We show that with this analysis, this supertwistor ambitwistor string is equivalent to the RNS ambitwistor string in light-cone gauge. In order to make the comparison, we develop the light-cone gauge analysis of the RNS ambitwistor string which has some novel features in terms of its expression of the scattering equations through interaction point operators.

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arXiv2019

Notes on the $D=11$ pure spinor superparticle

The $D=11$ pure spinor superparticle has been shown to describe linearized $D=11$ supergravity in a manifestly covariant way. A number of authors have proposed that its correlation functions be used to compute amplitudes. The use of the scalar structure of the eleven-dimensional pure spinor top cohomology introduces a natural measure for computing such correlation functions. This prescription requires the construction of ghost number one and zero vertex operators. In these notes, we construct explicitly a ghost number one vertex operator but show the incompatibiliy of a ghost number zero vertex operator satisfying a standard descent equation for $D=11$ supergravity.

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arXiv2019

Meromorphic Painlevé III transcendents and the Joukowski correspondence

We study a twistor correspondence based on the Joukowski map reduced from one for stationary-axisymmetric self-dual Yang-Mills and adapt it to the Painlevé III equation. A natural condition on the geometry (axissimplicity) leads to solutions that are meromorphic at the fixed singularity at the origin. We show that it also implies a quantisation condition for the parameter in the equation. From the point of view of generalized monodromy data, the condition is equivalent to triviality of the Stokes matrices and half-integral exponents of formal monodromy. We obtain canonically defined representations in terms of a Birkhoff factorization whose entries are related to the data at the origin and the Painlevé constants.

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arXiv2018

The polarized scattering equations for 6d superamplitudes

We introduce a spinorial version of the scattering equations, the \emph{polarized scattering equations}, that incorporates spinor polarization data. They lead to new formulae for tree-level scattering amplitudes in six dimensions that directly extend to maximal supersymmetry. They give a quite distinct framework from that of Cachazo et al.; in particular, the formulae do not change character from even to odd numbers of particles. We find new ingredients for integrands for maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills, gravity, M5 and D5 branes. We explain how the polarized scattering equations and supersymmetry representations arise from an ambitwistor-string with target given by a super-twistor description of the geometry of super-ambitwistor space for six dimensions. On reduction to four dimensions the polarized scattering equations give rise to massive analogues of the 4d refined scattering equations for amplitudes on the Coulomb branch. At zero mass this framework naturally generalizes the twistorial version of the ambitwistor string in four dimensions.

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arXiv2018

Plane wave backgrounds and colour-kinematics duality

We obtain the detailed Feynman rules for perturbative gauge theory on a fixed Yang-Mills plane wave background. Using these rules, the tree-level 4-point gluon amplitude is computed and some 1-loop Feynman diagrams are considered. As an application, we test the extent to which colour-kinematics duality, the relation between the colour and kinematic constituents of the amplitude, holds on the plane wave background. Although the duality is obstructed, the obstruction has an interesting constrained structure. This plane wave version of colour-kinematics duality reduces on a flat background to the well-known identities underpinning the BCJ relations for colour-ordered partial amplitudes, and constrains representations of tree-level amplitudes beyond 4-points.

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arXiv2017

Scattering on plane waves and the double copy

Perturbatively around flat space, the scattering amplitudes of gravity are related to those of Yang-Mills by colour-kinematic duality, under which gravitational amplitudes are obtained as the 'double copy' of the corresponding gauge theory amplitudes. We consider the question of how to extend this relationship to curved scattering backgrounds, focusing on certain 'sandwich' plane waves. We calculate the 3-point amplitudes on these backgrounds and find that a notion of double copy remains in the presence of background curvature: graviton amplitudes on a gravitational plane wave are the double copy of gluon amplitudes on a gauge field plane wave. This is non-trivial in that it requires a non-local replacement rule for the background fields and the momenta and polarization vectors of the fields scattering on the backgrounds. It must also account for new 'tail' terms arising from scattering off the background. These encode a memory effect in the scattering amplitudes, which naturally double copies as well.

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