arXiv subjects

Rutger H. Boels

Publications and source records attributed to Rutger H. Boels.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2018

The Sudakov form factor at four loops in maximal super Yang-Mills theory

The four-loop Sudakov form factor in maximal super Yang-Mills theory is analysed in detail. It is shown explicitly how to construct a basis of integrals that have a uniformly transcendental expansion in the dimensional regularisation parameter, further elucidating the number-theoretic properties of Feynman integrals. The physical form factor is expressed in this basis for arbitrary colour factor. In the nonplanar sector the required integrals are integrated numerically using a mix of sector-decomposition and Mellin-Barnes representation methods. Both the cusp as well as the collinear anomalous dimension are computed. The results show explicitly the violation of quadratic Casimir scaling at the four-loop order. A thorough analysis concerning the reliability of reported numerical uncertainties is carried out.

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arXiv2018

Four-Loop Nonplanar Cusp Anomalous Dimension in N=4 Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory

The light-like cusp anomalous dimension is a universal function that controls infrared divergences in quite general quantum field theories. In the maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory this function is fixed fully by integrability to the three-loop order. At four loops a non-planar correction appears which we obtain for the first time from a numerical computation of the Sudakov form factor. Key ingredients are widely applicable methods to control the number-theoretic aspects of the appearing integrals. Our result shows explicitly that quadratic Casimir scaling breaks down at four loops.

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arXiv2018

Efficient integrand reduction for particles with spin

Scattering amplitudes with spinning particles are shown to decompose into multiple copies of simple building blocks to all loop orders, which can be used to efficiently reduce these amplitudes to sums over scalar integrals. Absence of unphysical kinematic singularities cleanly exposed by the method uncover novel consistency relations among master integrals and their coefficients. Analytic results are obtained for the five gluon, two loop, and four gluon, three loop planar scattering amplitudes in pure Yang-Mills theory as well as for leading singularities to even higher orders.

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arXiv2018

A minimal approach to the scattering of physical massless bosons

Tree and loop level scattering amplitudes which involve physical massless bosons are derived directly from physical constraints such as locality, symmetry and unitarity, bypassing path integral constructions. Amplitudes can be projected onto a minimal basis of kinematic factors through linear algebra, by employing four dimensional spinor helicity methods or at its most general using projection techniques. The linear algebra analysis is closely related to amplitude relations, especially the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson relations for gluon amplitudes and the Kawai-Lewellen-Tye relations between gluons and graviton amplitudes. Projection techniques are known to reduce the computation of loop amplitudes with spinning particles to scalar integrals. Unitarity, locality and integration-by-parts identities can then be used to fix complete tree and loop amplitudes efficiently. The loop amplitudes follow algorithmically from the trees. A range of proof-of-concept examples is presented. These include the planar four point two-loop amplitude in pure Yang-Mills theory as well as a range of one loop amplitudes with internal and external scalars, gluons and gravitons. Several interesting features of the results are highlighted, such as the vanishing of certain basis coefficients for gluon and graviton amplitudes. Effective field theories are naturally and efficiently included into the framework. The presented methods appear most powerful in non-supersymmetric theories in cases with relatively few legs, but with potentially many loops. For instance, iterated unitarity cuts of four point amplitudes for non-supersymmetric gauge and gravity theories can be computed by matrix multiplication, generalising the so-called rung-rule of maximally supersymmetric theories. The philosophy of the approach to kinematics also leads to a technique to control color quantum numbers of scattering amplitudes with matter.

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arXiv2017

The nonplanar cusp and collinear anomalous dimension at four loops in ${\mathcal N} = 4$ SYM theory

We present numerical results for the nonplanar lightlike cusp and collinear anomalous dimension at four loops in ${\mathcal N} = 4$ SYM theory, which we infer from a calculation of the Sudakov form factor. The latter is expressed as a rational linear combination of uniformly transcendental integrals for arbitrary colour factor. Numerical integration in the nonplanar sector reveals explicitly the breakdown of quadratic Casimir scaling at the four-loop order. A thorough analysis of the reported numerical uncertainties is carried out.

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arXiv2016

Graviton and gluon scattering from first principles

Graviton and gluon scattering are studied from minimal physical assumptions such as Poincare and gauge symmetry as well as unitarity. The assumptions lead to an interesting and surprisingly restrictive set of linear equations. This shows gluon and graviton scattering to be related in many field and string theories, explaining and extending several known results. By systematic analysis exceptional graviton scattering amplitudes are derived which in general dimensions can not be related to gluon amplitudes. The simplicity of the formalism guarantees wide further applicability to gauge and gravity theories.

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arXiv2016

On-shell recursion relations for generic integrands

The quantum effects encapsulated in loop corrections are crucial in quantum field theory for a wide variety of formal and phenomenological applications. In this article we propose and check a definition of the so-called single cut contributions needed to complete on-shell recursion relations for the integrand of scattering amplitudes in generic power-counting renormalisable theories at conjecturally any loop order. Our proposal meshes well with standard dimensional regularisation and applies in particular directly to much of the standard model of particle physics. Apart from a diagrammatic construction, at one loop order we provide a direct cross-check for box coefficients. Interestingly, at one loop our proposal can be related to a specific subset of all double unitarity cuts as well as tree-level poles by iterated recursion. We focus in particular on demonstrating the method in rational-term one-loop examples in pure Yang-Mills theory. For the finite amplitudes we present all-order arguments. First steps toward gravity integrands are taken.

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arXiv2016

On a four-loop form factor in N=4

We report on progress toward computing a four-loop supersymmetric form factor in maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. A representative example particle content from the involved supermultiplets is a stress-tensor operator with two on-shell gluons. In previous work, the integrand for this form factor was obtained using color-kinematic duality in a particularly simple form. Here the result of applying integration-by-parts identities is discussed and cross-checks of the result is performed. Rational IBP relations and their reduction are introduced as a potentially useful aide.

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arXiv2015

Perturbative quantum gravity in double field theory

We study perturbative general relativity with a two-form and a dilaton using the double field theory formulation which features explicit index factorisation at the Lagrangian level. Explicit checks to known tree level results are performed. In a natural covariant gauge a ghost-like scalar which contributes even at tree level is shown to decouple consistently as required by perturbative unitarity. In addition, a lightcone gauge is explored which bypasses the problem altogether. Using this gauge to study BCFW on-shell recursion, we can show that most of the D-dimensional tree level S-matrix of the theory, including all pure graviton scattering amplitudes, is reproduced by the double field theory. More generally, we argue that the integrand may be reconstructed from its single cuts and provide limited evidence for off-shell cancellations in the Feynman graphs. As a straightforward application of the developed technology double field theory-like expressions for four field string corrections are derived.

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arXiv2015

Spontaneously broken conformal invariance in observables

Conformal invariance is spontaneously broken in many physical systems leading to the appearance of a single massless Goldstone mode in the spectrum, the dilaton. The dilaton soft limit is shown to generically encode the action of both the dilatation and the special conformal transformation on observables. For massive on-shell legs these take the form of sub-leading soft theorems. At loop level, we show how anomalous dimensions for coupling constants and fields can be included. We illustrate the general analysis with a variety of formal and phenomenological applications.

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arXiv2014

String theory in target space

It is argued that the complete S-matrix of string theory at tree level in a flat background can be obtained from a small set of target space properties, without recourse to the worldsheet description. The main non-standard inputs are (generalised) Britto-Cachazo-Feng-Witten shifts, as well as the monodromy relations for open string theory and the Kawai-Lewellen-Tye relations for closed string theory. The roots of the scattering amplitudes and especially their appearance in the residues at the kinematic poles are central to the story. These residues determine the amplitudes through on-shell recursion relations. Several checks of the formalism are presented, including a computation of the Koba-Nielsen amplitude in the bosonic string. Furthermore the question of target space unitarity is (re-)investigated. For the Veneziano amplitude this question is reduced by Poincare invariance, unitarity and locality to that of positivity of a particular numerical sum. Interestingly, this analysis produces the main conditions of the no-ghost theorem on dimension and intercept from the first three poles of this amplitude.

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arXiv2013

Colour-Kinematics Duality for One-Loop Rational Amplitudes

Colour-kinematics duality is the conjecture of a group theory-like structure for the kinematic dependence of scattering amplitudes in gauge theory and gravity. This structure has been verified at tree level in various ways, but similar progress has been lacking at loop level, where the power of the duality would be most significant. Here we explore colour-kinematics duality at one loop using the self-dual sector as a starting point. The duality is shown to exist in pure Yang-Mills theory for two infinite classes of amplitudes: amplitudes with any number of particles either all of the same helicity or with one particle helicity opposite the rest. We provide a simple Lagrangian-based argument in favour of the double copy relation between gauge theory and gravity amplitudes in these classes, and provide some explicit examples. We further discuss aspects of the duality which persist after integration, leading to relations among partial amplitudes. Finally, we describe form factors in the self-dual theory at tree level which also satisfy the duality.

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arXiv2013

On the field theory expansion of superstring five point amplitudes

A simple recursive expansion algorithm for the integrals of tree level superstring five point amplitudes in a flat background is given which reduces the expansion to simple symbol(ic) manipulations. This approach can be used for instance to prove the expansion is maximally transcendental to all orders and to verify several conjectures made in recent literature to high order. Closed string amplitudes follow from these open string results by the KLT relations. To obtain insight into these results in particular the maximal R-symmetry violating amplitudes (MRV) in type IIB superstring theory are studied. The obtained expansion of the open string amplitudes reduces the analysis for MRV amplitudes to the classification of completely symmetric polynomials of the external legs, up to momentum conservation. Using Molien's theorem as a counting tool this problem is solved by constructing an explicit nine element basis for this class. This theorem may be of wider interest: as is illustrated at higher points it can be used to calculate dimensions of polynomials of external momenta invariant under any finite group for in principle any number of legs, up to momentum conservation.

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arXiv2013

On powercounting in perturbative quantum gravity theories through color-kinematic duality

The standard argument why gravity is not renormalisable relies on direct powercounting of Feynman graphs to estimate the degree of UV divergence. This analysis has in several (highly) supersymmetric examples be shown to overestimate divergences considerably. In these examples the main improvements arise from a conjectured duality between color and kinematics. In this paper we initiate the systematic study of quite general powercounting under the assumption that color-kinematic duality exists. The main technical tool is a reformulation of the duality in terms of linear maps, modulo subtleties at loop level mostly inherent to the duality. This tool may have wider applications in both gauge and gravity theories, up to resolution of the subtleties. Here it is first applied to the large Britto-Cachazo-Feng-Witten (BCFW) shift behavior of gravity integrands constructed through the duality. Assuming color-kinematic duality and reasonable technical requirements hold these shifts are shown to be independent of loop order, which would imply massive cancellations with respect to the Feynman graph expression. More speculatively, the same approach is then applied to provide estimates of the overall degree of UV divergence in quite general gravity theories, assuming the duality exists. The cancellations obtained in these estimates depends on the exact implementation of the duality at loop level, especially on graph topology. Finally, some evidence for the duality to all loop orders is provided from an analysis of BCFW shifts of gauge theory integrands through Feynman graphs.

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arXiv2013

Color-kinematic Duality for Form Factors

Recently a powerful duality between color and kinematics has been proposed for integrands of scattering amplitudes in quite general gauge theories. In this paper the duality proposal is extended to the more general class of gauge theory observables formed by form factors. After a discussion of the general setup the existence of the duality is verified in two- and three-loop examples in four dimensional maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory which involve the stress energy tensor multiplet. In these cases the duality reproduces known results in a particularly transparent and uniform way. As a non-trivial application we obtain a very simple form of the integrand of the four-loop two-point (Sudakov) form factor which passes a large set of unitarity cut checks.

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arXiv2012

Maximal R-symmetry violating amplitudes in type IIB superstring theory

On-shell superspace techniques are used to quantify R-symmetry violation in type IIB superstring theory amplitudes in a flat background in ten dimensions. This shows the existence of a particularly simple class of non-vanishing amplitudes in this theory which violate R-symmetry maximally. General properties of the class and some of its extensions are established which at string tree level are shown to determine the first three non-trivial effective field theory contributions to all multiplicity. This leads to a natural conjecture for the exact analytic part of the first two of these.

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arXiv2012

Simple superamplitudes in higher dimensions

We provide simple superspaces based on a formulation of spinor helicity in general even dimensions. As a distinguishing feature these spaces admit a fermionic super-momentum conserving delta function solution to the on-shell supersymmetry Ward identities. Using these solutions, we present beautifully simple formulae for the complete three, four and five point superamplitudes in maximal super Yang-Mills theory in eight dimensions, and for the three and four point superamplitudes in ten dimensional type IIB supergravity. In addition, we discuss the exceptional kinematics of the three point amplitude, and the supersymmetric spinorial BCFW recursion, in general dimensions.

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arXiv2012

Three particle superstring amplitudes with massive legs

On-shell superspaces and associated spinor helicity techniques give an efficient formulation of the Ward identities of on-shell supersymmetry for scattering amplitudes and supply tools to construct their solutions. Based on these techniques in this paper the general solutions of the Ward identities are presented for three particle scattering amplitudes with one, two or three massive legs for simple supersymmetry in ten and eight dimensions. It is shown in examples how these solutions may be used to obtain concrete amplitudes for the closed (IIB) and open superstring in a flat background. Explicit results include all three point amplitudes with one massive leg whose functional form is shown to be dictated completely by super-Poincare symmetry. The resulting surprisingly simple series only involves massive superfields labelled by completely symmetric little group representations. The extension to more general explicit three and higher point amplitudes in string theory is initiated. In appendices the field content of the fundamental massive superfields of the open and closed superstring are listed in terms of the Dynkin labels of a variety of groups which may be of independent interest.

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