2009/08/31 by Luis F. Alday, Johannes M. Henn, Jan Plefka +1 · 213 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Amplitude #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Conformal map #Conformal symmetry #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Crossing #Exponentiation #Gauge theory #Geometry #Higgs boson #Mathematical analysis #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Scalar (mathematics) #Scattering amplitude #String theory #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/jhep01(2010)077
published in Journal of High Energy Physics 2010(1) (Springer Nature) · 35 pages, many figures. v2: typos and references fixed. v3: minor changes, version to be published in JHEP
openalex publication_date 2010/01/01 · arxiv created 2010/01/05 · arxiv updated 2011/01/24 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study an alternative to dimensional regularisation of planar scattering amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory by going to the Coulomb phase of the theory. The infrared divergences are regulated by masses obtained from a Higgs mechanism, allowing us to work in four dimensions. The corresponding string theory set-up suggests that the amplitudes have an exact dual conformal symmetry. The latter acts on the kinematical variables of the amplitudes as well as on the Higgs masses in an effectively five dimensional space. We confirm this expectation by an explicit calculation in the gauge theory. A consequence of this exact dual conformal symmetry is a significantly reduced set of scalar basis integrals that are allowed to appear in an amplitude. For example, triangle sub-graphs are ruled out. We argue that the study of exponentiation of amplitudes is simpler in the Higgsed theory because evanescent terms in the mass regulator can be consistently dropped. We illustrate this by showing the exponentiation of a four-point amplitude to two loops. Finally, we also analytically compute the small mass expansion of a two-loop master integral with an internal mass.