Scattering amplitudes: the most perfect microscopic structures in the universe

2011/05/31 by Lance J. Dixon · 83 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Amplitude #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Classical mechanics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Gauge (firearms) #Gauge theory #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Quantum chromodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Scattering #Scattering amplitude #Theoretical physics #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1751-8113/44/45/454001

published in Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical 44(45), 454001 (Institute of Physics) · 29 pages, 8 figures. v2: references added, typos fixed

arxiv created 2011/06/18 · openalex publication_date 2011/10/20 · arxiv updated 2015/05/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

This review gives an overview of many of the recent developments in understanding the structure of relativistic scattering amplitudes in gauge theories ranging from QCD to super-Yang–Mills theory, as well as (super)gravity. I also provide a pedagogical introduction to some of the basic tools used to organize and illuminate the color and kinematic structure of amplitudes. This is an invited review introducing a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical devoted to ‘Scattering amplitudes in gauge theories’.

Citations

• On planar gluon amplitudes/Wilson loops duality
• Explicit cancellation of triangles in one-loop gravity amplitudes
• Exacting 𝒩 = 4 superconformal symmetry
• Yangian symmetry of scattering amplitudes in 𝒩 = 4 super Yang-Mills theory
• One-Loop n-Point Gauge Theory Amplitudes, Unitarity and Collinear Limits
• Masses, fermions and generalized D-dimensional unitarity
• Conformal Ward identities for Wilson loops and a test of the duality with gluon amplitudes
• Scalar field pressure in induced gravity with Higgs potential and dark matter
• A planar diagram theory for strong interactions
• New relations for gauge-theory amplitudes
• BFKL Pomeron, Reggeized gluons, and Bern-Dixon-Smirnov amplitudes
• Perturbative Gauge Theory As A String Theory In Twistor Space
• The Large-N Limit of Superconformal Field Theories and Supergravity
• Subleading-color contributions to gluon-gluon scattering in 𝒩 = 4 SYM theory and relations to 𝒩 = 8 supergravity

Cited by

• Basics of generalized unitarity
• Simplifying multiloop integrands and ultraviolet divergences of gauge theory and gravity amplitudes
• Transverse-momentum spectra of electroweak bosons near threshold at NNLO
• The structure of n-point one-loop open superstring amplitudes
• Nonplanar on-shell diagrams and leading singularities of scattering amplitudes
• 1-loop color structures and sunny diagrams
• New structures in scattering amplitudes: A review