We display the vertex operators for all states in the conformal supergravity sector of the twistor string, as outlined by Berkovits and Witten. These include `dipole' states, which are pairs of supergravitons that do not diagonalize the translation generators. We use canonical quantization of the open string version of Berkovits, and compute N-point tree level scattering amplitudes for gravitons, gluons and scalars. We reproduce the Berkovits-Witten formula for maximal helicity violating (MHV) amplitudes (which they derived using path integrals), and extend their results to the dipole pairs. We compare these trees with those of Einstein gravity field theory.
We derive an on-shell diagram recursion for tree-level scattering amplitudes in $\mathcal{N}=7$ supergravity. The diagrams are evaluated in terms of Grassmannian integrals and momentum twistors, generalising previous results of Hodges in momentum twistor space to non-MHV amplitudes. In particular, we recast five and six-point NMHV amplitudes in terms of $\mathcal{N}=7$ R-invariants analogous to those of $\mathcal{N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills, which makes cancellation of spurious poles more transparent. Above 5-points, this requires defining momentum twistors with respect to different orderings of th…
This paper presents a worldsheet theory describing holomorphic maps to twistor space with N fermionic directions. The theory is anomaly free when N=8. Via the Penrose transform, the vertex operators correspond to an N=8 Einstein supergravity multiplet. In the first instance, the theory describes gauged supergravity in AdS_4. Upon taking the flat space, ungauged limit, the complete classical S-matrix is recovered from worldsheet correlation functions.
We consider the twistor description of conformal higher spin theories and give twistor space actions for the self-dual sector of theories with spin greater than two that produce the correct flat space-time spectrum. We identify a ghost-free subsector, analogous to the embedding of Einstein gravity with cosmological constant in Weyl gravity, which generates the unique spin-s three-point anti-MHV amplitude consistent with Poincare invariance and helicity constraints. By including interactions between the infinite tower of higher-spin fields we give a geometric interpretation to the twistor equat…
We define a twistor-like transform of the equations of eleven-dimensional supergravity. More precisely these equations are encoded by the CR-structure on the twistor space P^{2*15+11|8*2+16}. In addition equations of the linearized eleven-dimensional supergravity adapted to the 3-form potential can be transformed into the tangential Cauchy-Riemann equation d omega=0 on P.
Four-dimensional conformal fishnet theory is an integrable scalar theory which arises as a double scaling limit of $γ$-deformed maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills. We give a perturbative reformulation of $γ$-deformed super-Yang-Mills theory in twistor space, and implement the double scaling limit to obtain a twistor description of conformal fishnet theory. The conformal fishnet theory retains an abelian gauge symmetry on twistor space which is absent in space-time, allowing us to obtain cohomological formulae for scattering amplitudes that manifest conformal invariance. We study various class…
We investigate the relationship between conformal and spin structure on lorentzian manifolds and see how their compatibility influences the formulation of rigid supersymmetric field theories. In dimensions three, four, six and ten, we show that if the Dirac current associated with a generic spinor defines a null conformal Killing vector then the spinor must obey a twistor equation with respect to a certain connection with torsion. Of the theories we consider, those with classical superconformal symmetry in Minkowski space can be reformulated as rigid supersymmetric theories on any lorentzian m…
Using the notion of Galilean conformal algebra (GCA) in arbitrary space dimension d, we introduce for d=3 quantized nonrelativistic counterpart of twistors as the spinorial representation of O(2,1){\oplus}SO(3) which is the maximal semisimple subalgebra of three-dimensional GCA. The GC-covariant quantization of such nonrelativistic spinors, which shall be called also Galilean twistors, is presented. We consider for d=3 the general spinorial matrix realizations of GCA, which are further promoted to quantum-mechanical operator representations, expressed as bilinears in quantized Galilean twistor…
It is shown that similarly to massless superparticle, classical global symmetry of the Berkovits twistor string action is infinite-dimensional. We identify its superalgebra, whose finite-dimensional subalgebra contains $psl(4|4,\mathbb R)$ superalgebra. In quantum theory this infinite-dimensional symmetry breaks down to $SL(4|4,\mathbb R)$ one.
Twistors, special relativity, conformal symmetry and minimal coupling - a review
本文提出了一种用旋量和扭量语言研究狭义相对论动力学的方法。利用扭量空间的自然共形不变辛结构，构建了一个模型，它描述了一个相对论性的大质量，自旋和带电粒子，最低限度地耦合到外部的电-磁场。在双扭量相空间上，相对论性哈密顿动力学由Poincare标量函数产生，该函数由经典极限（由我们适当定义）的二阶函数和外部电-磁场的最小耦合Dirac算子得到.在这样定义的相对论经典极限中，没有格拉斯曼变量。此外，描述相对论自旋动力学的产生方程与所谓的Thomas Bergman Michel Telegdi方程有很大的不同。
We use the formulation of conformal higher spin (CHS) theories in twistor space to study their tree-level scattering amplitudes, finding expressions for all three-point anti-MHV amplitudes and all MHV amplitudes involving positive helicity conformal gravity particles and two negative helicity higher spins. This provides the on-shell analogue for the covariant coupling of CHS fields to a conformal gravity background. We discuss the restriction of the theory to a ghost-free unitary subsector, analogous to restricting conformal gravity to general relativity with a cosmological constant. We study …
This paper gives a twistor-string formulation for all tree amplitudes of Einstein (super-)gravities for N=0 and 4. Formulae are given with and without cosmological constant and with various possibilities for the gauging. The formulae are justified by use of Maldacena's observation that conformal gravity tree amplitudes with Einstein wave functions and non-zero cosmological constant will correctly give the Einstein tree amplitudes. This justifies the construction of Einstein gravity amplitudes at N=0 from twistor-string theory and is extended to N=4 by requiring the standard relation between th…
We study the multiparticle factorization properties of two worldsheet theories which--at tree-level--describe the scattering of massless particles in four dimensions: the Berkovits-Witten twistor-string for N=4 super-Yang-Mills coupled to N=4 conformal supergravity, and the Skinner twistor-string for N=8 supergravity. By considering these string-like theories, we can study factorization at the level of the worldsheet before any Wick contractions or integrals have been performed; this is much simpler than considering the factorization properties of the amplitudes themselves. In Skinner's twisto…
We show that higher degree Dirac currents of twistor and Killing spinors correspond to the hidden symmetries of the background spacetime which are generalizations of conformal Killing and Killing vector fields respectively. They are the generalizations of 1-form Dirac currents to higher degrees which are used in constructing the bosonic supercharges in supergravity theories. In the case of Killing spinors, we find that the equations satisfied by the higher degree Dirac currents are related to Maxwell-like and Duffin-Kemmer-Petiau equations. Correspondence between the Dirac currents and harmoni…
We give an explicit realization of the 4d local operator / 2d conformal block correspondence of Costello and Paquette in the case of gauge theories. This is accomplished by lifting the 4d local operators to non-local operators in twistor space using a holomorphic generalization of the Wilson line. This procedure automatically constructs the 2d conformal blocks corresponding to the local operator. We interpret this lifting as effectively integrating out the 2d degrees of freedom living on the defect. We present some 2d chiral CFT representations of the defect algebra whose correlators reproduce…
Many integrable systems can be reformulated as holomorphic vector bundles on twistor space. This is a powerful organizing principle in the theory of integrable systems. One shortcoming is that it is formulated at the level of the equations of motion. From this perspective, it is mysterious that integrable systems have Lagrangians. In this paper, we study a Chern-Simons action on twistor space and use it to derive the Lagrangians of some integrable sigma models. Our focus is on examples that come from dimensionally reduced gravity and supergravity. The dimensional reduction of general relativit…
Operator algebra of (not necessarily free) higher-spin conformal conserved currents in generalized matrix spaces, that include 3d Minkowski space-time as a particular case, is shown to be determined by an associative algebra $M$ of functions on the twistor space. For free conserved currents, $M$ is the universal enveloping algebra of the higher-spin algebra. Proposed construction greatly simplifies computation and analysis of correlators of conserved currents. Generating function for $n$-point functions of 3d (super)currents of all spins, built from $N$ free constituent massless scalars and sp…
We show that the first-order symmetry operators of twistor spinors can be constructed from conformal Killing-Yano forms in conformally-flat backgrounds. We express the conditions on conformal Killing-Yano forms to obtain mutually commuting symmetry operators of twistor spinors. Conformal superalgebras which consist of conformal Killing vectors and twistor spinors and play important roles in supersymmetric field theories in conformal backgrounds are extended to more general superalgebras by using the graded Lie algebra structure of conformal Killing-Yano forms and the symmetry operators of twis…
We use the embedding of Einstein gravity with cosmological constant into conformal gravity as a basis for using the twistor action for conformal gravity to obtain MHV scattering amplitudes not just for conformal gravity, but also for Einstein gravity on backgrounds with non-zero cosmological constant. The new formulae for the gravitational MHV amplitude with cosmological constant arise by summing Feynman diagrams using the matrix-tree theorem. We show that this formula is well-defined (i.e., is independent of certain gauge choices) and that it non-trivially reproduces Hodges' formula for the M…
A gauged version of Berkovits twistor string theory featuring the particle content of N=8 supergravity was suggested by Abou-Zeid, Hull and Mason. The equations of motion for a particular multiplet in the modified theory are examined on the level of basic twistor fields and thereby shown to imply the vanishing of the negative helicity graviton on-shell. Additionally, the restrictions emerging from the equation of motion for the new gauge field \bar{B} reveal the chiral nature of interactions in theories constructed in this manner. Moreover, a particular amplitude in Berkovits open string theor…
We discuss chiral zero-rest-mass field equations on six-dimensional space-time from a twistorial point of view. Specifically, we present a detailed cohomological analysis, develop both Penrose and Penrose-Ward transforms, and analyse the corresponding contour integral formulae. We also give twistor space action principles. We then dimensionally reduce the twistor space of six-dimensional space-time to obtain twistor formulations of various theories in lower dimensions. Besides well-known twistor spaces, we also find a novel twistor space amongst these reductions, which turns out to be suitable…
Ambitwistor-strings are chiral strings whose targets are spaces of complex massless particles, and whose correlation functions directly lead to simple, compact formulae for scattering amplitudes and loop integrands for massless gauge and gravity theories. This article extends this framework to worldsheet models for massive particles in 4d, obtained via a symmetry reduction of a higher dimensional massless model. The target space of the resulting models turns out to be the phase space of 4d massive particles in a twistorial representation, and so the worldsheet theory agrees with the two-twisto…
Ingoing and outgoing principal null geodesics in Kerr spacetimes are characterized as part of parametrized families of strings in complex Kerr geometry and are associated with holomorphic curves in twistor space with help of the Kerr theorem. They are defined on 2-dimensional twistor manifolds, one for outgoing and one for ingoing principal null congruences, and are solutions of free twistor string models on these 2-dimensional twistor manifolds. Such a twistor string model implies a conformal field theory and, assuming the applicability of the Cardy formula, agreement with the Bekenstein-Hawk…
We construct recently introduced palatial NC twistors by considering the pair of conjugated (Born-dual) twist-deformed $D=4$ quantum inhomegeneous conformal Hopf algebras $\mathcal{U}_{θ}(su(2,2)\ltimes T^{4}$) and $\mathcal{U}_{\barθ}(su(2,2)\ltimes\bar{T}^{4}$), where $T^{4}$ describe complex twistor coordinatesand $\bar{T}^{4}$ the conjugated dual twistor momenta. The palatial twistors are suitably chosen as the quantum-covariant modules (NC representations) of the introduced Born-dual Hopf algebras. Subsequently we introduce the quantum deformations of $D=4$ Heisenberg-conformal algebra (H…
Massless conformal scalar field in d=4 corresponds to the minimal unitary representation (minrep) of the conformal group SU(2,2) which admits a one-parameter family of deformations that describe massless fields of arbitrary helicity. The minrep and its deformations were obtained by quantization of the nonlinear realization of SU(2,2) as a quasiconformal group in arXiv:0908.3624. We show that the generators of SU(2,2) for these unitary irreducible representations can be written as bilinears of deformed twistorial oscillators which transform nonlinearly under the Lorentz group and apply them to …
We study symmetries of the quantized open twistor string. In addition to global PSL(4|4) symmetry, we find non-local conserved currents. The associated non-local charges lead to Ward identities which show that these charges annihilate the string gluon tree amplitudes, and have the same form as symmetries of amplitudes in N=4 super conformal Yang Mills theory. We describe how states of the open twistor string form a realization of the PSL(4|4) Yangian superalgebra.
This article gives a study of the higher-dimensional Penrose transform between conformally invariant massless fields on space-time and cohomology classes on twistor space, where twistor space is defined to be the space of projective pure spinors of the conformal group. We focus on the 6-dimensional case in which twistor space is the six-quadric Q in CP^7 with a view to applications to the self-dual (0,2)-theory. We show how spinor-helicity momentum eigenstates have canonically defined distributional representatives on twistor space (a story that we extend to arbitrary dimension). These give an…
We construct an open string theory whose single-trace part of the tree-level S-matrix reproduces the S-matrix of the ABJ(M) theory with a unitary gauge group. We also demonstrate that the multi-trace part of the string theory tree-level S-matrix {which has no counterpart in the pure N = 6 super-Chern-Simons theory {is due to conformal supergravity interactions and identify certain Lagrangian interaction terms. Our construction suggests that there exists a higher dimensional theory which can be dimensionally-reduced, in a certain sense, to the ABJ(M) theory. It also suggests a generalization of…
We discuss $N=2\to N=1$ reduction in four dimensional conformal supergravity. In particular, we keep the off-shell structure of supermultiplets (except hypermultiplets). As we will show, starting with (almost) off-shell conformal supergravity makes the procedure simpler than that from $N=2$ Poincaré supergravity, which makes it easier to show the correspondence to the standard $N=1$ conformal supergravity. We find that the $N=1$ superconformal symmetry is simply realized by truncating the gravitino multiplet. We also discuss the consistency with the original $N=2$ system and show the reduced $…
N=6 conformal supergravity in three dimensions is studied in an off-shell component field formulation. We obtain local symmetry transformation laws and a Lagrangian of the conformal supergravity multiplet. We then couple it to the ABJM theory and obtain local transformation laws and a Lagrangian of the coupled theory.
Massless conformal scalar field in six dimensions corresponds to the minimal unitary representation (minrep) of the conformal group SO(6,2). This minrep admits a family of deformations labelled by the spin t of an SU(2)_T group, which is the 6d analog of helicity in four dimensions. These deformations of the minrep of SO(6,2) describe massless conformal fields that are symmetric tensors in the spinorial representation of the 6d Lorentz group. The minrep and its deformations were obtained by quantization of the nonlinear realization of SO(6,2) as a quasiconformal group in arXiv:1005.3580. We gi…
We develop a new off-shell formulation for six-dimensional conformal supergravity obtained by gauging the 6D ${\cal N} = (1, 0)$ superconformal algebra in superspace. This formulation is employed to construct two invariants for 6D ${\cal N} = (1, 0)$ conformal supergravity, which contain $C^3$ and $C\Box C$ terms at the component level. Using a conformal supercurrent analysis, we prove that these exhaust all such invariants in minimal conformal supergravity. Finally, we show how to construct the supersymmetric $F \Box F$ invariant in curved superspace.
We show how the manifold $T^*SU(2, 2)$ arises as a symplectic reduction from eight copies of the twistor space. Some of the constraints in the twistor space correspond to an octahedral configuration of twelve complex light rays in the Minkowski space. We discuss a mechanism to break the conformal symmetry down to the twistorial parametrisation of $T^*SL(2, C)$ used in loop quantum gravity.
We construct the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) action of a real linear multiplet in 4D $\mathcal{N}=1$ supergravity. Based on conformal supergravity, we derive the general condition under which the DBI action can be realized, and show that it can be constructed in the new minimal supergravity. We also generalize it to the matter coupled system.
D=4 Super Yang Mills, D=5 gauged supergravity and D=4 conformal supergravity
本文讨论了N=4共形超引力在N=4 SYM理论与Anti de Sitter背景附近展开的D=5规范超引力之间的关系中所起的作用。讨论了在共形超重力背景下SYM有效作用量的结构，特别是与共形异常有关的项。通过求解AdS背景下度规微扰的首阶Dirichlet问题，我们明确地计算了D=5爱因斯坦作用量中的双线性引力子项，证明了它等价于SYM理论导出的引力有效作用量的线性化Weyl张量平方部分.我们还计算了引力子-引力子-引力子三点函数，其形式与边界理论的共形不变性一致。
