We present an extension of the duality theorem, previously defined by S. Catani et al. on the one-loop level, to higher loop orders. The duality theorem provides a relation between loop integrals and tree-level phase-space integrals. Here, the one-loop relation is rederived in a way which is more suitable for its extension to higher loop orders. This is shown in detail by considering the two-loop N-leg master diagram and by a short discussion of the four master diagrams at three loops, in this sketching the general structure of the duality theorem at even higher loop orders.
We review the recent developments of the Loop-Tree Duality method, focussing our discussion on the first numerical implementation and its use in the direct numerical computation of multi-leg Feynman integrals. Non-trivial examples are presented.
We develop the Tree-Loop Duality Relation for two- and three-loop integrals with multiple identical propagators (multiple poles). This is the extension of the Duality Relation for single poles and multiloop integrals derived in previous publications. We prove a generalization of the formula for single poles to multiple poles and we develop a strategy for dealing with higher-order pole integrals by reducing them to single pole integrals using Integration By Parts.
We study scalar one-loop amplitudes in massive $ϕ^3$-theory within causal loop-tree duality. We derive a recurrence relation for the integrand of the amplitude. The integrand is by construction free of spurious singularities on H-surfaces. Taking renormalisation and contour deformation into account, we obtain the (integrated) amplitude by Monte Carlo integration. We have checked up to seven points that our results agree with analytic results.
We relate a $l$-loop Feynman integral to a sum of phase space integrals, where the integrands are determined by the spanning trees of the original $l$-loop graph. Causality requires that the propagators of the trees have a modified $iδ$-prescription and we present a simple formula for the correct $iδ$-prescription.
We present a new formulation of the loop-tree duality theorem for higher loop diagrams valid both for massless and massive cases. $l$-loop integrals are expressed as weighted sum of trees obtained from cutting $l$ internal propagators of the loop graph. In addition, the uncut propagators gain a modified $i δ$-prescription, named dual-propagators. In this new framework one can go beyond graphs and calculate the integrand of loop amplitudes as a weighted sum of tree graphs, which form a tree-like object. These objects can be computed efficiently via recurrence relations.
Using loop-tree duality, we relate a renormalised $n$-point $l$-loop amplitude in a quantum field theory to a phase-space integral of a regularised $l$-fold forward limit of a UV-subtracted $(n+2l)$-point tree-amplitude-like object. We show that up to three loops the latter object is easily computable from recurrence relations. This defines an integrand of the loop amplitude with a global definition of the loop momenta. Field and mass renormalisation are performed in the on-shell scheme.
The duality relation between one-loop integrals and phase-space integrals, developed in a previous work, is extended to higher-order loops. The duality relation is realized by a modification of the customary +i0 prescription of the Feynman propagators, which compensates for the absence of the multiple-cut contributions that appear in the Feynman tree theorem. We rederive the duality theorem at one-loop order in a form that is more suitable for its iterative extension to higher-loop orders. We explicitly show its application to two- and three-loop scalar master integrals, and we discuss the str…
In this talk, we review recent developments towards the calculation of multi-loop scattering amplitudes. In particular, we discuss how the colour-kinematics duality can provide new integral relations at one-loop level via the Loop-Tree duality formalism. On the other hand, in order to compute scattering amplitudes at one- and two-loop level, numerically and analytically, we describe the preliminary automation of the adaptive integrand decomposition algorithm. We show preliminary results on the analytic reduction of the $μe$-elastic scattering at one- and two-loop level.
The Loop-Tree Duality (LTD) theorem is an innovative technique to deal with multi-loop scattering amplitudes, leading to integrand-level representations over an Euclidean space. In this article, we review the last developments concerning this framework, focusing on the manifestly causal representation of multi-loop Feynman integrals and scattering amplitudes, and the definition of dual local counter-terms to cancel infrared singularities.
Multiloop scattering amplitudes describing the quantum fluctuations at high-energy scattering processes are the main bottleneck in perturbative quantum field theory. The loop-tree duality is a novel method aimed at overcoming this bottleneck by opening the loop amplitudes into trees and combining them at integrand level with the real-emission matrix elements. In this Letter, we generalize the loop-tree duality to all orders in the perturbative expansion by using the complex Lorentz-covariant prescription of the original one-loop formulation. We introduce a series of mutiloop topologies with ar…
The tree-loop duality relation is used as a starting point to derive the constraints of causality and unitarity. Specifically, the Bogoliubov causality condition is ab initio derived at the individual graph level. It leads to a representation of a graph in terms of lower order cut graphs. Extracting the absorptive part gives then the general unitarity relation (Cutkosky rule). The derivation, being carried out directly in momentum space, holds for any local (polynomial) hermitian interaction vertices. This is in contrast to the technical difficulties arising from contact terms in the spacetime…
Loop-tree duality allows to express virtual contributions in terms of phase-space integrals, thus leading to a direct comparison with real radiation terms. In this talk, we review the basis of the method and describe its application to regularize Feynman integrals. Performing an integrand-level combination of real and virtual terms, we obtain finite contributions that can be computed in four-dimensions. Moreover, this method provides a natural physical interpretation of infrared singularities, their origin and the way that they cancel in the complete computation.
We generalize modern ideas about the duality between Wilson loops and scattering amplitudes in ${\cal N}$=4 SYM to large-N (or quenched) QCD. We show that the area-law behavior of asymptotically large Wilson loops is dual to the Regge-Veneziano behavior of scattering amplitudes at high energies and fixed momentum transfer, when quark mass is small and/or the number of particles is large. We elaborate on this duality for string theory in a flat space, identifying the asymptotes of the disk amplitude and the Wilson loop of large-N QCD.
We present a new method to compute higher-order corrections to physical cross-sections, at Next-to-Leading Order and beyond. This method, based on the Loop Tree Duality, leads to locally integrable expressions in four dimensions. By introducing a physically motivated momentum mapping between the momenta involved in the real and the virtual contributions, infrared singularities naturally cancel at integrand level, without the need to introduce subtraction counter-terms. Ultraviolet singularities are dealt with by using dual representations of suitable counter-terms, with some subtleties regardi…
The spinor-helicity formalism has proven to be very efficient in the calculation of scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory, while the loop tree duality (LTD) representation of multi-loop integrals exhibits appealing and interesting advantages with respect to other approaches. In view of the most recent developments in LTD, we exploit the synergies with the spinor-helicity formalism to analyse illustrative one- and two-loop scattering processes. We focus our discussion on the local UV renormalisation of IR and UV finite amplitudes and present a fully automated numerical implementation th…
We present the first comprehensive analysis of the unitarity thresholds and anomalous thresholds of scattering amplitudes at two loops and beyond based on the loop-tree duality, and show how non-causal unphysical thresholds are locally cancelled in an efficient way when the forest of all the dual on-shell cuts is considered as one. We also prove that soft and collinear singularities at two loops and beyond are restricted to a compact region of the loop three-momenta, which is a necessary condition for implementing a local cancellation of loop infrared singularities with the ones appearing in r…
Using color-kinematics duality, we construct for the first time the full integrand of the five-loop Sudakov form factor in N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory, including non-planar contributions. This result also provides a first manifestation of the color-kinematics duality at five loops. The integrand is explicitly ultraviolet finite when D<26/5, coincident with the known finiteness bound for amplitudes. If the double-copy method could be applied to the form factor, this would indicate an interesting ultraviolet finiteness bound for N=8 supergravity at five loops. The result is also expected to prov…
We explore gauge fields - strings duality by means of the loop equations and the zigzag symmetry. The results are striking and incomplete. Striking - because we find that the string ansatz proposed in [A.M. Polyakov, hep-th/9711002] satisfies gauge theory Schwinger-Dyson equations precisely at the critical dimension D=4. Incomplete - since we get these results only in the WKB approximation and only for a special class of contours. The ways to go beyond these limitations and in particular the OPE for operators defined on the loop are also discussed.
We illustrate a duality relation between one-loop integrals and single-cut phase-space integrals. The duality relation is realised by a modification of the customary +i0 prescription of the Feynman propagators. The new prescription regularizing the propagators, which we write in a Lorentz covariant form, compensates for the absence of multiple-cut contributions that appear in the Feynman Tree Theorem. The duality relation can be extended to generic one-loop quantities, such as Green's functions, in any relativistic, local and unitary field theories.
We study the duality between color and kinematics for the Sudakov form factors of ${\rm tr}(F^2)$ in non-supersymmetric pure Yang-Mills theory. We construct the integrands that manifest the color-kinematics duality up to two loops. The resulting numerators are given in terms of Lorentz products of momenta and polarization vectors, which have the same powers of loop momenta as that from the Feynman rules. The integrands are checked by $d$-dimensional unitarity cuts and are valid in any dimension. We find that massless-bubble and tadpole topologies are needed at two loops to realize the color-ki…
String theory requires two kinds of loop expansion: classical $(α')$ worldsheet loops with expansion parameter $<T>$ where $T$ is a modulus field, and quantum $(\hbar)$ spacetime loops with expansion parameter $<S>$ where $S$ is the dilaton field. Four-dimensional string/string duality (a corollary of ten-dimensional string/fivebrane duality) interchanges the roles of $S$ and $T$ and hence interchanges classical and quantum.
We extend useful properties of the $H\toγγ$ unintegrated dual amplitudes from one- to two-loop level, using the Loop-Tree Duality formalism. In particular, we show that the universality of the functional form -- regardless of the nature of the internal particle -- still holds at this order. We also present an algorithmic way to renormalise two-loop amplitudes, by locally cancelling the ultraviolet singularities at integrand level, thus allowing a full four-dimensional numerical implementation of the method. Our results are compared with analytic expressions already available in the literature,…
Elaborating on the novel formulation of the loop-tree duality, we introduce the Mathematica package Lotty that automates the latter at multi-loop level. By studying the features of Lotty and recalling former studies, we discuss that the representation of any multi-loop amplitude can be brought in a form, at integrand level, that only displays physical information, which we refer to as the causal representation of multi-loop Feynman integrands. In order to elucidate the role of Lotty in this automation, we recall results obtained for the calculation of the dual representation of integrands up-t…
We introduce a novel construction of a contour deformation within the framework of Loop-Tree Duality for the numerical computation of loop integrals featuring threshold singularities in momentum space. The functional form of our contour deformation automatically satisfies all constraints without the need for fine-tuning. We demonstrate that our construction is systematic and efficient by applying it to more than 100 examples of finite scalar integrals featuring up to six loops. We also showcase a first step towards handling non-integrable singularities by applying our work to one-loop infrared…
We discuss the duality theorem, which provides a relation between loop integrals and phase space integrals. We rederive the duality relation for the one-loop case and extend it to two and higher-order loops. We explicitly show its application to two- and three-loop scalar master integrals and discuss the structure of the occurring cuts.
In this talk, we review the most recent developments of the four-dimensional unsubstraction (FDU) and loop-tree duality (LTD) methods. In particular, we make emphasis on the advantages of the LTD formalism regarding asymptotic expansions of loop integrands.
Planar gluon amplitudes in N=4 SYM are remarkably similar to expectation values of Wilson loops made of light-like segments. We argue that the latter can be determined by making use of the conformal symmetry of the gauge theory, broken by cusp anomalies. We derive the corresponding anomalous conformal Ward identities valid to all loops and show that they uniquely fix the form of the finite part of a Wilson loop with n cusps (up to an additive constant) for n=4 and n=5 and reduce the freedom in it to a function of conformal invariants for n>=6. We also present an explicit two-loop calculation f…
The causal representation of multi-loop scattering amplitudes, obtained from the application of the loop-tree duality formalism, comprehensively elucidates, at integrand level, the behaviour of only physical singularities. This representation is found to manifest compact expressions for multi-loop topologies that have the same number of \textit{vertices}. Interestingly, integrands considered in former studies, with up-to six vertices and $L$ internal lines, display the same structure of up-to four-loop ones. The former is an insight that there should be a correspondence between vertices and th…
We review the recent progress on the numerical implementation of the Loop-Tree Duality Method (LTDM) for the calculation of scattering amplitudes. A central point is the analysis of the singularities of the integrand. In the framework of the LTDM some of these singularities cancel out. The ones left over are dealt with by contour deformation. We present details on how to achieve this as well as first results.
The numerical evaluation of multi-loop scattering amplitudes in the Feynman representation usually requires to deal with both physical (causal) and unphysical (non-causal) singularities. The loop-tree duality (LTD) offers a powerful framework to easily characterise and distinguish these two types of singularities, and then simplify analytically the underling expressions. In this paper, we work explicitly on the dual representation of multi-loop Feynman integrals generated from three parent topologies, which we refer to as Maximal, Next-to-Maximal and Next-to-Next-to-Maximal loop topologies. In…
There is growing evidence that on-shell gluon scattering amplitudes in planar N=4 SYM theory are equivalent to Wilson loops evaluated over contours consisting of straight, light-like segments defined by the momenta of the external gluons. This equivalence was first suggested at strong coupling using the AdS/CFT correspondence and has since been verified at weak coupling to one loop in perturbation theory. Here we perform an explicit two-loop calculation of the Wilson loop dual to the four-gluon scattering amplitude and demonstrate that the relation holds beyond one loop. We also propose an ano…
We discuss briefly the first numerical implementation of the Loop-Tree Duality (LTD) method. We apply the LTD method in order to calculate ultraviolet and infrared finite multi-leg one-loop Feynman integrals. We attack scalar and tensor integrals with up to six legs (hexagons). The LTD method shows an excellent performance independently of the number of external legs.
We derive a duality relation between one-loop integrals and phase-space integrals emerging from them through single cuts. The duality relation is realized by a modification of the customary +i0 prescription of the Feynman propagators. The new prescription regularizing the propagators, which we write in a Lorentz covariant form, compensates for the absence of multiple-cut contributions that appear in the Feynman Tree Theorem. The duality relation can be applied to generic one-loop quantities in any relativistic, local and unitary field theories. %It is suitable for applications to the analytica…
We discuss the analyticity properties of the Wilson--loop correlation functions relevant to the problem of soft high-energy scattering, directly at the level of the functional integral, in a genuinely nonperturbative way.
We test gauge/string duality by evaluating expectation values of small Wilson loops in pure Yang-Mills theories. On the gauge-theory side, there exists rich phenomenology. The dual formulation provides with a universal language to evaluate the gluon condensate and quadratic correction in terms of the metric in the fifth coordinate. Quantitatively, the estimated value of the gluon condensate is approximately 0.010 GeV^4.
We review the recent developments of the loop-tree duality method, focussing our discussion on analysing the singular behaviour of the loop integrand of the dual representation of one-loop integrals and scattering amplitudes. We show that within the loop-tree duality method there is a partial cancellation of singularities at the integrand level among the different components of the corresponding dual representation. The remaining threshold and infrared singularities are restricted to a finite region of the loop momentum space, which is of the size of the external momenta and can be mapped to t…
I discuss the physical picture underlying the evolution equations with Pomeron loops recently derived in multicolor QCD at high energy and qualitatively explain the notion of `self-duality'.
We obtain full-color three-loop three-point form factors of the stress-tensor supermultiplet and also of a length-3 half-BPS operator in N=4 SYM based on the color-kinematics duality and on-shell unitarity. The integrand results are verified by all planar and non-planar unitarity cuts, and they satisfy the minimal power-counting of loop momenta and diagrammatic symmetries. Interestingly, these three-loop solutions, while manifesting all dual Jacobi relations, contain a large number of free parameters; in particular, there are 24 free parameters for the form factor of stress-tensor supermultipl…
The Loop-Tree Duality (LTD) is a novel perturbative method in QFT that establishes a relation between loop-level and tree-level amplitudes, which gives rise to the idea of treating them simultaneously in a common Monte Carlo. Initially introduced for one-loop scalar integrals, the applicability of the LTD has been expanded to higher order loops and Feynman graphs beyond simple poles. For the first time, a numerical implementation relying on the LTD was realized in the form of a computer program that calculates one-loop scattering amplitudes. We present details on the employed contour deformati…
We use gauge/string duality to analytically evaluate the renormalized Polyakov loop in pure Yang-Mills theories. For SU(3), the result is in a quite good agreement with lattice simulations for a broad temperature range.
First results towards a general method for asymptotic expansions of Feynman amplitudes in the loop-tree duality (LTD) formalism are presented. The asymptotic expansion takes place at integrand-level in the Euclidean space of the loop three-momentum, where the hierarchies among internal and external scales are well-defined. Additionally, the UV behaviour of the individual contributions to the asymptotic expansion emerges only in the first terms of the expansion and is renormalized locally in four space-time dimensions. These two properties represent an advantage over the method of Expansion by …
We present a first numerical implementation of the Loop-Tree Duality (LTD) method for the direct numerical computation of multi-leg one-loop Feynman integrals. We discuss in detail the singular structure of the dual integrands and define a suitable contour deformation in the loop three-momentum space to carry out the numerical integration. Then, we apply the LTD method to the computation of ultraviolet and infrared finite integrals, and present explicit results for scalar integrals with up to five external legs (pentagons) and tensor integrals with up to six legs (hexagons). The LTD method fea…
We consider a multi-string configuration that provides a new way to compute the expectation value of the Polyakov loop in a five-dimensional framework known as AdS/QCD. The obtained results are in reasonably good agreement with those obtained by lattice simulations for pure SU(3) gauge theory and also by the usual single string configuration.
Loop Tree Duality (LTD) offers a promising avenue to numerically integrate multi-loop integrals directly in momentum space. It is well-established at one loop, but there have been only sparse numerical results at two loops. We provide a formal derivation for a novel multi-loop LTD expression and study its threshold singularity structure. We apply our findings numerically to a diverse set of up to four-loop finite topologies with kinematics for which no contour deformation is needed. We also lay down the ground work for constructing such a deformation. Our results serve as an important stepping…
Characterizing multiloop topologies is an important step towards developing novel methods at high perturbative orders in quantum field theory. In this article, we exploit the Loop-Tree Duality (LTD) formalism to analyse multiloop topologies that appear for the first time at five loops. Explicitly, we open the loops into connected trees and group them according to their topological properties. Then, we identify a kernel generator, the so-called N$^7$MLT universal topology, that allow us to describe any scattering amplitude of up to five loops. Furthermore, we provide factorization and recursion…
The Euler-Heisenberg effective action in a self-dual background is remarkably simple at two-loop. This simplicity is due to the inter-relationship between self-duality, helicity and supersymmetry. Applications include two-loop helicity amplitudes, beta-functions and nonperturbative effects. The two-loop Euler-Heisenberg effective Lagrangian for QED in a self-dual background field is naturally expressed in terms of one-loop quantities. This mirrors similar behavior recently found in two-loop amplitudes in N=4 SUSY Yang-Mills theory.
The loop-tree duality (LTD) theorem establishes that loop contributions to scattering amplitudes can be computed through dual integrals, which are build from single cuts of the virtual diagrams. In order to build a complete LTD representation of a cross section and to achieve a local cancellation of singularities, it is crucial to include the renormalized self-energy corrections in an unintegrated form. In this document, we calculate the scalar functions related to the self-energy corrections in QED and QCD in the LTD formalism and extract explicitly their UV behaviour.
The Loop-Tree Duality (LTD) is a novel perturbative method in QFT that establishes a relation between loop-level and tree-level scattering amplitudes. This is achieved by directly applying the Residue Theorem to the loop-energy-integration. The result is a sum over all possible single cuts of the Feynman diagram in consideration integrated over a modified phase space. These single-cut integrals, called Dual contributions, are in fact tree-level objects and thus give rise to the opportunity of bringing loop- and tree-contributions together, treating them simultaneously in a common Monte Carlo e…
The Hopf algebra of undecorated rooted trees has tamed the combinatorics of perturbative contributions, to anomalous dimensions in Yukawa theory and scalar $ϕ^3$ theory, from all nestings and chainings of a primitive self-energy subdivergence. Here we formulate the nonperturbative problems which these resummations approximate. For Yukawa theory, at spacetime dimension $d=4$, we obtain an integrodifferential Dyson-Schwinger equation and solve it parametrically in terms of the complementary error function. For the scalar theory, at $d=6$, the nonperturbative problem is more severe; we transform …
We present a new algorithm to construct a purely four dimensional representation of higher-order perturbative corrections to physical cross-sections at next-to-leading order (NLO). The algorithm is based on the loop-tree duality (LTD), and it is implemented by introducing a suitable mapping between the external and loop momenta of the virtual scattering amplitudes, and the external momenta of the real emission corrections. In this way, the sum over degenerate infrared states is performed at integrand level and the cancellation of infrared divergences occurs locally without introducing subtract…
