The Differential of All Two-Loop MHV Amplitudes in N=4 Yang-Mills Theory
John Golden, Marcus Spradlin
备注：
10 pages. v2: typos corrected, some formulas replaced with more concise versions. v3: discussion of parity added, other minor additions based on JHEP reviewer comments
We present an explicit analytic calculation of the differential of the planar n-particle, two-loop MHV scattering amplitude in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. The result is expressed only in terms of the polylogarithm functions Li_k(-x), for k=1,2,3, with arguments x belonging to the special class of dual conformal cross-ratios known as cluster X-coordinates. The surprising fact that these amplitudes may be expressed in this way provides a striking example of the manner in which the cluster structure on the kinematic configuration space underlies the structure of amplitudes in SYM theory.
We compute the even part of the planar two-loop MHV amplitude in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, for an arbitrary number of external particles. The answer is expressed as a sum of conformal integrals.
We prove the equivalence of a recently suggested MHV-formalism to the standard Yang-Mills theory. This is achieved by a formally non-local change of variables. In this note we present the explicit formulas while the detailed proofs are postponed to a future publication.
We apply MHV diagrams to the derivation of the one-loop dilatation operator of N=4 super Yang-Mills in the SO(6) sector. We find that in this approach the calculation reduces to the evaluation of a single MHV diagram in dimensional regularisation. This provides the first application of MHV diagrams to an off-shell quantity. We also discuss other applications of the method and future directions.
We compute the even part of the two-loop seven-point planar MHV amplitude in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We find that the even part is expressed in terms of conformal integrals with simple rational coefficients. We also compute the even part of two all-n cuts. An important feature of the result is that no hexagon (or higher polygon) loops appear among the integrals detected by the cuts we computed. We also present a "leg addition rule," which allows us to express some integral coefficients in the n+1-point MHV amplitude in terms of the integral coefficients of the n-point MHV amplitu…
Here we formulate two field redefinitions for N=4 Super Yang-Mills in light cone superspace that generates only MHV vertices in the new Lagrangian. After careful consideration of the S-matrix equivalence theorem, we see that only the canonical transformation gives the MHV Lagrangian that would correspond to the CSW expansion. Being in superspace, it is easier to analyse the equivalence theorem at loop level. We calculate the on shell amplitude for 4pt $(\barΛ\bar{\rm A}Λ{\rm A})$ MHV in the new lagrangian and show that it reproduces the previously known form. We also briefly discuss the relati…
We derive a manifestly MHV Lagrangian for the N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in light-cone superspace. This is achieved by constructing a canonical redefinition which maps the N=4 superfield and its conjugate to a new pair of superfields. In terms of these new superfields the N=4 Lagrangian takes a (non-polynomial) manifestly MHV form, containing vertices involving two superfields of negative helicity and an arbitrary number of superfields of positive helicity. We also discuss constraints satisfied by the new superfields, which ensure that they describe the correct degrees of freedom in …
We investigate the collinear and Regge behavior of the 2 -> 4 MHV amplitude in N = 4super Yang-Mills theory in the BFKL approach. The expression for the remainder function in the collinear kinematics proposed by Alday, Gaiotto, Maldacena, Sever and Vieira is analytically continued to the Mandelstam region. The result of the continuation in the Regge kinematics shows an agreement with the BFKL approach up to to five-loop level. We present the Regge theory interpretation of the obtained results and discuss some issues related to a possible non-multiplicative renormalization of the remainder func…
Recently, loop integrands for certain Yang-Mills scattering amplitudes and correlation functions have been shown to be systematically expressible in dlog form, raising the possibility that these loop integrals can be performed directly without Feynman parameters. We do so here to give a new description of the planar 1-loop MHV amplitude in N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory. We explicitly incorporate the standard Feynman i epsilon prescription into the integrands. We find that the generic MHV diagram contributing to the 1-loop MHV amplitude, known as Kermit, is dual conformal invariant up to the ch…
Over the past few decades, it has been realised that gauge theory scattering amplitudes have structures much simpler than the traditional Feynman graph driven approach would suggest. In particular, Parke and Taylor found a particularly simple expression for the tree-level amplitudes with two gluons of different helicity than the others (the so-called MHV amplitudes). Cachazo, Svrcek and Witten (CSW) devised rules for constructing tree-level amplitudes by sewing lower-valence MHV amplitudes together with scalar propagators. It was shown by Mansfield in 2005 that a canonical change of the field …
We give a representation of the parity-even part of the planar two-loop six-gluon MHV amplitude of N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory, in terms of loop-momentum integrals with simple dual conformal properties. We evaluate the integrals numerically in order to test directly the ABDK/BDS all-loop ansatz for planar MHV amplitudes. We find that the ansatz requires an additive remainder function, in accord with previous indications from strong-coupling and Regge limits. The planar six-gluon amplitude can also be compared with the hexagonal Wilson loop computed by Drummond, Henn, Korchemsky and Sokatchev i…
We consider the planar MHV amplitude in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory for 2 -> 4 particle scattering at two and three loops in the Regge kinematics. We perform an analytic continuation of two-loop result for the remainder function found by Goncharov, Spradlin, Vergu and Volovich to the physical region, where the remainder function does not vanish in the Regge limit. After the continuation both the leading and the subleading in the logarithm of the energy terms are extracted and analyzed. Using this result we calculate the next-to-leading corrections to the impact factors required in the…
In this paper we extend our techniques, developed in a previous paper (Du, etc, JHEP 05(2016)086) for direct evaluation of arbitrary $n$-point tree-level MHV amplitudes in 4d Yang-Mills and gravity theory using the Cachazo-He-Yuan (CHY) formalism, to the 4d Einstein-Yang-Mills (EYM) theory. Any single-trace color-ordered $n$-point tree-level MHV amplitude in EYM theory, obtained by a direct evaluation of the CHY formula, is of an elegant factorized form of a Parke-Taylor factor and a Hodges determinant, much simpler and more compact than the existing formulas in the literature. We prove that o…
We study a scalar component of the 8-point next-to-next-to-maximally-helicity-violating (N${}^2$MHV) amplitude at two-loop level in ${\cal N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills theory; it has a leading singularity proportional to the inverse of the four-mass-box square root and receives contributions from only two types of non-trivial integrals with one-loop infrared (IR) divergences. We compute such two-loop 8-point integrals by taking (double-)collinear limits of certain finite, dual-conformal-invariant integrals, and they nicely give the IR-safe ratio function after subtracting divergences. As the first g…
The precise form of the multi-Regge asymptotics of the two-loop six-point MHV amplitude in N = 4 Super-Yang-Mills theory has been a subject of recent controversy. In this paper we utilize the amplitude/Wilson loop correspondence to obtain precise numerical results for the imaginary part of these asymptotics. The region of phase-space that we consider is interesting because it allowed Bartels, Lipatov, and Sabio Vera to determine that the two-loop six-point MHV amplitude is not fixed by the BDS ansatz. They proceeded by working in the framework of a high energy effective action, thus side-stepp…
The S-matrix for planar N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory can be computed as the correlation function for a holomorphic polygonal Wilson loop in twistor space. In an axial gauge, this leads to the construction of the all-loop integrand via MHV diagrams in twistor space. We show that at MHV, this formulation leads directly to expressions for loop integrands in d log form; i.e., the integrand is a product of exterior derivatives of logarithms of rational functions. For higher MHV degree, it is in d log form multiplied by delta functions. The parameters appearing in the d log form arise geometrically…
In this talk, we review our recent work on direct evaluation of tree-level MHV amplitudes by Cachazo-He-Yuan (CHY) formula. We also investigate the correspondence between solutions to scattering equations and amplitudes in four dimensions along this line. By substituting the MHV solution of scattering equations into the integrated CHY formula, we explicitly calculate the tree-level MHV amplitudes for four dimensional Yang-Mills theory and gravity. These results naturally reproduce the Parke-Taylor and Hodges formulas. In addition, we derive a new compact formula for tree-level single-trace MHV…
In this letter, we exploit generalised unitarity in order to calculate the cut-constructible part of one-loop amplitudes in non-supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. In particular, we rederive the n-gluon MHV amplitudes for both the adjacent and non-adjacent gluon helicity configurations from 3- and 4-particle cuts alone.
We show that there are remarkable simplifications when the MHV diagram formalism for N=4 super Yang-Mills is reformulated in momentum twistor space. The vertices are replaced by unity while each propagator becomes a dual superconformal `R-invariant' whose arguments may be read off from the diagram. The momentum twistor MHV rules generate a formula for the full, all-loop planar integrand of the super Yang-Mills S-matrix that is manifestly dual superconformally invariant up to the choice of a reference twistor. We give a general proof of this reformulation and illustrate its use by computing the…
It is well known that the MHV action, i.e. the action containing all the maximally helicity violating vertices, is alone not sufficient for loop computations. In order to develop loop contributions systematically and to ensure that there are no missing terms, we propose to formulate the quantum MHV action via one-loop effective action approach. The quadratic field fluctuations in the light cone Yang-Mills theory are explicitly integrated, followed by the classical canonical field transformation. We test the approach by calculating one loop $(++++)$ and $(+++-)$ amplitudes, i.e. amplitudes that…
We show how to calculate the one-loop scattering amplitude with all gluons of negative helicity in non-supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory using MHV diagrams. We argue that the amplitude with all positive helicity gluons arises from a Jacobian which occurs when one performs a Backlund-type holomorphic change of variables in the lightcone Yang-Mills Lagrangian. This also results in contributions to scattering amplitudes from violations of the equivalence theorem. Furthermore, we discuss how the one-loop amplitudes with a single positive or negative helicity gluon arise in this formalism. Perturbat…
It has been known for some time that the standard MHV diagram formulation of perturbative Yang-Mills theory is incomplete, as it misses rational terms in one-loop scattering amplitudes of pure Yang-Mills. We propose that certain Lorentz violating counterterms, when expressed in the field variables which give rise to standard MHV vertices, produce precisely these missing terms. These counterterms appear when Yang-Mills is treated with a regulator, introduced by Thorn and collaborators, which arises in worldsheet formulations of Yang-Mills theory in the lightcone gauge. As an illustration of our…
In this paper, we study the relation between the Cachazo-He-Yuan (CHY) formula and the maximal-helicity-violating (MHV) amplitudes of Yang-Mills and gravity in four dimensions. We prove that only one special rational solution of the scattering equations found by Weinzierl support the MHV amplitudes. Namely, localized at this solution, the integrated CHY formula reproduces the Parke-Taylor formula for Yang-Mills amplitudes as well as the Hodges formula for gravitational amplitudes. This is achieved by developing techniques, in a manifestly Möbius covariant formalism, to explicitly compute relev…
We propose a new, twistor string theory inspired formalism to calculate loop amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. In this approach, maximal helicity violating (MHV) tree amplitudes of N=4 super Yang-Mills are used as vertices, using an off-shell prescription introduced by Cachazo, Svrcek and Witten, and combined into effective diagrams that incorporate large numbers of conventional Feynman diagrams. As an example, we apply this formalism to the particular class of MHV one-loop scattering amplitudes with an arbitrary number of external legs in N=4 super Yang-Mills. Remarkably, our approac…
We show how the maximally helicity violating (MHV) scattering amplitudes for gravitons can be related to current correlators and vertex operators in twistor space. This is similar to what happens in Yang-Mills theory and raises the possibility of a direct twistor-string-like construction for ${\cal N}=8$ supergravity.
It is a remarkable fact that MHV amplitudes in maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at arbitrary loop order can be written as the product of the tree amplitude with the same helicity configuration and a universal, helicity-blind function of the kinematic invariants. In this note we show how for one-loop MHV amplitudes with an arbitrary number of external legs this universal function can be derived using Wilson loops. Our result is in precise agreement with the known expression for the infinite sequence of MHV amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills. In the four-point case, we are able to repr…
The MHV or CSW expansion of tree-level Yang-Mills amplitudes provides an elegant and simple way of obtaining analytic formulas for S-matrix elements. Inspired by the BCFW technique, a systematic approach to obtain the MHV expansion was introduced by Risager, using a particular complex deformation. Although it works for Yang-Mills amplitudes, Risager's technique fails to provide an MHV expansion already for Next-to-MHV gravity amplitudes with more than eleven particles, as shown by Bianchi, Elvang and Freedman in 2008. This fact implies that in this sector there is a contribution at infinity st…
The duality between color and kinematics present in scattering amplitudes of Yang-Mills theory strongly suggest the existence of a hidden kinematic Lie algebra that controls the gauge theory. While associated BCJ numerators are known on closed forms to any multiplicity at tree level, the kinematic algebra has only been partially explored for the simplest of four-dimensional amplitudes: up to the MHV sector. In this paper we introduce a framework that allows us to characterize the algebra beyond the MHV sector. This allows us to both constrain some of the ambiguities of the kinematic algebra, a…
We find a permutation relation among Yangian Invariants -- two Yangian Invariants with adjacent external lines exchanged are related by a simple kinematic factor. This relation is shown to be equivalent to U(1) decoupling and Bern-Carrasco-Johansson (BCJ) relation at the level of maximal helicity violating (MHV) amplitudes. Together with the newly found permutation relation and using unitarity cuts to remove ambiguity in the definition of loop momenta of cut amplitudes due to the nonplanar legs, we propose a systematic way of reconstructing the the integrands of nonplanar MHV amplitudes up to …
As an alternative to the usual Feynman graphs, tree amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory can be constructed from tree graphs in which the vertices are tree level MHV scattering amplitudes, continued off shell in a particular fashion. The formalism leads to new and relatively simple formulas for many amplitudes, and can be heuristically derived from twistor space.
We consider the two-loop four-point amplitude in N=2 super QED, and show that there exists an approximate recursive structure similar to that captured by the ABDK/BDS ansatz for MHV amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills. Furthermore, we present a simple relation between the box coefficients of one-loop photon MHV amplitudes in (super) QED, and sums of box coefficients of one-loop MHV amplitudes in (super) Yang-Mills.
We discuss the calculation of one-loop amplitudes in N=8 supergravity using MHV diagrams. In contrast to MHV amplitudes of gluons in Yang-Mills, tree-level MHV amplitudes of gravitons are not holomorphic in the spinor variables. In order to extend these amplitudes off shell, and use them as vertices to build loops, we introduce certain shifts for the spinor variables associated to the loop momenta. Using this off-shell prescription, we rederive the four-point MHV amplitude of gravitons at one loop, in complete agreement with known results. We also discuss the extension to the case of one-loop …
We give a closed-form, prescriptive representation of all-multiplicity two-loop MHV amplitude integrands in fully-color-dressed (non-planar) maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory.
We apply the Landau equations, whose solutions parameterize the locus of possible branch points, to the one- and two-loop Feynman integrals relevant to MHV amplitudes in planar $\mathcal{N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills theory. We then identify which of the Landau singularities appear in the symbols of the amplitudes, and which do not. We observe that all of the symbol entries in the two-loop MHV amplitudes are already present as Landau singularities of one-loop pentagon integrals.
We apply a bootstrap procedure to two-loop MHV amplitudes in planar N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory. We argue that the mathematically most complicated part (the $Λ^2 B_2$ coproduct component) of the n-particle amplitude is uniquely determined by a simple cluster algebra property together with a few physical constraints (dihedral symmetry, analytic structure, supersymmetry, and well-defined collinear limits). We present a concise, closed-form expression which manifests these properties for all n.
Celestial and momentum space amplitudes for massless particles are related to each other by a change of basis provided by the Mellin transform. Therefore properties of celestial amplitudes have counterparts in momentum space amplitudes and vice versa. In this paper, we study the celestial avatar of dual superconformal symmetry of $\mathcal{N}=4$ Yang-Mills theory. We also analyze various differential equations known to be satisfied by celestial $n$-point tree-level MHV amplitudes and identify their momentum space origins.
This paper studies various properties of amplitudes in 3d super Yang Mills theory. First we explain how to obtain the amplitudes of 3d super Yang Mills theories from 4d super Yang Mills theories and obtain their helicity structure. Next, we use a 3d BFCW recursion relation to show that the tree amplitudes and loop integrands of maximal 3d super Yang Mills have dual conformal covariance (although not invariance, so that the amplitudes themselves are not dual conformal). Finally, we argue that the one-loop amplitudes of maximal 3d super Yang-Mills can be reduced to scalar box diagrams and evalua…
The $\bar{Q}$ equations, rooted in the dual superconformal anomalies, are a powerful tool for computing amplitudes in planar $\mathcal{N}=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. By using the $\bar{Q}$ equations, we compute the symbol of the first MHV amplitude with algebraic letters -- the three-loop 8-point amplitude (or the octagon remainder function) -- in this theory. The symbol alphabet for this amplitude consists of 204 independent rational letters and shares the same 18 algebraic letters with the two-loop 8-point NMHV amplitude.
We present tree-level scattering amplitudes in beta-deformed super Yang-Mills theory in terms of new generating functions, derived by construction of a phase operator and application thereof to the N = 4 superamplitudes. The technique is explicitly illustrated for the MHV and NMHV sectors. Along these lines we propose a phase representation of the N = 4 superconformal algebra realized on deformed amplitudes in the planar limit. Validity of the MHV vertex expansion is proven and a connection to non-planar multi-loop unitarity cuts is established. Our derivations are also compatible with the rel…
We show how the MHV diagram description of Yang-Mills theories can be used to study non-supersymmetric loop amplitudes. In particular, we derive a compact expression for the cut-constructible part of the general one-loop MHV multi-gluon scattering amplitude in pure Yang-Mills theory. We show that in special cases this expression reduces to known amplitudes - the amplitude with adjacent negative-helicity gluons, and the five gluon non-adjacent amplitude. Finally, we briefly discuss the twistor space interpretation of our result.
We construct a minitwistor action for Yang--Mills--Higgs theory in three dimensions. The Feynman diagrams of this action will construct perturbation theory around solutions of the Bogomolny equations in much the same way that MHV diagrams describe perturbation theory around the self--dual Yang Mills equations in four dimensions. We also provide a new formula for all tree amplitudes in YMH theory (and its maximally supersymmetric extension) in terms of degree d maps to minitwistor space. We demonstrate its relationship to the RSVW formula in four dimensions and show that it generates the correc…
Over the past two years, the use of on-shell techniques has deepened our understanding of the S-matrix of gauge theories and led to the calculation of many new scattering amplitudes. In these notes we review a particular on-shell method developed recently, the quantum MHV diagrams, and discuss applications to one-loop amplitudes. Furthermore, we briefly discuss the application of D-dimensional generalised unitarity to the calculation of scattering amplitudes in non-supersymmetric Yang-Mills.
6D maximal super Yang-Mills on-shell amplitudes are formulated in superspace using 6 dimensional twistors. The 3,4,5-point tree amplitudes are obtained by supersymmetrizing their bosonic counterparts and confirmed through the BCFW construction. In contrast to 4D this superspace is non-chiral, reflecting the fact that one cannot differentiate MHV from $\bar{\rm MHV}$ in 6D. Combined with unitarity methods, this superspace should be useful for the study of multi-loop D dimensional maximal super Yang-Mills and gravity amplitudes. Furthermore, the non-chiral nature gives a natural framework for an…
We provide an analytic formula for the (rescaled) one-loop scalar hexagon integral $\tildeΦ_6$ with all external legs massless, in terms of classical polylogarithms. We show that this integral is closely connected to two integrals appearing in one- and two-loop amplitudes in planar $\\mathcal{N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills theory, $Ω^{(1)}$ and $Ω^{(2)}$. The derivative of $Ω^{(2)}$ with respect to one of the conformal invariants yields $\tildeΦ_6$, while another first-order differential operator applied to $\tildeΦ_6$ yields $Ω^{(1)}$. We also introduce some kinematic variables that rationalize the a…
We discuss the construction of non-chiral S-matrix of four-dimensional N=4 super Yang-Mills using a non-chiral superspace. This construction utilizes the non-chiral representation of dual superconformal symmetry, which is the natural representation from the point of view of the six-dimensional parent theory. The superspace in discussion is projective superspace constructed by Hatsuda and Siegel, and is based on a half coset U(2,2|4)/U(1,1|2)^2_+. We obtain the non-chiral representation of the five-point and general n-point MHV and anti-MHV amplitude. The non-chiral formulation can be straightf…
We argue that generic one-loop scattering amplitudes in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories can be computed equivalently with MHV diagrams or with Feynman diagrams. We first present a general proof of the covariance of one-loop non-MHV amplitudes obtained from MHV diagrams. This proof relies only on the local character in Minkowski space of MHV vertices and on an application of the Feynman Tree Theorem. We then show that the discontinuities of one-loop scattering amplitudes computed with MHV diagrams are precisely the same as those computed with standard methods. Furthermore, we analyse colline…
We argue that the scattering amplitudes in the maximally supersymmetric N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory possess a new symmetry which extends the previously discovered dual conformal symmetry. To reveal this property we formulate the scattering amplitudes as functions in the appropriate dual superspace. Rewritten in this form, all tree-level MHV and next-to-MHV amplitudes exhibit manifest dual superconformal symmetry. We propose a new, compact and Lorentz covariant formula for the tree-level NMHV amplitudes for arbitrary numbers and types of external particles. The dual conformal symmetry is broken…
We construct a canonical transformation that takes the usual Yang-Mills action into one whose Feynman diagram expansion generates the MHV rules. The off-shell continuation appears as a natural consequence of using light-front quantisation surfaces. The construction extends to include massless fermions.
We compute the six-particle maximally-helicity-violating (MHV) and next-to-MHV (NMHV) amplitudes in planar maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory through seven loops and six loops, respectively, as an application of the extended Steinmann relations and using the cosmic Galois coaction principle. Starting from a minimal space of functions constructed using these principles, we identify the amplitude by matching its symmetries and predicted behavior in various kinematic limits. Through five loops, the MHV and NMHV amplitudes are uniquely determined using only the multi-Regge and leading coll…
I present a conjecture that all two-loop MHV amplitudes in planar $\mathcal{N} = 4$ super-Yang-Mills theory possess an antipodal symmetry when evaluated on parity-even kinematics. The symmetry acts as a change of basis on the symbol letters, followed by the antipode operation associated with the Hopf algebra structure of multiple polylogarithms. At the symbol level, I provide the symmetry map explicitly for amplitudes with up to eight external particles, and also provide evidence at all multiplicities. Intriguingly, the map acts as an isomorphism on the normal fans of the Newton polytopes of t…
We consider generalization of the Cachazo-Svrcek-Witten (CSW) rules to one-loop amplitudes of N=4 super Yang-Mills theory in a recently developed holonomy formalism in twistor space. We first reconsider off-shell continuation of the Lorentz-invariant Nair measure for the incorporation of loop integrals. We then formulate an S-matrix functional for general amplitudes such that it implements the CSW rules at quantum level. For one-loop MHV amplitudes, the S-matrix functional correctly reproduces the analytic expressions obtained in the Brandhuber-Spence-Travaglini (BST) method. Motivated by this…
One-loop amplitudes of gluons in N=4 gauge theory can be written as linear combinations of known scalar box integrals with coefficients that are rational functions. In this paper we show how to use generalized unitarity to basically read off the coefficients. The generalized unitarity cuts we use are quadruple cuts. These can be directly applied to the computation of four-mass scalar integral coefficients, and we explicitly present results in next-to-next-to-MHV amplitudes. For scalar box functions with at least one massless external leg we show that by doing the computation in signature (--++…
We demonstrate that the canonical change of variables that yields the MHV lagrangian, also provides contributions to scattering amplitudes that evade the equivalence theorem. This `ET evasion' in particular provides the tree-level (-++) amplitude, which is non-vanishing off shell, or on shell with complex momenta or in (2,2) signature, and is missing from the MHV (aka CSW) rules. At one loop there are ET-evading diagrammatic contributions to the amplitudes with all positive helicities. We supply the necessary regularisation in order to define these contributions (and quantum MHV methods in gen…
We compute the next-to-MHV one-loop n-gluon amplitudes in N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory. These amplitudes contain three negative-helicity gluons and an arbitrary number of positive-helicity gluons, and are the first infinite series of amplitudes beyond the simplest, MHV, amplitudes. We also discuss some aspects of their twistor-space structure.
We describe a general algorithm which builds on several pieces of data available in the literature to construct explicit analytic formulas for two-loop MHV amplitudes in N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory. The non-classical part of an amplitude is built from $A_3$ cluster polylogarithm functions; classical polylogarithms with (negative) cluster X-coordinate arguments are added to complete the symbol of the amplitude; beyond-the-symbol terms proportional to $π^2$ are determined by comparison with the differential of the amplitude; and the overall additive constant is fixed by the collinear limit. We p…
