We propose new formulae for the two-loop n-point D-dimensional integrands of scattering amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory and gravity. The loop integrands are written as a double-forward limit of tree-level trivalent diagrams, and are inferred from the formalism of the two-loop scattering equations. We discuss the relationship between the formulae for non-supersymmetric theories and the Neveu-Schwarz sector of the formulae for maximally supersymmetric theories, which can be derived from ambitwistor strings. An important property of the loop integrands is that they are expressed in a representation that includes linear-type propagators. This representation exhibits a loop-level version of the colour-kinematics duality, which follows directly from tree level via the double-forward limit.
Colour-kinematics duality is a remarkable property of Yang-Mills theory. Its validity implies a relation between gauge theory and gravity scattering amplitudes, known as double copy. Albeit fully established at the tree level, its extension to the loop level is conjectural. Lifting the on-shell, scattering amplitudes-based description to the level of action functionals, we argue that a theory that exhibits tree-level colour-kinematics duality can be reformulated in a way such that its loop integrands manifest a generalised form of colour-kinematics duality. Moreover, we show how the structures…
We obtain the detailed Feynman rules for perturbative gauge theory on a fixed Yang-Mills plane wave background. Using these rules, the tree-level 4-point gluon amplitude is computed and some 1-loop Feynman diagrams are considered. As an application, we test the extent to which colour-kinematics duality, the relation between the colour and kinematic constituents of the amplitude, holds on the plane wave background. Although the duality is obstructed, the obstruction has an interesting constrained structure. This plane wave version of colour-kinematics duality reduces on a flat background to the…
Colour-kinematics duality is the conjecture of a group theory-like structure for the kinematic dependence of scattering amplitudes in gauge theory and gravity. This structure has been verified at tree level in various ways, but similar progress has been lacking at loop level, where the power of the duality would be most significant. Here we explore colour-kinematics duality at one loop using the self-dual sector as a starting point. The duality is shown to exist in pure Yang-Mills theory for two infinite classes of amplitudes: amplitudes with any number of particles either all of the same heli…
We explore topologically massive gauge theories using the covariant colour kinematics duality recently introduced by Cheung and Mangan. We show that the massive bi-adjoint scalar field is simply related to topologically massive gauge theory by the duality, and that enacting the same duality on the gauge theory produces topologically massive gravity coupled to a scalar or, equivalently, an antisymmetric field. We also show that different choices for the replacement of the colour structure constants with kinematic structure constants lead to different theories, including a topologically massive …
The discovery of colour-kinematics duality has allowed great progress in our understanding of the UV structure of gravity. However, it has proven difficult to find numerators which satisfy colour-kinematics duality in certain cases. We discuss obstacles to building a set of such numerators in the context of the five-gluon amplitude with all helicities positive at two loops. We are able to overcome the obstacles by adding more loop momentum to our numerator to accommodate tension between the values of certain cuts and the symmetries of certain diagrams. At the same time, we maintain control ove…
We consider a broad class of massive four dimensional effective theories describing an infinite tower of charged massive spin 1 states, interacting with massless spin 1 and spin 0. The spectrum is chosen to be the same as that appears in the Kaluza-Klein theory reduction of 5d Yang-Mills to ensure the absence of any spurious poles in a possible double copy formulation. The effective theories are characterized by multiple different couplings between different fields which are unconstrained by symmetries and low energy criteria. Remarkably, by demanding that the scattering amplitudes preserve co…
Van der Waerden's (VDW) colouring theorem in combinatoric number theory [1] has scope for physical applications.The solution of the two colour case has enabled the construction of an explicit mapping of an infinite, one dimensional antiferromagnetic Ising system to an effective pseudo- ferromagnetic one with the coupling constants in the two cases becoming related [2].Here the three colour problem is solved and the results are used to obtain new insights in the theory of complex lattices, particularly those relating to ternary alloys. The existence of these mappings of a multicolour lattice on…
It was recently proposed that the kinematic algebra featuring in the colour-kinematics duality for scattering amplitudes in heavy-mass effective field theory (HEFT) and Yang-Mills theory is a quasi-shuffle Hopf algebra. The associated fusion product determines the structure of the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson (BCJ) numerators, which are manifestly gauge invariant and with poles corresponding to heavy-particle exchange. In this work we explore the deep connections between the quasi-shuffle algebra and general physical properties of the scattering amplitudes. First, after proving the double-copy form…
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.
We derive a vertex operator based expression for the kinematic numerators of Yang-Mills amplitudes by applying the momentum kernel formalism to open string amplitudes. The expression involves an $α'$-weighted commutator induced by the monodromy relations between the colour ordered Yang-Mills amplitudes, which mirrors the $α'$ deformed colour structure observed in open string and semi-abelian $Z$-theory. The kinematic algebra given by this construction contains the Lie algebra of diffeomorphism as an obvious sub-algebra.
We prove that the scattering equation formalism for Yang-Mills amplitudes can be used to make manifest the theory's color-kinematics duality. This is achieved through a concrete reduction algorithm which renders this duality manifest term-by-term. The reduction follows from the recently derived set of identities for amplitudes expressed in the scattering equation formalism that are analogous to monodromy relations in string theory. A byproduct of our algorithm is a generalization of the identities among gravity and Yang-Mills amplitudes.
We investigate tree-level five-point amplitudes in scalar-QCD expressed in terms of Sudakov variables and find the equivalent "gravitational" counterparts using the color-kinematics duality proposed by Bern, Carrasco, and Johannson. Taking the multi-Regge limit in the gravitational amplitudes, we show that those pieces in the coupling of two reggeized gravitons to one on-shell graviton directly stemming from the double copy of the vertex for two reggeized gluons to one on-shell gluon are universal and properly reproduced by the duality.
We review the construction of the unitary supermultiplets of the ${\cal{N}}=8$ d=5 anti-de Sitter (AdS_5) superalgebra SU(2,2|4), which is the symmetry group of the type IIB superstring theory on $AdS_5 \times S^5$, using the oscillator method.
Four-point one-loop nonsupersymmetric pure Yang-Mills amplitudes with the duality between color and kinematics manifest have been constructed in previous work. Here, we extend the discussion to fermions and scalars circulating in the loop with all external gluons. This gives another nontrivial loop-level example showing that the duality between color and kinematics holds in nonsupersymmetric gauge theory. The construction is valid in any spacetime dimension and written in terms of formal polarization vectors. We also convert these expressions into a four-dimensional form with explicit external…
Recently a powerful duality between color and kinematics has been proposed for integrands of scattering amplitudes in quite general gauge theories. In this paper the duality proposal is extended to the more general class of gauge theory observables formed by form factors. After a discussion of the general setup the existence of the duality is verified in two- and three-loop examples in four dimensional maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory which involve the stress energy tensor multiplet. In these cases the duality reproduces known results in a particularly transparent and uniform way. As…
Three scalar effective field theories have special properties in terms of non-linear symmetries, soft limits and on-shell constructability that arise from their Goldstone nature: the non-linear $σ$-model, multi-DBI theory and the special Galileon. We discuss how these theories are related via flavour-kinematics duality, analogous to the colour-kinematics duality between gravity and gauge theories. At the off-shell level, we identify a specific mapping between the three theories that is crucially dependent on their non-linear symmetries. Similarly, we demonstrate how the on-shell amplitudes fac…
To explore color/kinematics duality for general representations of the gauge group we formulate the duality for general abelian orbifolds of the SU(N), N=4 super Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions, which have fields in the bi-fundamental representation, and use it to construct explicitly complete four-vector and four-scalar amplitudes at one loop. For fixed number of supercharges, graph-organized L-loop n-point integrands of all orbifold theories are given in terms of a fixed set of polynomials labeled by L representations of the orbifold group. In contrast to the standard duality-satisfying…
In flat space, the color/kinematics duality states that perturbative Yang-Mills amplitudes can be written in such a way that kinematic numerators obey the same Jacobi relations as their color factors. This remarkable duality implies BCJ relations for Yang-Mills amplitudes and underlies the double copy to gravitational amplitudes. In this paper, we find analogous relations for Yang-Mills amplitudes in AdS$_4$. In particular we show that the kinematic numerators of 4-point Yang-Mills amplitudes computed via Witten diagrams in momentum space enjoy a generalised gauge symmetry which can be used to…
We explicitly show that the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson color-kinematic duality holds at tree level through at least eight points in Aharony-Bergman-Jafferis-Maldacena theory with gauge group SU(N) x SU(N). At six points we give the explicit form of numerators in terms of amplitudes, displaying the generalized gauge freedom that leads to amplitude relations. However, at eight points no amplitude relations follow from the duality, so the diagram numerators are fixed unique functions of partial amplitudes. We provide the explicit amplitude-numerator decomposition and the numerator relations for eigh…
We give a prescription for the computation of loop-level scattering amplitudes in pure Einstein gravity, and four-dimensional pure supergravities, using the color-kinematics duality. Amplitudes are constructed using double copies of pure (super-)Yang-Mills parts and additional contributions from double copies of fundamental matter, which are treated as ghosts. The opposite-statistics states cancel the unwanted dilaton and axion in the bosonic theory, as well as the extra matter supermultiplets in supergravities. As a spinoff, we obtain a prescription for obtaining amplitudes in supergravities …
In this talk we review the work in [1,2,3] where we have studied the applicability of the color-kinematics duality to the scattering of two distinguishable scalar matter particles with one gluon emission in QCD, or one graviton emission in Einstein gravity. We have shown that the duality works well in the Regge limit under two different extensions of the gauge theory: the introduction of a new scalar contact interaction and the relaxation of the distinguishability of the scalars. Both modifications correspond to theories obtained by dimensional reduction from higher-dimensional pure gauge theo…
We provide evidence in favor of the conjectured duality between color and kinematics for the case of nonsupersymmetric pure Yang-Mills amplitudes by constructing a form of the one-loop four-point amplitude of this theory that makes the duality manifest. Our construction is valid in any dimension. We also describe a duality-satisfying representation for the two-loop four-point amplitude with identical four-dimensional external helicities. We use these results to obtain corresponding gravity integrands for a theory containing a graviton, dilaton, and antisymmetric tensor, simply by replacing col…
We investigate color-kinematics duality for gauge-theory amplitudes produced by the pure nonabelian Yang-Mills action deformed by higher-dimension operators. For the operator denoted by F^3, the product of three field strengths, the existence of color-kinematic dual representations follows from string-theory monodromy relations. We provide explicit dual representations, and show how the double-copy construction of gravity amplitudes based on them is consistent with the Kawai-Lewellen-Tye relations. It leads to the amplitudes produced by Einstein gravity coupled to a dilaton field phi, and defo…
Color-kinematics duality is a remarkable conjectured property of gauge theory which, together with double copy, is at the heart of a wealth of new developments in scattering amplitudes. So far, its validity has been verified in most cases only empirically, lacking a first-principle understanding beyond tree-level. In this paper we provide initial steps in a first-principle understanding of color-kinematics duality and double-copy at loop level, through a detailed analysis of the field-theory limit of the monodromy relations of string theory at one loop. In this limit, we dissect the type of Fe…
We give a geometric interpretation of color-kinematics duality between tree-level scattering amplitudes of gauge and gravity theories. Using their representation as intersection numbers we show how to obtain Bern-Carrasco-Johansson numerators in a constructive way as residues around boundaries of the moduli space. In this language the kinematic Jacobi identity between each triple of numerators is a residue theorem in disguise.
Colour-kinematics duality suggests that Yang-Mills (YM) theory possesses some hidden Lie algebraic structure. So far this structure has resisted understanding, apart from some progress in the self-dual sector. We show that there is indeed a Lie algebra behind the YM Feynman rules. The Lie algebra we uncover is the Drinfeld double of the Lie algebra of vector fields. More specifically, we show that the kinematic numerators following from the YM Feynman rules satisfy a version of the Jacobi identity, in that the Jacobiator of the bracket defined by the YM cubic vertex is cancelled by the contrib…
The relation for the gravity polarisation tensor as the tensor product of two gluon polarisation vectors has been well-known for a long time, but a version of this relation for multi-particle fields is presently still not known. Here we show that in order for this to happen we first have to ensure that the multi-particle polarisations satisfy colour-kinematics duality. In previous work it has been show that this arises naturally from the Bern-Kosower formalism for one-loop gluon amplitudes, and here we show that the tensor product for multi-particle fields arise naturally in the Bern-Dunbar-Sh…
We study 1-loop MHV amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory and in N=8 supergravity. For Yang-Mills we find that the simple form for the full amplitude presented by Del Duca, Dixon and Maltoni naturally leads to one that has physical residues on all compact contours. After expanding the simple form in terms of standard scalar integrals, we introduce redundancies under certain symmetry considerations to impose the color-kinematics duality of Bern, Carrasco and Johansson (BCJ). For five particles we directly find the results of Carrasco and Johansson as well as a new compact form for the super…
We propose a new representation of the nonlinear sigma model that exhibits a manifest duality between flavor and kinematics. The fields couple exclusively through cubic Feynman vertices which also serve as the structure constants of an underlying kinematic algebra. The action is invariant under a combination of internal and spacetime symmetries whose conservation equations imply flavor-kinematics duality, ensuring that all Feynman diagrams satisfy kinematic Jacobi identities. Substituting flavor for kinematics, we derive a new cubic action for the special Galileon theory. In this picture, the …
Color-kinematics (CK) duality is a remarkable symmetry of gluon amplitudes that is the key to the double copy which links gauge theory and gravity amplitudes. Here we show that the complete Yang-Mills action itself, including its gauge-fixing and ghost sectors required for quantization, can be recast to manifest CK duality using a series of field redefinitions and gauge choices. Crucially, the resulting loop-level integrands are automatically CK-dual, up to potential Jacobian counterterms required for unitarity. While these counterterms may break CK duality, they exist, are unique and, since t…
The AdS boundary correlators and their dual correlation functions of boundary operators have been the main dynamic observables of the holographic duality relating a bulk AdS theory and a boundary conformal field theory. We show that tree-level AdS boundary correlators for generic states can be expressed as nonlocal differential operators of a certain structure acting on contact Witten diagrams. We further write the boundary correlators in a form that is very similar to flat space amplitudes, with Mandelstam variables replaced by certain combinations of single-state conformal generators, prove …
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…
This is the second installment of a series of three papers in which we describe a method to determine higher-point correlation functions in one-loop open-superstring amplitudes from first principles. In this second part, we study worldsheet functions defined on a genus-one surface built from the coefficient functions of the Kronecker--Einsenstein series. We construct two classes of worldsheet functions whose properties lead to several simplifying features within our description of one-loop correlators with the pure-spinor formalism. The first class is described by functions with prescribed mon…
The standard argument why gravity is not renormalisable relies on direct powercounting of Feynman graphs to estimate the degree of UV divergence. This analysis has in several (highly) supersymmetric examples be shown to overestimate divergences considerably. In these examples the main improvements arise from a conjectured duality between color and kinematics. In this paper we initiate the systematic study of quite general powercounting under the assumption that color-kinematic duality exists. The main technical tool is a reformulation of the duality in terms of linear maps, modulo subtleties a…
In this note we study the applicability of the color-kinematics duality to the scattering of two distinguishable scalar matter particles with gluon emission in QCD, or graviton emission in Einstein gravity. Previous analysis suggested that direct use of the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson double-copy prescription to matter amplitudes does not reproduce the gravitational amplitude in multi-Regge kinematics. This situation, however, can be avoided by extensions to the gauge theory, while maintaning the same Regge limit. Here we present two examples of these extensions: the introduction of a scalar conta…
Based on the covariant color-kinematics duality, we investigate combinatorial and algebraic structures underlying their Bern-Carrasco-Johansson (BCJ) numerators of tree-level amplitudes in Yang-Mills-scalar (YMS) theory. The closed-formulae for BCJ numerators of YMS amplitudes and the pure-Yang-Mills (YM) ones exhibit nice quasi-shuffle Hopf algebra structures, and interestingly they can be viewed as summing over boundaries of all dimensions of a combinatorial permutohedron. In particular, the numerator with two scalars and $n{-}2$ gluons contains Fubini number ( $F_{n{-}2}$ ) of terms in one-…
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 elaborate on the color-kinematics duality for off-shell diagrams in gauge theories coupled to matter, by investigating the scattering process $gg\to ss, q\bar q, gg$, and show that the Jacobi relations for the kinematic numerators of off-shell diagrams, built with Feynman rules in axial gauge, reduce to a color-kinematics violating term due to the contributions of sub-graphs only. Such anomaly vanishes when the four particles connected by the Jacobi relation are on their mass shell with vanishing squared momenta, being either external or cut particles, where the validity of the color-kinema…
This review describes the duality between color and kinematics and its applications, with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of the perturbative structure of gauge and gravity theories. We emphasize, in particular, applications to loop-level calculations, the broad web of theories linked by the duality and the associated double-copy structure, and the issue of extending the duality and double copy beyond scattering amplitudes. The review is aimed at doctoral students and junior researchers both inside and outside the field of amplitudes and is accompanied by various exercises.
We propose a mapping between geometry and kinematics that implies the classical equivalence of any theory of massless bosons -- including spin and exhibiting arbitrary derivative or potential interactions -- to a nonlinear sigma model (NLSM) with a momentum-dependent metric in field space. From this kinematic metric we construct a corresponding kinematic connection, covariant derivative, and curvature, all of which transform appropriately under general field redefinitions, even including derivatives. We show explicitly how all tree-level on-shell scattering amplitudes of massless bosons are eq…
We study kinematic algebras associated to the recently proposed scattering equations, which arise in the description of the scattering of massless particles. In particular, we describe the role that these algebras play in the BCJ duality between colour and kinematics in gauge theory, and its relation to gravity. We find that the scattering equations are a consistency condition for a self-dual-type vertex which is associated to each solution of those equations. We also identify an extension of the anti-self-dual vertex, such that the two vertices are not conjugate in general. Both vertices corr…
We present the two-loop leading colour QCD helicity amplitudes for the process $pp\to W(\to lν)γ+j$. We implement a complete reduction of the amplitudes, including the leptonic decay of the $W$-boson, using finite field arithmetic, and extract the analytic finite remainders using a recently identified basis of special functions. Simplified analytic expressions are obtained after considering permutations of a rational kinematic parametrisation and multivariate partial fractioning. We demonstrate efficient numerical evaluation of the two-loop colour and helicity summed finite remainders for phys…
We perturbatively calculate classical radiation in Yang-Mills theory and dilaton gravity, to next-to-leading order in couplings. The radiation is sourced by the scattering of two relativistic massive scalar sources with the dynamical effect taken into account, corresponding to the post-Minkowskian regime in gravity. We show how to arrange the Yang-Mills radiation such that the duality between colors and kinematics is manifest, including the three-term Jacobi identity. The search for duality-satisfying expressions exploits an auxiliary bi-adjoint scalar theory as a guide for locality. The doubl…
We show that color-kinematics duality is present in tree-level amplitudes of quantum chromodynamics with massive flavored quarks. Starting with the color structure of QCD, we work out a new color decomposition for n-point tree amplitudes in a reduced basis of primitive amplitudes. These primitives, with k quark-antiquark pairs and (n-2k) gluons, are taken in the (n-2)!/k! Melia basis, and are independent under the color-algebra Kleiss-Kuijf relations. This generalizes the color decomposition of Del Duca, Dixon, and Maltoni to an arbitrary number of quarks. The color coefficients in the new dec…
Any loop QCD amplitude at full colour is constructed from kinematic and gauge-group building blocks. In a unitarity-based on-shell framework, both objects can be reconstructed from their respective counterparts in tree-level amplitudes. This procedure is at its most powerful when aligned with flexible colour decompositions of tree-level QCD amplitudes. In this note we derive such decompositions for amplitudes with an arbitrary number of quarks and gluons from the same principle that is used to bootstrap kinematics - unitarity factorisation. In the process we formulate new multi-quark bases and…
We show that color-kinematics duality is a manifest property of the equations of motion governing currents and field strengths. For the nonlinear sigma model (NLSM), this insight enables an implementation of the double copy at the level of fields, as well as an explicit construction of the kinematic algebra and associated kinematic current. As a byproduct, we also derive new formulations of the special Galileon (SG) and Born-Infeld (BI) theory. For Yang-Mills (YM) theory, this same approach reveals a novel structure -- covariant color-kinematics duality -- whose only difference from the conven…
Classical double copy is an intriguing relationship between classical solutions to a gravity theory and solutions to classical Yang-Mills equations. Although formally inspired by the double copy relation between (quantum) scattering amplitudes in QCD and perturbative gravity, a direct proof of the former from the latter continues to be under investigation. In this paper, we attempt to prove classical double copy from the color-kinematics duality symmetry of QCD amplitudes in a restricted setting. That is we consider radiative solutions with classical scattering sources in Yang-Mills theory and…
In this note, we study color-kinematics duality in generic spacetimes. We work with a contact representation for on shell correlators. The position-space integrand is encoded by enumerated differential operators. This setup generalizes certain features of S-matrix kinematics to curved space. Differences between flat and curved space are captured by commutators. We study the nonlinear sigma model at four points as an explicit example and find that color-kinematics duality holds in generic spacetimes. We illustrate our approach in the AdS transition amplitude, a type of on shell correlation func…
Here we discuss color-kinematics duality for higher-derivative QCD-like amplitudes. We explicitly show that the duality still holds in this case and it can be instrumental in constructing the associated quadratic-gravity amplitudes by using the double-copy prescription. This allows one to drastically simplify calculations. We also evaluate some tree-level Compton scattering amplitudes in higher-derivative Yang-Mills and quadratic gravity coupled with matter. Furthermore, we illustrate the application of generalized unitarity method for both cases by studying a specific one-loop amplitude.
