We calculate master integrals for bipartite cuts of the three-loop propagator QED diagrams. These master integrals determine the spectral density of the photon self energy. Our results are expressed in terms of the iterated integrals, which, apart from the $4m$ cut, reduce to Goncharov's polylogarithms. The master integrals for $4m$ cut have been calculated in our previous paper in terms of the one-fold integrals of harmonic polylogarithms and complete elliptic integrals. We provide the threshold and high-energy asymptotics of the master integrals found, including those for $4m$ cut.
Among the unitarity cuts of massless 4-loop propagators two classes have remained unknown until recently: 2-loop 3-particle cuts, and 1-loop 4-particle cuts. In this article we shall discuss the calculation that completes the master integrals for these cuts: both the motivation and the methods (including dimensional recurrence relations and direct integration at higher space-time dimensions).
We consider the application of the DRA method to the case of several master integrals in a given sector. We establish a connection between the homogeneous part of dimensional recurrence and maximal unitarity cuts of the corresponding integrals: a maximally cut master integral appears to be a solution of the homogeneous part of the dimensional recurrence relation. This observation allows us to make a necessary step of the DRA method, the construction of the general solution of the homogeneous equation, which, in this case, is a coupled system of difference equations.
We present an alternative reduction to master integrals for one-loop amplitudes using a unitarity cut method in arbitrary dimensions. We carry out the reduction in two steps. The first step is a pure four-dimensional cut-integration of tree amplitudes with a mass parameter, and the second step is applying dimensional shift identities to master integrals. This reduction is performed at the integrand level, so that coefficients can be read out algebraically.
The use of complex analysis for computing one-loop scattering amplitudes is naturally induced by generalised unitarity-cut conditions, fulfilled by complex values of the loop variable. We report on two techniques: the cut-integration with spinor-variables as contour integrals of rational functions; and the use of the Discrete Fourier Transform to optimize the reduction of tensor-integrals to master scalar integrals.
We consider the calculation of the master integrals of the three-loop massive banana graph. In the case of equal internal masses, the graph is reduced to three master integrals which satisfy an irreducible system of three coupled linear differential equations. The solution of the system requires finding a $3 \times 3$ matrix of homogeneous solutions. We show how the maximal cut can be used to determine all entries of this matrix in terms of products of elliptic integrals of first and second kind of suitable arguments. All independent solutions are found by performing the integration which defi…
Among the unitarity cuts of 4-loop massless propagators two kinds are currently fully known: the 2-particle cuts with 3 loops corresponding to form-factors, and the 5-particle phase-space integrals. In this paper we calculate master integrals for the remaining ones: 3-particle cuts with 2 loops, and 4-particle cuts with 1 loop. The 4-particle cuts are calculated by solving dimensional recurrence relations. The 3-particle cuts are integrated directly using 1->3 amplitudes with 2 loops, which we also re-derive here up to transcendentality weight 7. The results are verified both numerically, and …
We present a method for the computation of hepta-cuts of two loop scattering amplitudes. Four dimensional unitarity cuts are used to factorise the integrand onto the product of six tree-level amplitudes evaluated at complex momentum values. Using Gram matrix constraints we derive a general parameterisation of the integrand which can be computed using polynomial fitting techniques. The resulting expression is further reduced to master integrals using conventional integration by parts methods. We consider both planar and non-planar topologies for 2 to 2 scattering processes and apply the method …
We compute $ε$-factorized differential equations for all dimensionally-regularized integrals of the nonplanar hexa-box topology, which contribute for instance to 2-loop 5-point QCD amplitudes. A full set of pure integrals is presented. For 5-point planar topologies, Gram determinants which vanish in $4$ dimensions are used to build compact expressions for pure integrals. Using unitarity cuts and computational algebraic geometry, we obtain a compact IBP system which can be solved in 8 hours on a single CPU core, overcoming a major bottleneck for deriving the differential equations. Alternativel…
We consider the maximal cut of a three-loop four point function with massless kinematics. By applying Groebner bases and primary decomposition we develop a method which extracts all ten propagator master integral coefficients for an arbitrary triple-box configuration via generalized unitarity cuts. As an example we present analytic results for the three loop triple-box contribution to gluon-gluon scattering in Yang-Mills with adjoint fermions and scalars in terms of three master integrals.
Scattering amplitudes at loop level can be reduced to a basis of linearly independent Feynman integrals. The integral coefficients are extracted from generalized unitarity cuts which define algebraic varieties. The topology of an algebraic variety characterizes the difficulty of applying maximal cuts. In this work, we analyze a novel class of integrals whose maximal cuts give rise to an algebraic variety with irrational irreducible components. As a phenomenologically relevant example we examine the two-loop planar double-box contribution with internal massive lines. We derive unique projectors…
In this talk we discuss Feynman integrals which are related to elliptic curves. We show with the help of an explicit example that in the set of master integrals more than one elliptic curve may occur. The technique of maximal cuts is a useful tool to identify the elliptic curves. By a suitable transformation of the master integrals the system of differential equations for our example can be brought into a form linear in $\varepsilon$, where the $\varepsilon^0$-term is strictly lower-triangular. This system is easily solved in terms of iterated integrals.
We construct a diagrammatic coaction acting on one-loop Feynman graphs and their cuts. The graphs are naturally identified with the corresponding (cut) Feynman integrals in dimensional regularization, whose coefficients of the Laurent expansion in the dimensional regulator are multiple polylogarithms (MPLs). Our main result is the conjecture that this diagrammatic coaction reproduces the combinatorics of the coaction on MPLs order by order in the Laurent expansion. We show that our conjecture holds in a broad range of nontrivial one-loop integrals. We then explore its consequences for the stud…
We study the algebraic and analytic structure of Feynman integrals by proposing an operation that maps an integral into pairs of integrals obtained from a master integrand and a corresponding master contour. This operation is a coaction. It reduces to the known coaction on multiple polylogarithms, but applies more generally, e.g. to hypergeometric functions. The coaction also applies to generic one-loop Feynman integrals with any configuration of internal and external masses, and in dimensional regularization. In this case, we demonstrate that it can be given a diagrammatic representation pure…
We compute the next-to-maximally-helicity-violating one-loop n-gluon amplitudes in N=1 super-Yang-Mills theory. These amplitudes contain three negative-helicity gluons and an arbitrary number of positive-helicity gluons, and constitute the first infinite series of amplitudes beyond the simplest, MHV, amplitudes. We assemble ingredients from the N=4 NMHV tree super-amplitude into previously unwritten double cuts and use the spinor integration technique to calculate all bubble coefficients. We also derive the missing box coefficients from quadruple cuts. Together with the known formula for three…
We explore maximal unitarity for nonplanar two-loop integrals with up to four massive external legs. In this framework, the amplitude is reduced to a basis of master integrals whose coefficients are extracted from maximal cuts. The hepta-cut of the nonplanar double box defines a nodal algebraic curve associated with a multiply pinched genus-3 Riemann surface. All possible configurations of external masses are covered by two distinct topological pictures in which the curve decomposes into either six or eight Riemann spheres. The procedure relies on consistency equations based on vanishing of in…
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.
We elaborate on the recent idea of a direct decomposition of Feynman integrals onto a basis of master integrals on maximal cuts using intersection numbers. We begin by showing an application of the method to the derivation of contiguity relations for special functions, such as the Euler beta function, the Gauss ${}_2F_1$ hypergeometric function, and the Appell $F_1$ function. Then, we apply the new method to decompose Feynman integrals whose maximal cuts admit 1-form integral representations, including examples that have from two to an arbitrary number of loops, and/or from zero to an arbitrar…
I analyze the algebraic patterns underlying the structure of scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory. I focus on the decomposition of amplitudes in terms of independent functions and the systems of differential equations the latter obey. In particular, I discuss the key role played by unitarity for the decomposition in terms of master integrals, by means of generalized cuts and integrand reduction, as well as for solving the corresponding differential equations, by means of Magnus exponential series.
We present a set of algebraic functions for evaluating the coefficients of the scalar integral basis of a general one-loop amplitude. The functions are derived from unitarity cuts, but the complete cut-integral procedure has been carried out in generality so that it never needs to be repeated. Where the master integrals are known explicitly, the results here can be used as a black box with tree-level amplitudes as input and one-loop amplitudes as output.
The diagrammatic coaction underpins the analytic structure of Feynman integrals, their cuts and the differential equations they admit. The coaction maps any diagram into a tensor product of its pinches and cuts. These correspond respectively to differential forms defining master integrals, and integration contours which place a subset of the propagators on shell. In a canonical basis these forms and contours are dual to each other. In this talk I review our present understanding of this algebraic structure and its manifestation for dimensionally-regularized Feynman integrals that are expandabl…
For any given Feynman graph, the set of integrals with all possible powers of the propagators spans a vector space of finite dimension. We introduce the package {\sc Azurite} ({\bf A ZUR}ich-bred method for finding master {\bf I}n{\bf TE}grals), which efficiently finds a basis of this vector space. It constructs the needed integration-by-parts (IBP) identities on a set of generalized-unitarity cuts. It is based on syzygy computations and analyses of the symmetries of the involved Feynman diagrams and is powered by the computer algebra systems {\sc Singular} and {\sc Mathematica}. It can moreov…
We present a detailed description of the recent idea for a direct decomposition of Feynman integrals onto a basis of master integrals by projections, as well as a direct derivation of the differential equations satisfied by the master integrals, employing multivariate intersection numbers. We discuss a recursive algorithm for the computation of multivariate intersection numbers and provide three different approaches for a direct decomposition of Feynman integrals, which we dub the straight decomposition, the bottom-up decomposition, and the top-down decomposition. These algorithms exploit the …
We propose a first implementation of the integrand-reduction method for two-loop scattering amplitudes. We show that the residues of the amplitudes on multi-particle cuts are polynomials in the irreducible scalar products involving the loop momenta, and that the reduction of the amplitudes in terms of master integrals can be realized through polynomial fitting of the integrand, without any apriori knowledge of the integral basis. We discuss how the polynomial shapes of the residues determine the basis of master integrals appearing in the final result. We present a four-dimensional constructive…
We develop a unitarity method to compute one-loop amplitudes with massless propagators in d=4-2*epsilon dimensions. We compute double cuts of the loop amplitudes via a decomposition into a four-dimensional and a -2*epsilon-dimensional integration. The four-dimensional integration is performed using spinor integration or other efficient techniques. The remaining integral in -2*epsilon dimensions is cast in terms of bubble, triangle, box, and pentagon master integrals using dimensional shift identities. The method yields results valid for arbitrary values of epsilon.
We present the powerful module-intersection integration-by-parts (IBP) method, suitable for multi-loop and multi-scale Feynman integral reduction. Utilizing modern computational algebraic geometry techniques, this new method successfully trims traditional IBP systems dramatically to much simpler integral-relation systems on unitarity cuts. We demonstrate the power of this method by explicitly carrying out the complete analytic reduction of two-loop five-point non-planar hexagon-box integrals, with degree-four numerators, to a basis of $73$ master integrals.
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…
