Color-kinematics duality states that the kinematic numerators of the cubic tree-level Yang-Mills scattering amplitudes obey the same symmetry properties that the color factors obey due to the Jacobi identity. We present a novel strategy for deriving this duality, based on the differential forms on a superspace. This space of superforms carries a generalization of a Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) algebra (BV$^{\square}$ algebra). We show that the homotopy algebra of color-stripped Yang-Mills theory is obtained as a quotient of this space in which a subspace, which is an ideal `up to homotopy', is modded out. This algebra is a subsector of a BV$_{\infty}^{\square}$ algebra. Deriving the latter would provide a first-principle proof of color-kinematics duality from field theory.
Many gauge theories possess a hidden duality between color and kinematics in their on-shell scattering amplitudes. An open problem is to formulate an off-shell realization of the duality, thus manifesting a kinematic algebra. We show that 3D Chern-Simons (CS) theory in Lorenz gauge obeys off-shell color-kinematics duality. This holds both for the gauge field and the BRST ghosts, and the duality is manifest in the Feynman rules. A kinematic algebra can be formulated through a second-order differential operator (Poisson bracket) acting on the off-shell fields, and it corresponds to 3D volume-pre…
Berends-Giele currents are fundamental building blocks for on-shell amplitudes in non-abelian gauge theory. We present a novel procedure to construct them using the Bern-Kosower formalism for one-loop gluon amplitudes. Applying the pinch procedure of that formalism to a suitable special case the currents are naturally obtained in terms of multi-particle fields and obeying colour-kinematics duality. As a feedback to the Bern-Kosower formalism we outline how the multi-particle polarisations and field-strength tensors can be used to significantly streamline the pinch procedure.
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…
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…
Yang-Mills gauge theory on Minkowski space supports a Batalin-Vilkovisky-infinity algebra structure, all whose operations are local. To make this work, the axioms for a BV-infinity algebra are deformed by a quadratic element, here the Minkowski wave operator. This homotopy structure implies BCJ/color-kinematics duality; a cobar construction yields a strict algebraic structure whose Feynman expansion for Yang-Mills tree amplitudes complies with the duality. It comes with a `syntactic kinematic algebra'.
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…
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.
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 …
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 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.
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…
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 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…
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 …
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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 …
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 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 representati…
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…
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 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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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 …
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…
We explore color-kinematic duality for tree-level AdS/CFT correlators in momentum space. We start by studying the bi-adjoint scalar in AdS at tree-level as an illustrative example. We follow this by investigating two forms of color-kinematic duality in Yang-Mills theory, the first for the integrated correlator in AdS$_4$ and the second for the integrand in general AdS$_{d+1}$. For the integrated correlator, we find color-kinematics does not yield additional relations among $n$-point, color-ordered correlators. To study color-kinematics for the AdS$_{d+1}$ Yang-Mills integrand, we use a spectra…
We define a perturbatively calculable quantity--the on-shell correlator--which furnishes a unified description of particle dynamics in curved spacetime. Specializing to the case of flat and anti-de Sitter space, on-shell correlators coincide precisely with on-shell scattering amplitudes and boundary correlators, respectively. Remarkably, we find that symmetric manifolds admit a generalization of on-shell kinematics in which the corresponding momenta are literally the isometry generators of the spacetime acting on the external kinematic data. These isometric momenta are intrinsically non-commut…
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…
