On the spanning cuts consistency problem in the IBP reductions of Feynman integrals
State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, Institute of Quantum Matter, South China Normal University（华南师范大学量子物质研究所核物理与技术国家重点实验室）；Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Structure and Fundamental Interactions of Matter, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Nuclear Science（广东省核科学重点实验室结构及基本相互作用卓越基础研究中心）；Institute for Theoretical Particle Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)（卡尔斯鲁厄理工学院理论粒子物理研究所）
The spanning cuts method is a powerful approach to reduce the cost of IBP reduction while computing Feynman integrals. However, its usage is limited due to the so-called consistency problem. It was unclear why the IBP reduction coefficients can be inconsistent with each other between different cuts. In this paper, we report a mechanism behind this inconsistency. We found that the IBP relations can be violated under the cuts, if we blindly erase the hidden terms that are proportional to the ``vanishing'' Feynman prescription parameters in the relations. In some cases, the cut introduces pinch singularities, which cancel the vanishing Feynman prescription parameters, making the hidden terms finite. In various cases, the error comes from omitting such finite hidden terms. We also claimed that the pinch singularity under the cuts are related to some hidden relations between the propagators. In this paper, we provide an algorithm and its implementation to find the linear hidden relations.
In this manuscript, which is to appear in the proceedings of the conference "MathemAmplitude 2019" in Padova, Italy, we provide an overview of the module intersection method for the the integration-by-parts (IBP) reduction of multi-loop Feynman integrals. The module intersection method, based on computational algebraic geometry, is a highly efficient way of getting IBP relations without double propagator or with a bound on the highest propagator degree. In this manner, trimmed IBP systems which are much shorter than the traditional ones can be obtained. We apply the modern, Petri net based, wo…
Phase space cuts are implemented by inserting Heaviside theta functions in the integrands of momentum-space Feynman integrals. By directly parametrizing theta functions and constructing integration-by-parts (IBP) identities in the parametric representation, we provide a systematic method to reduce integrals with cuts. Since the IBP method is available, it becomes possible to evaluate integrals with cuts by constructing and solving differential equations.
We introduce an algebro-geometrically motived integration-by-parts (IBP) reduction method for multi-loop and multi-scale Feynman integrals, using a framework for massively parallel computations in computer algebra. This framework combines the computer algebra system Singular with the workflow management system GPI-Space, which is being developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics (ITWM). In our approach, the IBP relations are first trimmed by modern algebraic geometry tools and then solved by sparse linear algebra and our new interpolation methods. These steps are efficient…
Integration By Parts (IBP) is an important method for computing Feynman integrals. This work describes a formulation of the theory involving a set of differential equations in parameter space, and especially the definition and study of an associated Lie group G. The group acts on parameter space and foliates it into G-orbits. The differential equations essentially provide the gradient of the integral within the orbit in terms of integrals associated with degenerate diagrams. In this way the computation of a Feynman integral at a general point in parameter space is reduced to the evaluation of …
In a recent paper by the author (Chen in JHEP 02:115, 2020), the reduction of Feynman integrals in the parametric representation was considered. Tensor integrals were directly parametrized by using a generator method. The resulting parametric integrals were reduced by constructing and solving parametric integration-by-parts (IBP) identities. In this paper, we furthermore show that polynomial equations for the operators that generate tensor integrals can be derived. Based on these equations, two methods to reduce tensor integrals are developed. In the first method, by introducing some auxiliary…
We develop a systematic procedure for computing maximal unitarity cuts of multiloop Feynman integrals in arbitrary dimension. Our approach is based on the Baikov representation in which the structure of the cuts is particularly simple. We examine several planar and nonplanar integral topologies and demonstrate that the maximal cut inherits IBPs and dimension shift identities satisfied by the uncut integral. Furthermore, for the examples we calculated, we find that the maximal cut functions from different allowed regions, form the Wronskian matrix of the differential equations on the maximal cu…
We develop techniques for computing and analyzing multiple unitarity cuts of Feynman integrals, and reconstructing the integral from these cuts. We study the relations among unitarity cuts of a Feynman integral computed via diagrammatic cutting rules, the discontinuity across the corresponding branch cut, and the coproduct of the integral. For single unitarity cuts, these relations are familiar. Here we show that they can be generalized to sequences of unitarity cuts in different channels. Using concrete one- and two-loop scalar integral examples we demonstrate that it is possible to reconstru…
Based on the Baikov representation, we present a systematic approach to compute cuts of Feynman Integrals, appropriately defined in $d$ dimensions. The information provided by these computations may be used to determine the class of functions needed to analytically express the full integrals.
We present an efficient method to shorten the analytic integration-by-parts (IBP) reduction coefficients of multi-loop Feynman integrals. For our approach, we develop an improved version of Leinartas' multivariate partial fraction algorithm, and provide a modern implementation based on the computer algebra system Singular. Furthermore, We observe that for an integral basis with uniform transcendental (UT) weights, the denominators of IBP reduction coefficients with respect to the UT basis are either symbol letters or polynomials purely in the spacetime dimension $D$. With a UT basis, the parti…
School of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, Peking University（北京大学物理学院及核物理与技术国家重点实验室）；Center for High Energy Physics, Peking University（北京大学高能物理中心）
In this paper, we construct a uniform formula that can iteratively reduce all auxiliary scalar product numerators of arbitrary multi-loop Feynman integrals. Integrals with such numerators commonly appear in Integration-By-Parts (IBP) relations. This formula is constructed with the generalized Sylvester's determinant identity. Compared to that using only traditional IBP reduction method, the combination of the formula and the traditional IBP method shows a significant speed-up.
We propose that the concept of multidimensional residues can be used to directly extracting the coefficients of scalar master integrals (with single propagators only) from one-loop Feynman integrals with generic power of propagators. Unlike the usual integration-by-parts (IBP) technique, where one has to solve iteratively a complicated set of equations to carry out the reduction and determine the coefficients of scalar master integrals, using multidimensional residues provides the possibility of directly extracting the coefficients of the master integrals. As the first application of this idea…
The ASPIRE program, which is based on the Landau singularities and the method of power geometry to unveil the regions required for the evaluation of a given Feynman diagram asymptotically in a given limit, also allows for the evaluation of scaling coming from the top facets. In this work, we relate the scaling having equal components of the top facets of the Newton polytope to the maximal cut of given Feynman integrals. We have therefore connected two independent approaches to the analysis of Feynman diagrams.
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 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…
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.
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 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…
In this paper, the reduction of Feynman integrals in the parametric representation is considered. This method proves to be more efficient than the integration-by-part (IBP) method in the momentum space. Tensor integrals can directly be parametrized without performing tensor reductions. The integrands of parametric integrals are functions of Lorentz scalars, instead of four momenta. The complexity of a calculation is determined by the number of propagators that are present rather than the number of all the linearly independent propagators. Furthermore, the symmetries of Feynman integrals under …
Using the multivariate residue calculus of Leray, we give a precise definition of the notion of a cut Feynman integral in dimensional regularization, as a residue evaluated on the variety where some of the propagators are put on shell. These are naturally associated to Landau singularities of the first type. Focusing on the one-loop case, we give an explicit parametrization to compute such cut integrals, with which we study some of their properties and list explicit results for maximal and next-to-maximal cuts. By analyzing homology groups, we show that cut integrals associated to Landau singu…
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 symbology of planar Feynman integrals in dimensional regularization by considering geometric configurations in momentum twistor space corresponding to their leading singularities (LS). Cutting propagators in momentum twistor space amounts to intersecting lines associated with loop and external dual momenta, including the special line associated with the point at infinity, which breaks dual conformal symmetry. We show that cross-ratios of intersection points on these lines, especially those on the infinity line, naturally produce symbol letters for Feynman integrals in $D=4-2ε$, wh…
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.
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.
Relations between multiple unitarity cuts and coproducts of Feynman integrals are extended to allow for internal masses. These masses introduce new branch cuts, whose discontinuities can be derived by placing single propagators on shell and identified as particular entries of the coproduct. First entries of the coproduct are then seen to include mass invariants alone, as well as threshold corrections for external momentum channels. As in the massless case, the original integral can possibly be recovered from its cuts by starting with the known part of the coproduct and imposing integrability c…
The success of the experimental program at the Tevatron re-inforced the idea that precision physics at hadron colliders is desirable and, indeed, possible. The Tevatron data strongly suggests that one-loop computations in QCD describe hard scattering well. Extrapolating this observation to the LHC, we conclude that knowledge of many short-distance processes at next-to-leading order may be required to describe the physics of hard scattering. While the field of one-loop computations is quite mature, parton multiplicities in hard LHC events are so high that traditional computational techniques be…
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.
In this paper, we present the universal structure of the alphabet of one-loop Feynman integrals. The letters in the alphabet are calculated using the Baikov representation with cuts. We consider both convergent and divergent cut integrals and observe that letters in the divergent cases can be easily obtained from convergent cases by applying certain limits. The letters are written as simple expressions in terms of various Gram determinants. The knowledge of the alphabet enables us to easily construct the canonical differential equations of the $ d\log $ form and aids in bootstrapping the symbo…
We present a new formula for the coaction of a large class of integrals. When applied to one-loop (cut) Feynman integrals, it can be given a diagrammatic representation purely in terms of pinches and cuts of the edges of the graph. The coaction encodes the algebraic structure of these integrals, and offers ways to extract important properties of complicated integrals from simpler functions. In particular, it gives direct access to discontinuities of Feynman integrals and facilitates a straightforward derivation of the differential equations they satisfy, which we illustrate in the case of the …
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 …
Two-loop corrections to scattering amplitudes are crucial theoretical input for collider physics. Recent years have seen tremendous advances in computing Feynman integrals, scattering amplitudes, and cross sections for five-particle processes. In this paper, we initiate the study of the function space for planar two-loop six-particle processes. We study all genuine six-particle Feynman integrals, and derive the differential equations they satisfy on maximal cuts. Performing a leading singularity analysis in momentum space, and in Baikov representation, we find an integral basis that puts the d…
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 derive useful reduction formulae which express one-loop Feynman integrals with a large number of external momenta in terms of lower-point integrals carrying easily derivable kinematic coefficients which are symmetric in the external momenta. These formulae apply for integrals with at least two more external legs than the dimension of the external momenta, and are presented in terms of two possible bases: one composed of a subset of descendant integrals with one fewer external legs, the other composed of the complete set of minimally-descendant integrals with just one more leg than the dimen…
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…
In this paper, we develop an iterative sector-level reduction strategy for Feynman integrals, which bases on module intersection in the Baikov representation and auxiliary vector for tensor structure. Using this strategy we have studied the reduction of general one-loop integrals, i.e., integrals having arbitrary tensor structures and arbitrary power for propagators. Inspired by these studies, a uniform and compact formula that iteratively reduces all one-loop integrals has been written down, where messy polynomials in integration-by-parts (IBP) relations have organized themselves to Gram dete…
Resonance and Differential Reduction of Feynman Integrals
School of Mathematics and Hamilton Mathematics Institute, Trinity College（三一学院数学与汉密尔顿数学研究所）；Institute for Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University（乌得勒支大学理论物理研究所）；Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications Harvard University（哈佛大学数学科学与应用中心）；Jefferson Physical Laboratory, Harvard University（哈佛大学杰斐逊物理实验室）
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…
