No Arabic abstract
For a fixed Feynman graph one can consider Feynman integrals with all possible powers of propagators and try to reduce them, by linear relations, to a finite subset of integrals, the so-called master integrals. Up to now, there are numerous examples of reduction procedures resulting in a finite number of master integrals for various families of Feynman integrals. However, up to now it was just an empirical fact that the reduction procedure results in a finite number of irreducible integrals. It this paper we prove that the number of master integrals is always finite.
A number of irreducible master integrals for L-loop sunrise-type and bubble Feynman diagrams with generic values of masses and external momenta are explicitly evaluated via Mellin-Barnes representation.
We give a brief introduction to a parametric approach for the derivation of shift relations between Feynman integrals and a result on the number of master integrals. The shift relations are obtained from parametric annihilators of the Lee-Pomeransky polynomial $mathcal{G}$. By identification of Feynman integrals as multi-dimensional Mellin transforms, we show that this approach generates every shift relation. Feynman integrals of a given family form a vector space, whose finite dimension is naturally interpreted as the number of master integrals. This number is an Euler characteristic of the polynomial $mathcal{G}$.
In this paper we develop further and refine the method of differential equations for computing Feynman integrals. In particular, we show that an additional iterative structure emerges for finite loop integrals. As a concrete non-trivial example we study planar master integrals of light-by-light scattering to three loops, and derive analytic results for all values of the Mandelstam variables $s$ and $t$ and the mass $m$. We start with a recent proposal for defining a basis of loop integrals having uniform transcendental weight properties and use this approach to compute all planar two-loop master integrals in dimensional regularization. We then show how this approach can be further simplified when computing finite loop integrals. This allows us to discuss precisely the subset of integrals that are relevant to the problem. We find that this leads to a block triangular structure of the differential equations, where the blocks correspond to integrals of different weight. We explain how this block triangular form is found in an algorithmic way. Another advantage of working in four dimensions is that integrals of different loop orders are interconnected and can be seamlessly discussed within the same formalism. We use this method to compute all finite master integrals needed up to three loops. Finally, we remark that all integrals have simple Mandelstam representations.
We evaluate a Laurent expansion in dimensional regularization parameter $epsilon=(4-d)/2$ of all the master integrals for four-loop massless propagators up to transcendentality weight twelve, using a recently developed method of one of the present coauthors (R.L.) and extending thereby results by Baikov and Chetyrkin obtained at transcendentality weight seven. We observe only multiple zeta values in our results. Therefore, we conclude that all the four-loop massless propagator integrals, with any integer powers of numerators and propagators, have only multiple zeta values in their epsilon expansions up to transcendentality weight twelve.
We consider expressions of the form of an exponential of the sum of two non-commuting operators of a single variable inside a path integration. We show that it is possible to shift one of the non-commuting operators from the exponential to other functions which are pre-factors and post-factors when the domain of integration of the argument of that function is from -infty to +infty. This shift theorem is useful to perform certain integrals and path integrals involving the exponential of sum of two non-commuting operators.