We emphasize that scattering amplitudes of a wide class of models to any order in the coupling are constructible by on-shell tree subamplitudes. This follows from the Feynman-tree theorem combined with BCFW on-shell recursion relations. In contrast to the usual Feynman diagrams, no virtual particles appear.
In this paper the general form of scattering amplitudes for massless particles with equal spins s ($s s to s s$) or unequal spins ($s_a s_b to s_a s_b$) are derived. The imposed conditions are that the amplitudes should have the lowest possible dimension, have propagators of dimension $m^{-2}$, and obey gauge invariance. It is shown that the number of momenta required for amplitudes involving particles with s > 2 is higher than the number implied by 3-vertices for higher spin particles derived in the literature. Therefore, the dimension of the coupling constants following from the latter 3-vertices has a smaller power of an inverse mass than our results imply. Consequently, the 3-vertices in the literature cannot be the first interaction terms of a gauge-invariant theory. When no spins s > 2 are present in the process the known QCD, QED or (super) gravity amplitudes are obtained from the above general amplitudes.
We calculate some tree level scattering amplitudes for a generalization of the protostring, which is a novel string model implied by the simplest string bit models. These bit models produce a lightcone worldsheet which supports $s$ integer moded Grassmann fields. In the generalization we supplement this Grassmann worldsheet system with $d=24-s$ transverse coordinate worldsheet fields. The protostring corresponds to $s=24$ and the bosonic string to $s=0$. The interaction vertex is a simple overlap with no operator insertions at the break/join point. Assuming that $s$ is even we calculate the multi-string scattering amplitudes by bosonizing the Grassmann fields, each pair equivalent to one compactified bosonic field, and applying Mandelstams interacting string formalism to a system of $s/2$ compactified and $d$ uncompactified bosonic worldsheet fields. We obtain all amplitudes for open strings with no oscillator excitations and for closed strings with no oscillator excitations and zero winding number. We then study in detail some simple special cases. Multi-string processes with maximal helicity violation have much simplified amplitudes. We also specialize to general four string amplitudes and discuss their high energy behavior. Most of these models are not covariant under the full Lorentz group $O(d+1,1)$. The exceptions are the bosonic string whose Lorentz group is $O(25,1)$ and the protostring whose Lorentz group is $O(1,1)$. The models in between only enjoy an $O(1,1)times O(d)$ spacetime symmetry.
In this paper we provide a first attempt towards a toric geometric interpretation of scattering amplitudes. In recent investigations it has indeed been proposed that the all-loop integrand of planar N=4 SYM can be represented in terms of well defined finite objects called on-shell diagrams drawn on disks. Furthermore it has been shown that the physical information of on-shell diagrams is encoded in the geometry of auxiliary algebraic varieties called the totally non negative Grassmannians. In this new formulation the infinite dimensional symmetry of the theory is manifest and many results, that are quite tricky to obtain in terms of the standard Lagrangian formulation of the theory, are instead manifest. In this paper, elaborating on previous results, we provide another picture of the scattering amplitudes in terms of toric geometry. In particular we describe in detail the toric varieties associated to an on-shell diagram, how the singularities of the amplitudes are encoded in some subspaces of the toric variety, and how this picture maps onto the Grassmannian description. Eventually we discuss the action of cluster transformations on the toric varieties. The hope is to provide an alternative description of the scattering amplitudes that could contribute in the developing of this very interesting field of research.
Using techniques developed in a previous paper three-point functions in field theories described by holographic renormalization group flows are computed. We consider a system of one active scalar and one inert scalar coupled to gravity. For the GPPZ flow, their dual operators create states that are interpreted as glueballs of the N=1 SYM theory, which lies at the infrared end of the renormalization group flow. The scattering amplitudes for three-glueball processes are calculated providing precise predictions for glueball decays in N=1 SYM theory. Numerical results for low-lying glueballs are included.
We present a general framework with which the Schwarzschild-Tangherlini metric of a point particle in arbitrary dimensions can be derived from a scattering amplitude to all orders in the gravitational constant, $G_N$, in covariant gauge (i.e. $R_xi$-gauge) with a generalized de Donder-type gauge function, $G_sigma$. The metric is independent of the covariant gauge parameter $xi$ and obeys the classical gauge condition $G_sigma=0$. We compute the metric with the generalized gauge choice explicitly to second order in $G_N$ where gravitational self-interactions become important and these results verify the general framework to one-loop order. Interestingly, after generalizing to arbitrary dimension, a logarithmic dependence on the radial coordinate appears in space-time dimension $D=5$.