No Arabic abstract
We present a novel type of differential equations for on-shell loop integrals. The equations are second-order and importantly, they reduce the loop level by one, so that they can be solved iteratively in the loop order. We present several infinite series of integrals satisfying such iterative differential equations. The differential operators we use are best written using momentum twistor space. The use of the latter was advocated in recent papers discussing loop integrals in N=4 super Yang-Mills. One of our motivations is to provide a tool for deriving analytical results for scattering amplitudes in this theory. We show that the integrals needed for planar MHV amplitudes up to two loops can be thought of as deriving from a single master topology. The master integral satisfies our differential equations, and so do most of the reduced integrals. A consequence of the differential equations is that the integrals we discuss are not arbitrarily complicated transcendental functions. For two specific two-loop integrals we give the full analytic solution. The simplicity of the integrals appearing in the scattering amplitudes in planar N=4 super Yang-Mills is strongly suggestive of a relation to the conjectured underlying integrability of the theory. We expect these differential equations to be relevant for all planar MHV and non-MHV amplitudes. We also discuss possible extensions of our method to more general classes of integrals.
We provide a sufficient condition for avoiding squared propagators in the intermediate stages of setting up differential equations for loop integrals. This condition is satisfied in a large class of two- and three-loop diagrams. For these diagrams, the differential equations can thus be computed using unitarity-compatible integration-by-parts reductions, which simplify the reduction problem by avoiding integrals with higher-power propagators.
Over the last year significant progress was made in the understanding of the computation of Feynman integrals using differential equations. These lectures give a review of these developments, while not assuming any prior knowledge of the subject. After an introduction to differential equations for Feynman integrals, we point out how they can be simplified using algorithms available in the mathematical literature. We discuss how this is related to a recent conjecture for a canonical form of the equations. We also discuss a complementary approach that allows based on properties of the space-time loop integrands, and explain how the ideas of leading singularities and d-log representations can be used to find an optimal basis for the differential equations. Finally, as an application of the differential equations method we show how single-scale integrals can be bootstrapped using the Drinfeld associator of a differential equation.
We evaluate a four-loop conformal integral, i.e. an integral over four four-dimensional coordinates, by turning to its dimensionally regularized version and applying differential equations for the set of the corresponding 213 master integrals. To solve these linear differential equations we follow the strategy suggested by Henn and switch to a uniformly transcendental basis of master integrals. We find a solution to these equations up to weight eight in terms of multiple polylogarithms. Further, we present an analytical result for the given four-loop conformal integral considered in four-dimensional space-time in terms of single-valued harmonic polylogarithms. As a by-product, we obtain analytical results for all the other 212 master integrals within dimensional regularization, i.e. considered in D dimensions.
We investigate generating functions for the integrals over world-sheet tori appearing in closed-string one-loop amplitudes of bosonic, heterotic and type-II theories. These closed-string integrals are shown to obey homogeneous and linear differential equations in the modular parameter of the torus. We spell out the first-order Cauchy-Riemann and second-order Laplace equations for the generating functions for any number of external states. The low-energy expansion of such torus integrals introduces infinite families of non-holomorphic modular forms known as modular graph forms. Our results generate homogeneous first- and second-order differential equations for arbitrary such modular graph forms and can be viewed as a step towards all-order low-energy expansions of closed-string integrals.
We elucidate the vector space (twisted relative cohomology) that is Poincare dual to the vector space of Feynman integrals (twisted cohomology) in general spacetime dimension. The pairing between these spaces - an algebraic invariant called the intersection number - extracts integral coefficients for a minimal basis, bypassing the generation of integration-by-parts identities. Dual forms turn out to be much simpler than their Feynman counterparts: they are supported on maximal cuts of various sub-topologies (boundaries). Thus, they provide a systematic approach to generalized unitarity, the reconstruction of amplitudes from on-shell data. In this paper, we introduce the idea of dual forms and study their mathematical structures. As an application, we derive compact differential equations satisfied by arbitrary one-loop integrals in non-integer spacetime dimension. A second paper of this series will detail intersection pairings and their use to extract integral coefficients.