New methods for obtaining functional equations for Feynman integrals are presented. Application of these methods for finding functional equations for various one- and two- loop integrals described in detail. It is shown that with the aid of functional equations Feynman integrals in general kinematics can be expressed in terms of simpler integrals.
We present short review of two methods for obtaining functional equations for Feynman integrals. Application of these methods for finding functional equations for one- and two- loop integrals is described in detail. It is shown that with the aid of functional equations Feynman integrals in general kinematics can be expressed in terms of simpler integrals. Similarities between functional equations for Feynman integrals and addition theorem for Abel integrals are shortly discussed.
A method for reducing Feynman integrals, depending on several kinematic variables and masses, to a combination of integrals with fewer variables is proposed. The method is based on iterative application of functional equations proposed by the author. The reduction of the one-loop scalar triangle and box integrals with massless internal propagators to simpler integrals is described in detail. The triangle integral depending on three variables is represented as a sum over three integrals depending on two variables. By solving the dimensional recurrence relations for these integrals, an analytic expression in terms of the $_2F_1$ Gauss hypergeometric function and the logarithmic function was derived. By using the functional equations, the one-loop box integral with massless internal propagators, which depends on six kinematic variables, was expressed as a sum of 12 terms. These terms are proportional to the same integral depending only on three variables different for each term. For this integral with three variables, an analytic result in terms of the $F_1$ Appell and $_2F_1$ Gauss hypergeometric functions was derived by solving the recurrence relation with respect to the spacetime dimension $d$. The reduction equations for the box integral with some kinematic variables equal to zero are considered.
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 present the Mathematica package QMeS-Derivation. It derives symbolic functional equations from a given master equation. The latter include functional renormalisation group equations, Dyson-Schwinger equations, Slavnov-Taylor and Ward identities and their modifications in the presence of momentum cutoffs. The modules allow to derive the functional equations, take functional derivatives, trace over field space, apply a given truncation scheme, and do momentum routings while keeping track of prefactors and signs that arise from fermionic commutation relations. The package furthermore contains an installer as well as Mathematica notebooks with showcase examples.
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.