We describe a new approach to computing the chiral part of correlation functions of stress-tensor supermultiplets in N=4 SYM that relies on symmetries, analytic properties and the structure of the OPE only. We demonstrate that the correlation functio
ns are given by a linear combination of chiral N=4 superconformal invariants accompanied by coefficient functions depending on the space-time coordinates only. We present the explicit construction of these invariants and show that the six-point correlation function is fixed in the Born approximation up to four constant coefficients by its symmetries. In addition, the known asymptotic structure of the correlation function in the light-like limit fixes unambiguously these coefficients up to an overall normalization. We demonstrate that the same approach can be applied to obtain a representation for the six-point NMHV amplitude that is free from any auxiliary gauge fixing parameters, does not involve spurious poles and manifests half of the dual superconformal symmetry.
Integrands for colour ordered scattering amplitudes in planar N=4 SYM are dual to those of correlation functions of the energy-momentum multiplet of the theory. The construction can relate amplitudes with different numbers of legs. By graph theory
methods the integrand of the four-point function of energy-momentum multiplets has been constructed up to six loops in previous work. In this article we extend this analysis to seven loops and use it to construct the full integrand of the five-point amplitude up to five loops, and in the parity even sector to six loops. All results, both parity even and parity odd, are obtained in a concise local form in dual momentum space and can be displayed efficiently through graphs. We have verified agreement with other local formulae both in terms of supertwistors and scalar momentum integrals as well as BCJ forms where those exist in the literature, i.e. up to three loops. Finally we note that the four-point correlation function can be extracted directly from the four-point amplitude and so this uncovers a direct link from four- to five-point amplitudes.
The three-loop four-point function of stress-tensor multiplets in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory contains two so far unknown, off-shell, conformal integrals, in addition to the known, ladder-type integrals. In this paper we evaluate the unknown integral
s, thus obtaining the three-loop correlation function analytically. The integrals have the generic structure of rational functions multiplied by (multiple) polylogarithms. We use the idea of leading singularities to obtain the rational coefficients, the symbol - with an appropriate ansatz for its structure - as a means of characterising multiple polylogarithms, and the technique of asymptotic expansion of Feynman integrals to obtain the integrals in certain limits. The limiting behaviour uniquely fixes the symbols of the integrals, which we then lift to find the corresponding polylogarithmic functions. The final formulae are numerically confirmed. The techniques we develop can be applied more generally, and we illustrate this by analytically evaluating one of the integrals contributing to the same four-point function at four loops. This example shows a connection between the leading singularities and the entries of the symbol.
We present a conjecture for the normalisation of the twist two conformal partial waves in a double OPE limit of the four-point function of stress tensor multiplets in N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory up to three loops. This contains information about th
e structure constants in the OPE. Like the twist two anomalous dimensions our result is expressed as a linear combination of harmonic sums whose argument is the spin of the exchanged operators. To arrive at the result we derive asymptotic expansions for the twist two part of two unknown three-loop integrals using the method of expansion by regions, complemented by some intuition gained on the example of the ladder integrals up to three loops.
We continue the study of n-point correlation functions of half-BPS protected operators in N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory, in the limit where the positions of the adjacent operators become light-like separated. We compute the l-loop corrections by making
l Lagrangian insertions. We argue that there exists a simple relation between the (n+l)-point tree-level correlator with l Lagrangian insertions and the integrand of the n-particle l-loop MHV scattering amplitude, as obtained by the recent momentum twistor construction of Arkani-Hamed et al. We present several examples of this new duality, at one and two loops.
The supersymmetry transformation relating the Konishi operator to its lowest descendant in the 10 of SU(4) is not manifest in the N=1 formulation of the theory but rather uses an equation of motion. On the classical level one finds one operator, the
unintegrated chiral superpotential. In the quantum theory this term receives an admixture by a second operator, the Yang-Mills part of the Lagrangian. It has long been debated whether this anomalous contribution is affected by higher loop corrections. We present a first principles calculation at the second non-trivial order in perturbation theory using supersymmetric dimensional reduction as a regulator and renormalisation by Z-factors. Singular higher loop corrections to the renormalisation factor of the Yang-Mills term are required if the conformal properties of two-point functions are to be met. These singularities take the form determined in preceding work on rather general grounds. Moreover, we also find non-vanishing finite terms. The core part of the problem is the evaluation of a four-loop two-point correlator which is accomplished by the Laporta algorithm. Apart from several examples of the T1 topology with two lines of non-integer dimension we need the first few orders in the epsilon expansion of three master integrals. The approach is self-contained in that all the necessary information can be derived from the power counting finiteness of some integrals.
The spin chain formulation of the operator spectrum of the N=4 super Yang-Mills theory is haunted by the problem of ``wrapping, i.e. the inapplicability of the formalism for short spin chain length at high loop-order. The first instance of wrapping c
oncerns the fourth anomalous dimension of the Konishi operator. While we do not obtain this number yet, we lay out an operational scheme for its calculation. The approach passes through a five- and six-loop sector. We show that all but one of the Feynman integrals from this sector are related to five master graphs which ought to be calculable by the method of partial integration. The remaining supergraph is argued to be vanishing or finite; a numerical treatment should be possible. The number of numerator terms remains small even if a further four-loop sector is included. There is no need for infrared rearrangements.
