Scattering amplitudes in gauge theories (Q2434434)

The computation of scattering amplitudes which determine the probabilities for particle collision processes constitutes, since the very beginning of the formalism, the centre-piece of quantum field theory as a description of elementary particles. The key tool is, of course, Feynman Diagrams: once the Lagrangian and its gauge fixing terms have been constructed, the algorithm of extracting the amplitude associated with the diagram from which the vertex and propagator rules are read, is a triumph of modern physics. However, computationally, this could well be a daunting task since typically the number of Feynmann diagrams, due to the combinatorics, grows exponentially with the number of particles and loops. Nevertheless, when adding up all the contributions from various diagram, the answer sometimes is remarkably simple. This is because though powerful, Feynman diagrams are gauge dependent and involve off-shell information, while the final amplitude answer should be gauge-invariant and knows only the physical degrees of freedom. Exploiting on-shell, analytic and (potentially hidden) symmetries is therefore crucial. There has been a flurry of activity over the last few years on precisely this development, particularly in the direction of colour decomposition of gauge theory amplitudes and expressing them in a spinor-helicity basis well suited for processes involving massless particles. This allows us to construct all tree-level amplitudes via on-shell recursion relations starting from a tri-valent vertex; in parallel, higher-loop amplitudes can be obtained from tree-level ones via unitary arguments. Thus, finding all physical amplitudes without recourse to complicated Lagrangians, gauge fixing and Feynman rules is now a possibility for classes of quantum field theories. The archetypal example, where so many exact results have been uncovered in the past decade, is \({\mathcal N}=4\) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in \(3+1\) dimensions, which is known to be not only a fruitful playground for QCD, integrability, etc., but is also a protagonist in string theory. These exciting times beckon for an up-to-date textbook in QFT and especially gauge theory, beyond the canonical ones familiar to a student in high energy theory such as Peskin-Schroeder or Cheng-Li. The purpose of this succinct monograph by Henn-Plefka is wonderful answer to this need (cf. also the nice and much longer book of \textit{H. Elvang} and \textit{Y. Huang} [Scattering amplitudes in gauge theory and gravity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press (2015)]. Aimed at the advanced graduate student or a practitioner of high energy theory interested in the subject, the book begins with a review of non-abelian gauge theory and its conventional Feynman methods before immediately delving into on-shell recursion relations of BCFW (Britto-Cachazo-Feng-Witten) and factorization properties. After a lightning review of supersymmetry emphasizing Poincaré and conformal symmetries in the context of \({\mathcal N}=4\), the SUSY version and their exact solutions are then presented, for the so-called MHV (maximally helicity violating) and next to MHV (nMHV) amplitudes. Thus all tree-level amplitude in such cases are efficiently obtained. The authors then move on to address loops. The idea is to use a so-called unitarity cut, where a 1-loop amplitude is reconstructed from tree-level data by putting various internal legs on-shell. Again, fundamentals such as Feynman and Mellin parametres are reviewed and explicit examples are computed. Finally, in the concluding chapter, the authors address more advanced topics (primarily in \({\mathcal N}=4\) super-Yang-Mills example), such as Wilson loops, (dual) conformal symmetries and Yangians. Of particular usefulness to the student are the exercises and an entire appendix dedicated to their detailed solutions. Indeed, together with the clarity of exposition, the appropriate pace, the brevity of length, and the occasional recapitulation of fundamentals, the book should make an ideal companion to a theorist wishing for a 21st century update on the subject of scattering amplitudes.