Binary Dynamics through the Fifth Power of Spin at O(G

We use a previously developed scattering-amplitudes-based framework for determining two-body Hamiltonians for generic binary systems with arbitrary spin S. By construction this formalism bypasses difficulties with unphysical singularities or higher-time derivatives. This framework has been previously used to obtain the exact velocity dependence of the O(G^{2}) quadratic-in-spin two-body Hamiltonian. We first evaluate the S^{3} scattering angle and two-body Hamiltonian at this order in G, including not only all operators corresponding to the usual worldline operators, but also an additional set due to an interesting subtlety. We then evaluate S^{4} and S^{5} contributions at O(G^{2}) which we confirm by comparing against aligned-spin results. We conjecture that a certain shift symmetry together with a constraint on the high-energy growth of the scattering amplitude specify the Wilson coefficients for the Kerr black hole to all orders in the spin and confirm that they reproduce the previously obtained results through S^{4}.

Scattering Amplitudes, the Tail Effect, and Conservative Binary Dynamics at O(G

We complete the calculation of conservative two-body scattering dynamics at fourth post-Minkowskian order, i.e., O(G^{4}) and all orders in velocity, including radiative contributions corresponding to the tail effect in general relativity. As in previous calculations, we harness powerful tools from the modern scattering amplitudes program including generalized unitarity, the double copy, and advanced multiloop integration methods, in combination with effective field theory. The classical amplitude involves complete elliptic integrals, and polylogarithms with up to transcendental weight 2. Using the amplitude-action relation, we obtain the radial action directly from the amplitude, and match the known overlapping terms in the post-Newtonian expansion.

Scattering Amplitudes and Conservative Binary Dynamics at O(G

Using scattering amplitudes, we obtain the potential contributions to conservative binary dynamics in general relativity at fourth post-Minkowskian order O(G^{4}). As in previous lower-order calculations, we harness powerful tools from the modern scattering amplitudes program including generalized unitarity, the double copy, and advanced multiloop integration methods, in combination with effective field theory. The classical amplitude involves polylogarithms with up to transcendental weight two and elliptic integrals. We derive the radial action directly from the amplitude, and determine the corresponding Hamiltonian in isotropic gauge. Our results are in agreement with known overlapping terms up to sixth post-Newtonian order, and with the probe limit. We also determine the post-Minkowskian energy loss from radiation emission at O(G^{3}) via its relation to the tail effect.

Scattering Amplitudes and the Conservative Hamiltonian for Binary Systems at Third Post-Minkowskian Order.

We present the amplitude for classical scattering of gravitationally interacting massive scalars at third post-Minkowskian order. Our approach harnesses powerful tools from the modern amplitudes program such as generalized unitarity and the double-copy construction, which relates gravity integrands to simpler gauge-theory expressions. Adapting methods for integration and matching from effective field theory, we extract the conservative Hamiltonian for compact spinless binaries at third post-Minkowskian order. The resulting Hamiltonian is in complete agreement with corresponding terms in state-of-the-art expressions at fourth post-Newtonian order as well as the probe limit at all orders in velocity. We also derive the scattering angle at third post-Minkowskian order and find agreement with known results.

Canceling the U(1) Anomaly in the S Matrix of N=4 Supergravity.

N=4 supergravity is understood to contain a U(1) anomaly which manifests itself via the nonvanishing of loop-level scattering amplitudes that violate a tree-level charge conservation rule. In this Letter we provide detailed evidence that at one loop such anomalous amplitudes can be set to zero by the addition of a finite local counterterm. We show that the same counterterm also cancels evanescent contributions that play an important role in the analysis of ultraviolet divergences in dimensionally regularized gravity. These cancellations call for a reanalysis of the four-loop ultraviolet divergences previously found in this theory without the addition of such counterterms.

Gravity Amplitudes as Generalized Double Copies of Gauge-Theory Amplitudes.

Whenever the integrand of a gauge-theory loop amplitude can be arranged into a form where the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson duality between color and kinematics is manifest, a corresponding gravity integrand can be obtained simply via the double-copy procedure. However, finding such gauge-theory representations can be challenging, especially at high loop orders. Here, we show that we can, instead, start from generic gauge-theory integrands, where the duality is not manifest, and apply a modified double-copy procedure to obtain gravity integrands that include contact terms generated by violations of dual Jacobi identities. We illustrate this with three-, four- and five-loop examples in N=8 supergravity.

Dissolving N = 4 loop amplitudes into QCD tree amplitudes.

We use the infrared consistency of one-loop amplitudes in N = 4 Yang-Mills theory to derive a compact analytic formula for a tree-level next-to-next-to-maximal helicity-violating gluon scattering amplitude in QCD, the first such formula known. We argue that the infrared conditions, coupled with recent advances in calculating one-loop box coefficients, can give a new tool for computing tree-level amplitudes in general. Our calculation suggests that many amplitudes have a structure which is even simpler than that revealed so far by current twistor-space constructions.

All conjugate-maximal-helicity-violating amplitudes from topological open string theory in twistor space.

It has recently been proposed that the D-instanton expansion of the open topological B model on P(3|4) is equivalent to the perturbative expansion of the maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions. In this letter we show how to construct the gauge theory results for all n-point conjugate-maximal-helicity-violating amplitudes by computing the integral over the moduli space of curves of degree n-3 in P(3|4), providing strong support to the string theory construction.