On the Tree-Level Structure of Scattering Amplitudes of Massless Particles

Jun, 2011
31 pages
Published in:
  • JHEP 11 (2011) 074
e-Print:

Citations per year

2011201420172020202302468
Abstract: (arXiv)
We provide a new set of on-shell recursion relations for tree-level scattering amplitudes, which are valid for any non-trivial theory of massless particles. In particular, we reconstruct the scattering amplitudes from (a subset of) their poles and zeroes. The latter determine the boundary term arising in the BCFW-representation when the amplitudes do not vanish as some momenta are taken to infinity along some complex direction. Specifically, such a boundary term can be expressed as a sum of products of two on-shell amplitudes with fewer external states and a factor dependent on the location of the relevant zeroes and poles. This allows us to recast the amplitudes to have the standard BCFW-structure, weighted by a simple factor dependent on a subset of zeroes and poles of the amplitudes. We further comment on the physical interpretation of the zeroes as a particular kinematic limit in the complexified momentum space. The main implication of the existence of such recursion relations is that the tree-level approximation of any consistent theory of massless particles can be fully determined just by the knowledge of the corresponding three-particle amplitudes.
Note:
  • 31 pages, 5 figures
  • particle: massless
  • scattering amplitude
  • tree approximation
  • pole
  • boundary condition
  • dimension: 4
  • supersymmetry: 4
  • deformation
  • spinor
  • factorization