Loop Integrands for Scattering Amplitudes from the Riemann Sphere

Abstract

The scattering equations on the Riemann sphere give rise to remarkable formulae for tree-level gauge theory and gravity amplitudes. Adamo, Casali and Skinner conjectured a one-loop formula for supergravity amplitudes based on scattering equations on a torus. We use a residue theorem to transform this into a formula on the Riemann sphere. What emerges is a framework for loop integrands on the Riemann sphere that promises to have wide application, based on off-shell scattering equations that depend on the loop momentum. We present new formulae, checked explicitly at low points, for supergravity and super-Yang-Mills amplitudes and for n-gon integrands at one loop. Finally, we show that the off-shell scattering equations naturally extend to arbitrary loop order, and we give a proposal for the all-loop integrands for supergravity and planar super-Yang-Mills theory.

5 pages, 1 figure. v3: published version