Leading singularities and off-shell conformal integrals
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 our paper we evaluate the unknown integrals, 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. Furthermore, we develop techniques that 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.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515
- OSTI ID:
- 1074167
- Report Number(s):
- SLAC-PUB-15409; arXiv:1303.6909
- Journal Information:
- Journal of High Energy Physics (Online), Vol. 2013, Issue 8; ISSN 1029-8479
- Publisher:
- Springer Berlin
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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