Preprint 2018-10
Nils Kanning and Matthias Staudacher
Graßmannian Integrals in Minkowski Signature, Amplitudes, and Integrability
Abstract: We attempt to systematically derive tree-level scattering amplitudes in four-dimensional, planar, maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory from integrability. We first review the connections between integrable spin chains, Yangian invariance, and the construction of such invariants in terms of Graßmannian contour integrals. Building upon these results, we equip a class of Graßmannian integrals for general symmetry algebras with unitary in- tegration contours. These contours emerge naturally by paying special attention to he proper reality conditions of the algebras. Specializing to psu(2, 2|4) and thus to maximal superconformal symmetry in Minkowski space, we find in a number of examples expressions similar to, but subtly different from the perturbative physical scattering amplitudes. Our results suggest a subtle breaking of Yangian invariance for the latter, with curious implications or their construction from integrability.
Preprint series: Institut für Mathematik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (ISSN 0863-0976), 2018-10
44 pp.