We discuss the theoretical bases that underpin the automation of the computations of tree-level and next-to-leading order cross sections, of their matching to parton shower simulations, and of the merging of matched samples that differ by light-parton multiplicities. We present a computer program, MadGraph5 aMC@NLO, capable of handling all these computations — parton-level fixed order, shower-matched, merged — in a unified framework whose defining features are flexibility, high level of parallelisation, and human intervention limited to input physics quantities. We demonstrate the potential of the program by presenting selected phenomenological applications relevant to the LHC and to a 1-TeV e + e − collider. While next-to-leading order results are restricted to QCD corrections to SM processes in the first public version, we show that from the user viewpoint no changes have to be expected in the case of corrections due to any given renormalisable Lagrangian, and that the implementation of these are well under way.

/pdf/the-automated-computation-of-tree-level-and-next-to-leading-4etm0g6w46.pdf

The automated computation of tree-level and next-to-leading order differential cross sections, and their matching to parton shower simulations

Perturbative scattering amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory have many unexpected properties, such as holomorphy of the maximally helicity violating amplitudes. To interpret these results, we Fourier transform the scattering amplitudes from momentum space to twistor space, and argue that the transformed amplitudes are supported on certain holomorphic curves. This in turn is apparently a consequence of an equivalence between the perturbative expansion of = 4 super Yang-Mills theory and the D-instanton expansion of a certain string theory, namely the topological B model whose target space is the Calabi-Yau supermanifold

Perturbative Gauge Theory as a String Theory in Twistor Space

https://cds.cern.ch/record/303326/files/arXiv:hep-ph_9605323.pdf

A general algorithm for calculating jet cross sections in NLO QCD

New recursion relations for tree amplitudes of gluons

We describe how to compute planar gluon scattering amplitudes at strong coupling in = 4 super Yang Mills by using the gauge/string duality. The computation boils down to finding a certain classical string configuration whose boundary conditions are determined by the gluon momenta. The results are infrared divergent. We introduce the gravity version of dimensional regularization to define finite quantities. The leading and subleading IR divergencies are characterized by two functions of the coupling that we compute at strong coupling. We compute also the full finite form for the four point amplitude and we find agreement with a recent ansatz by Bern, Dixon and Smirnov.

Gluon scattering amplitudes at strong coupling

https://www.slac.stanford.edu/pubs/slacpubs/6250/slac-pub-6415.pdf

One-loop n-point gauge theory amplitudes, unitarity and collinear limits

Fusing gauge theory tree amplitudes into loop amplitudes

We present a technique which utilizes unitarity and collinear limits to construct ansatze for one-loop amplitudes in gauge theory. As an example, we obtain the one-loop contribution to amplitudes for $n$ gluon scattering in $N=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with the helicity configuration of the Parke-Taylor tree amplitudes. We prove that our $N=4$ ansatz is correct using general properties of the relevant one-loop $n$-point integrals. We also give the ``splitting amplitudes'' which govern the collinear behavior of one-loop helicity amplitudes in gauge theories.

David C. Dunbar

Papers

One-loop n-point gauge theory amplitudes, unitarity and collinear limits

Fusing gauge theory tree amplitudes into loop amplitudes

One-Loop n-Point Gauge Theory Amplitudes, Unitarity and Collinear Limits

On the relationship between Yang-Mills theory and gravity and its implication for ultraviolet divergences

One-loop self-dual and N = 4 super Yang-Mills