Scattering amplitudes: the most perfect microscopic structures in the universe

Abstract

This article gives an overview of many of the recent developments in understanding the structure of relativistic scattering amplitudes in gauge theories ranging from QCD to N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory, as well as (super)gravity. I also provide a pedagogical introduction to some of the basic tools used to organize and illuminate the color and kinematic structure of amplitudes. This article is an invited review introducing a special issue of Journal of Physics A devoted to "Scattering Amplitudes in Gauge Theories".

Figures (8)

• Figure 1: Factorization of soft and collinear singularities.
• Figure 2: Soft-collinear factorization in the planar limit.
• Figure 3: Hierarchy of simplicity in scattering amplitudes for various types of gauge theory.
• Figure 4: Graphical representation of building blocks for SU$(N_c)$ color factors.
• Figure 5: Reduction of color factors for $n$-gluon tree amplitudes to a single trace of $T^a$ generators.