Superstring Scattering Amplitudes with the Pure Spinor Formalism

Abstract

This thesis discusses how the pure spinor formalism can be used to efficiently compute superstring scattering amplitudes. We emphasize the pure spinor superspace form of the kinematic factors, where the simplifying features of this language have allowed an explicit relation among the massless four-point amplitudes at tree-level, one- and two-loops to be found. We show how these identities elegantly simplify the task of computing the amplitudes for all possible external state combination related by supersymmetry. In particular, the two-loop amplitudes involving fermionic states had never been computed before. By explicit calculation we show that the one- and two-loop amplitudes computed with the minimal and non-minimal formalisms are equivalent. Furthermore we compute the gauge variation of the massless six-point open string amplitude and obtain the kinematic factor related to the anomaly cancellation. We also discuss some preliminary results regarding the massless five-point amplitude at one-loop.