One-Loop N = 4 Super Yang-Mills Scattering Amplitudes to All Orders in the Dimensional Regularization Parameter

Abstract

In this paper we discuss in detail computational methods and new results for one-loop virtual corrections to N = 4 super Yang-Mills scattering amplitudes calculated to all orders in epsilon, the dimensional regularization parameter. It is often the case that one-loop gauge theory computations are carried out to order epsilon^0, since higher order in epsilon contributions vanish in the small epsilon limit. We will show, however, that the higher order contributions are actually quite useful. In the context of maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills, we consider two examples in detail to illustrate our point. First we will concentrate on computations with gluonic external states and argue that N = 4 supersymmetry implies a simple relation between all-orders-in-epsilon one-loop N = 4 super Yang-Mills amplitudes and the first and second stringy corrections to analogous tree-level superstring amplitudes. For our second example we will derive a new result for the all-orders-in-epsilon one-loop superamplitude for planar six-particle NMHV scattering, an object which allows one to easily obtain six-point NMHV amplitudes with arbitrary external states. We will then discuss the relevance of this computation to the evaluation of the ratio of the planar two-loop six-point NMHV superamplitude to the planar two-loop six-point MHV superamplitude, a quantity which is expected to have remarkable properties and has been the subject of much recent investigation. To make the presentation as self-contained as possible, we extensively review the prerequisites necessary to understand the main results of this work.