Gluing Hexagons at Three Loops

Abstract

We perform extensive three-loop tests of the hexagon bootstrap approach for structure constants in planar $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM theory. We focus on correlators involving two BPS operators and one non-BPS operator in the so-called $SL(2)$ sector. At three loops, such correlators receive wrapping corrections from mirror excitations flowing in either the adjacent or the opposing channel. Amusingly, we find that the first type of correction coincides exactly with the leading wrapping correction for the spectrum (divided by the one-loop anomalous dimension). We develop an efficient method for computing the second type of correction for operators with any spin. The results are in perfect agreement with the recently obtained three-loop perturbative data by Chicherin, Drummond, Heslop, Sokatchev [2] and by Eden [3]. We also derive the integrand for general multi-particle wrapping corrections, which turns out to take a remarkably simple form. As an application we estimate the loop order at which various new physical effects are expected to kick-in.