The Two-Loop Remainder Function for Eight and Nine Particles

Abstract

Two-loop MHV amplitudes in planar ${\cal N} = 4$ supersymmetric Yang Mills theory are known to exhibit many intriguing forms of cluster-algebraic structure. We leverage this structure to upgrade the symbols of the eight- and nine-particle amplitudes to complete analytic functions. This is done by systematically projecting onto the components of these amplitudes that take different functional forms, and matching each component to an ansatz of multiple polylogarithms with negative cluster-coordinate arguments. The remaining additive constant can be determined analytically by comparing the collinear limit of each amplitude to known lower-multiplicity results. We also observe that the nonclassical part of each of these amplitudes admits a unique decomposition in terms of a specific $A_3$ cluster polylogarithm, and explore the numerical behavior of the remainder function along lines in the positive region.