Binary Black Holes and Quantum Off-Shell Recursion

Abstract

The quantum off-shell recursion provides an efficient and universal computational tool for loop-level scattering amplitudes. In this work, we present a new comprehensive computational framework based on the quantum off-shell recursion for binary black hole systems. Using the quantum perturbiner method, we derive the recursions and solve them explicitly up to two-loop order. We develop a power-counting prescription that enables the straightforward separation of classical diagrams. We also devise a classification scheme that optimizes the integration by parts (IBP) reduction process, which makes higher-loop calculations more tractable. By employing the soft expansion technique, we remove irrelevant terms from the loop integrands and express them in terms of master integrals. We classify the one-loop and the two-loop classical diagrams, and their loop integrands are represented by linear combinations of the master integrals. Finally, we explicitly calculate the classical scalar 2 to 2 amplitudes in the potential region up to the 3PM order and reproduce the known results.