Using differential equations to compute two-loop box integrals

Abstract

The calculation of exclusive observables beyond the one-loop level requires elaborate techniques for the computation of multi-leg two-loop integrals. We discuss how the large number of different integrals appearing in actual two-loop calculations can be reduced to a small number of master integrals. An efficient method to compute these master integrals is to derive and solve differential equations in the external invariants for them. As an application of the differential equation method, we compute the ${\cal O}(\epsilon)$-term of a particular combination of on-shell massless planar double box integrals, which appears in the tensor reduction of $2 \to 2$ scattering amplitudes at two loops.