Iterative Structure Within The Five-Particle Two-Loop Amplitude

Abstract

We find an unexpected iterative structure within the two-loop five-gluon amplitude in N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. Specifically, we show that a subset of diagrams contributing to the full amplitude, including a two-loop pentagon-box integral with nontrivial dependence on five kinematical variables, satisfies an iterative relation in terms of one-loop scalar box diagrams. The implications of this result for the possible iterative structure of the full two-loop amplitude are discussed.