Supersymmetric Field Theories, Scattering Amplitudes and the Grassmannian

GALLONI, DANIELE STEFANO (2015) Supersymmetric Field Theories, Scattering Amplitudes and the Grassmannian. Doctoral thesis, Durham University.
Copy

In this thesis we carry out a detailed investigation of a class of four-dimensional N=1 gauge theories, known as Bipartite Field Theories (BFTs), and their utility in integrable systems and scattering amplitudes in 4-dimensional N=4 Super-Yang-Mills (SYM). We present powerful combinatorial tools for analyzing the moduli spaces of BFTs, and find an interesting connection with the matching and matroid polytopes, which play a central role in the understanding of the Grassmannian. We use the tools from BFTs to construct (0+1)-dimensional cluster integrable systems, and propose a way of obtaining (1+1)- and (2+1)-dimensional integrable field theories. Using the matching and matroid polytopes of BFTs, we analyze the singularity structure of planar and non-planar on-shell diagrams, which are central to modern developments of scattering amplitudes in N=4 SYM. In so doing, we uncover a new way of obtaining the positroid stratication of the Grassmannian. We use tools from BFTs to understand the boundary structure of the amplituhedron, a recently found geometric object whose volume calculates the integrand of scattering amplitudes in planar N=4 SYM theory. We provide the most comprehensive study of the geometry of the amplituhedron to date. We also present a detailed study of non-planar on-shell diagrams, constructing the on-shell form using two new, independent methods: a non-planar boundary measurement valid for arbitrary non-planar graphs, and a proposal for a combinatorial method to determine the on-shell form directly from the graph.


picture_as_pdf
thesis.pdf
subject
Accepted Version

View Download

EndNote Reference Manager Refer Atom Dublin Core Data Cite XML OpenURL ContextObject in Span ASCII Citation HTML Citation MODS MPEG-21 DIDL METS OpenURL ContextObject
Export