Hexagon functions and the three-loop remainder function

TL;DR

This paper computes the three-loop six-gluon scattering remainder function in planar N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory using hexagon functions and differential equations, confirming predictions from integrability and factorization limits.

Contribution

It classifies all hexagon functions up to weight five and explicitly determines the three-loop remainder function as a weight-six hexagon function, fixing constants via physical limits.

Findings

The three-loop remainder function agrees with integrability predictions in the near-collinear limit.

Multi-Regge limit results match Fadin-Lipatov factorization, fixing impact factor constants.

The ratio of three-loop to two-loop remainder functions is approximately -7 over a range of cross ratios.

Abstract

We present the three-loop remainder function, which describes the scattering of six gluons in the maximally-helicity-violating configuration in planar N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory, as a function of the three dual conformal cross ratios. The result can be expressed in terms of multiple Goncharov polylogarithms. We also employ a more restricted class of "hexagon functions" which have the correct branch cuts and certain other restrictions on their symbols. We classify all the hexagon functions through transcendental weight five, using the coproduct for their Hopf algebra iteratively, which amounts to a set of first-order differential equations. The three-loop remainder function is a particular weight-six hexagon function, whose symbol was determined previously. The differential equations can be integrated numerically for generic values of the cross ratios, or analytically in certain kinematics limits, including the near-collinear and multi-Regge limits. These limits allow us to impose constraints from the operator product expansion and multi-Regge factorization directly at the function level, and thereby to fix uniquely a set of Riemann-zeta-valued constants that could not be fixed at the level of the symbol. The near-collinear limits agree precisely with recent predictions by Basso, Sever and Vieira based on integrability. The multi-Regge limits agree with the factorization formula of Fadin and Lipatov, and determine three constants entering the impact factor at this order. We plot the three-loop remainder function for various slices of the Euclidean region of positive cross ratios, and compare it to the two-loop one. For large ranges of the cross ratios, the ratio of the three-loop to the two-loop remainder function is relatively constant, and close to -7.