The Supersymmetry of Cuts in Pure Gauge Theory and Gravity

TL;DR

This paper explores how leading singularities in non-supersymmetric gauge and gravity theories can be organized into generalized superfunctions, revealing a structure that relates to maximally supersymmetric theories and depends on loop order.

Contribution

It introduces a method to organize leading singularities of non-supersymmetric theories into generalized superfunctions, extending supersymmetric structures beyond tree level.

Findings

Leading singularities can be encoded by generalized superfunctions.

The structure differs from maximally supersymmetric theories by a sum over 2^L supersymmetric pieces.

The organization depends on the loop order.

Abstract

At tree-level, scattering amplitudes involving only gluons or gravitons are unaffected by supersymmetry, allowing them to be efficiently encoded by and extracted from those of maximally supersymmetric (N=4,8) theories. This fails beyond tree-level, of course, but much less than would be expected. We show that all the leading singularities of (sub-maximally or) non-supersymmetric theories can be organized into `generalized' superfunctions, in terms of which all helicity components can be effectively encoded. These functions differ from those of maximally supersymmetric theories by an extent determined by loop-order -- broken into a sum over 2^L supersymmetric pieces.