Scattering in D=5 super Yang-Mills theory and the relation to (2,0) theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates scattering processes in 5D super Yang-Mills theory derived from (2,0) theory, showing that the scattering amplitude is largely dictated by symmetries and matches the (2,0) theory results at low energy.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the scattering matrix in 5D super Yang-Mills, related to (2,0) theory, is determined by symmetries and matches the (2,0) theory at low energies, revealing a deep connection.

Findings

The S matrix is symmetry-determined up to one unknown function.

The low-energy scattering function matches the (2,0) theory result.

The calculation confirms the relation between 5D super Yang-Mills and (2,0) theory.

Abstract

Compactifying the A_1 version of (2,0) theory on a circle gives rise to five-dimensional, maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. In the Coulomb branch, where the SU(2) gauge group is spontaneously broken to a U(1) subgroup, the degrees of freedom are constituted by one massless and two massive vector multiplets. Because of the relation to the six-dimensional (2,0) theory, we are then interested in scattering processes where both the in-state and the out-state consist of one massless and one massive particle. We show that the corresponding part of the S matrix is determined by the symmetries of the theory up to a single unknown function, which depends on the energy and mass of the incoming particles, together with the scattering angle. Performing a straight forward scattering calculation by means of Feynman diagrams, this function is determined to leading order in a low-energy approximation. The result is strikingly simple, and it coincides exactly with the corresponding function in the (2,0) theory.