TMQFT · Twistor methods for Quantum Field Theory

Twistor methods for Quantum Field Theory

The ability to distinguish new from known physics at scattering experiments such as at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva is of paramount importance. A precise, quantitative control over the many different possible processes which may occur in a given particle collision is called for. Due to the enormous complexity of the calculations involved, even for one of these processes, there are still experimentally relevant targets to be calculated despite the importance and the long availability of textbook calculational methods. The first step in this process is the calculation of a so-called `scattering amplitudeʼ which through traditional methods are numerically challenging for processes with many particles. However, it is known especially in four dimensional Yang-Mills theories (a class of theories which includes the current Standard Model of particle physics) that large calculations can lead to surprisingly simple answers. These simple answers appear when the quantum numbers of the external legs are taken into account properly. Whenever large calculations lead to simple answers in physics, this usually means that some symmetry of the problem under study has been overlooked. The main drive of the ERG project `twistor methods for quantum field theoryʼ within the Seventh Framework Program of the European Union was to study this symmetry more deeply building on developments in the recent literature derived from Wittenʼs idea of a ʻtwistor string theoryʼ.

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