Andrew Hodges

Whether all types of computation—including that of our own minds—can be modeled as computer programs remains an open question.

An account is given of how the 'box integrals', as used for one-loop calculations in massless field theory, appear in momentum-twistor geometry. Particular attention is paid to the role of compact contour integration in representing the Feynman propagator in twistor space. An explicit calculation of all the box integrals, using only elementary methods, is included.

This note addresses the problem of spurious poles in gauge-theoretic scattering amplitudes. New twistor coordinates for the momenta are introduced, based on the concept of dual conformal invariance. The cancellation of spurious poles for a class of NMHV amplitudes is greatly simplified in these coordinates. The poles are eliminated altogether by defining a new type of twistor integral, dual to twistor diagrams as previously studied, and considerably simpler. The geometric features indicate a supersymmetric extension of the formalism at least to all NMHV amplitudes, allowing the dihedral symmetry of the super-amplitude to be made manifest. More generally, the definition of `momentum-twistor' coordinates suggests a powerful new approach to the study of scattering amplitudes.

The combinatorial properties of the Bernoulli and Euler numbers are interpreted using a new classification of permutations. The classification is naturally described by an operator algebra of a type familiar from quantum theory. It has a duality structure described by an operator satisfying anticommutation relations.

We study the scattering of eight gauge fields, and give all the tree-level amplitudes in the helicity-conserved sector. New symmetries are noted, suggesting that significant further simplification can be achieved.

We give a new formalism for pure gauge-theoretic scattering at tree-amplitude level. We first describe a generalization of the Britto-Cachazo-Feng recursion relation in which a significant restriction is removed. We then use twistor diagrams to express all tree amplitudes in a form independent of helicity. A formal procedure involving anticommuting elements is required. We illustrate the results with specific calculations of interest, up to 8 interacting fields.