Combinatorial Aspects Of Scattering Amplitudes

This book is a significant contribution within and across High Energy Physics and Algebraic Combinatorics. It is at the forefront of the recent paradigm shift according to which physical observables emerge from geometry and combinatorics. It is the first book on the amplituhedron, which encodes the scattering amplitudes of N=4 Yang-Mills theory, a cousin of the theory of strong interactions of quarks and gluons. Amplituhedra are generalizations of polytopes inside the Grassmannian, and they build on the theory of total positivity and oriented matroids. This book unveils many new combinatorial structures of the amplituhedron and introduces a new important related object, the momentum amplituhedron. Moreover, the work pioneers the connection between amplituhedra, cluster algebras and tropical geometry. Combining extensive introductions with proofs and examples, it is a valuable resource for researchers investigating geometrical structures emerging from physics for some time to come.

An essential guide to peturbative quantum field theory and its connection to Grassmannian geometry.

This thesis proposes a new perspective on scattering amplitudes in quantum field theories. Their standard formulation in terms of sums over Feynman diagrams is replaced by a computation of geometric invariants, called intersection numbers, on moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces. It therefore gives a physical interpretation of intersection numbers, which have been extensively studied in the mathematics literature in the context of generalized hypergeometric functions. This book explores physical consequences of this formulation, such as recursion relations, connections to geometry and string theory, as well as a phenomenon called moduli space localization. After reviewing necessary mathematical background, including topology of moduli spaces of Riemann spheres with punctures and its fundamental group, the definition and properties of intersection numbers are presented. A comprehensive list of applications and relations to other objects is given, including those to scattering amplitudes in open- and closed-string theories. The highlights of the thesis are the results regarding localization properties of intersection numbers in two opposite limits: in the low- and the high-energy expansion. In order to facilitate efficient computations of intersection numbers the author introduces recursion relations that exploit fibration properties of the moduli space. These are formulated in terms of so-called braid matrices that encode the information of how points braid around each other on the corresponding Riemann surface. Numerous application of this approach are presented for computation of scattering amplitudes in various gauge and gravity theories. This book comes with an extensive appendix that gives a pedagogical introduction to the topic of homologies with coefficients in a local system.

This edited volume features a curated selection of research in algebraic combinatorics that explores the boundaries of current knowledge in the field. Focusing on topics experiencing broad interest and rapid growth, invited contributors offer survey articles on representation theory, symmetric functions, invariant theory, and the combinatorics of Young tableaux. The volume also addresses subjects at the intersection of algebra, combinatorics, and geometry, including the study of polytopes, lattice points, hyperplane arrangements, crystal graphs, and Grassmannians. All surveys are written at an introductory level that emphasizes recent developments and open problems. An interactive tutorial on Schubert Calculus emphasizes the geometric and topological aspects of the topic and is suitable for combinatorialists as well as geometrically minded researchers seeking to gain familiarity with relevant combinatorial tools. Featured authors include prominent women in the field known for their exceptional writing of deep mathematics in an accessible manner. Each article in this volume was reviewed independently by two referees. The volume is suitable for graduate students and researchers interested in algebraic combinatorics.

The goal of this book is to explain, at the graduate student level, connections between tropical geometry and optimization. Building bridges between these two subject areas is fruitful in two ways. Through tropical geometry optimization algorithms become applicable to questions in algebraic geometry. Conversely, looking at topics in optimization through the tropical geometry lens adds an additional layer of structure. The author covers contemporary research topics that are relevant for applications such as phylogenetics, neural networks, combinatorial auctions, game theory, and computational complexity. This self-contained book grew out of several courses given at Technische Universität Berlin and elsewhere, and the main prerequisite for the reader is a basic knowledge in polytope theory. It contains a good number of exercises, many examples, beautiful figures, as well as explicit tools for computations using $texttt{polymake}$.

A collection of research articles and survey papers, this text highlights current methods and open problems in the geometric, combinatorial, and computational aspects of group theory. New interactions with broad areas of theoretical computer science are also considered. Pub 3/09.