Nima Arkani-Hamed | All-Loop Scattering as A Counting Problem

CMSA Conference on Mathematics in Science: Perspectives and Prospects 10/28/2023
Speaker: Nima Arkani-Hamed (IAS)
Title: All-Loop Scattering as A Counting Problem
Abstract: I will describe a new understanding of scattering amplitudes based on fundamentally combinatorial ideas in the kinematic space of the scattering data. I first discuss a toy model, the simplest theory of colored scalar particles with cubic interactions, at all loop orders and to all orders in the topological ‘t Hooft expansion. I will present a novel formula for loop-integrated amplitudes, with no trace of the conventional sum over Feynman diagrams, but instead determined by a beautifully simple counting problem attached to any order of the topological expansion. A surprisingly simple shift of kinematic variables converts this apparent toy model into the realistic physics of pions and Yang-Mills theory. These results represent a significant step forward in the decade-long quest to formulate the fundamental physics of the real world in a new language, where the rules of spacetime and quantum mechanics, as reflected in the principles of locality and unitarity, are seen to emerge from deeper mathematical structures.

[@michaelwalsh9920]

Nima is a true living hero. Many thanks for sharing- let’s go!

[@yuriystakhiv9404]

Welcome back

[@martinsiebert1368]

At last, clear mathematical approaches that will hopefully converge ever closer to "the thing in itself" in Kant's philosophy. It's going to be really exciting with physics in the next few years and I've been following your lectures on the internet for a few years now.

[@dosesandmimoses]

The elusive categorical imperative.. is this the thing in and of itself you are referring to by chance?

[@zarkarimi]

@@dosesandmimoses I think he's referring to the concept of the noumena.

[@brendawilliams8062]

It appears camera tech. Has came a long way. Thankyou

[@brendawilliams8062]

It doesn’t appear a new force or a new addition to the standard model is that soon coming if at all