Anti-de Sitter Amplitudes

Project title: Anti-de Sitter Amplitudes
Main applicant: Marco Chiodaroli, Division of Theoretical Physics
Grant amount: 3 350 000 SEK for the period 2020-2023
Funder: Project grant from the Swedish Research Council

Gauge and gravity theories seem to possess completely different properties. However, over the past decades, theoretical physicists have discovered deep and unexpected relations between the two. A first example is the AdS/CFT correspondence, which relates the strong-coupling limit of a conformal field theory (CFT) with the weak-coupling limit of a gravity theory in Anti-de Sitter (AdS) space. A second example is given by the double-copy construction, which expresses scattering amplitudes in gravity in terms of amplitudes in gauge theory, demonstrating that these two classes of theories share a common set of building blocks and enjoy the same underlying computational simplicity.

Scattering amplitudes and the study of the AdS/CFT correspondence are two fields at the forefront of theoretical physics which have, until now, proceeded on parallel tracks. At the same time, and thanks in part to my work, the double-copy construction has been extended to large classes of gravitational theories, raising the hope that a better understanding of generic theories of gravity might be within reach.

Taking an innovative approach, this project will identify a double-copy structure in the context of perturbation theory in AdS backgrounds, with the prospect of integrating and streamlining techniques from different fields within theoretical physics. Results will address the possibility of a simpler description of gravitational interactions and shed some light on gauge theories at strong coupling.