Smooth splitting and zeros from on-shell recursion

Abstract We describe a new approach to understanding the origins of recently discovered “hidden zeros” and “smooth splitting” of tree-level amplitudes in Trϕ 3, Non-Linear Sigma Model (NLSM), Yang-Mill-Scalar (YMS) and the special Galileon. Introducing a new type of linear shift in kinematic space w...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Callum R. T. Jones, Shruti Paranjape
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2025-07-01
Series:Journal of High Energy Physics
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2025)251
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Summary:Abstract We describe a new approach to understanding the origins of recently discovered “hidden zeros” and “smooth splitting” of tree-level amplitudes in Trϕ 3, Non-Linear Sigma Model (NLSM), Yang-Mill-Scalar (YMS) and the special Galileon. Introducing a new type of linear shift in kinematic space we demonstrate that the mysterious splitting formulae follow from a simple contour integration argument in the style of on-shell recursion. The argument makes use of only standard notions of tree-level factorization on propagators, but assumes improved UV behavior in the form of the absence of a residue at infinity. In the case of Trϕ 3 and NLSM this is proven by identifying our shift as a special case of a more general construction called a g-vector shift; in the case of YMS it remains an unproven conjecture. This recursive perspective leads to numerous new results: we derive generalizations of the splitting formulae on more relaxed near-zero kinematics, including interesting new kinematic limits in which the amplitude splits into a triple-product; we also demonstrate that the uncolored special Galileon model has improved UV scaling and hence also splits. We also investigate the possible realization of hidden zeros in four dimensions. The conditions under which the dimensionality constraints are compatible with zero kinematics is investigated in detail for Trϕ 3 and YMS; for the latter we find they can be realized only with certain restrictions on external helicity states. The realizable 4d zeros are proven by a similar recursive argument based on BCFW and is found to generalize to a new class of intrinsically 4d “helicity zeros” present in all sectors of YM and also gravity.
ISSN:1029-8479