Abelian Z-theory: NLSM amplitudes and alpha'-corrections from the open string

John Joseph M. Carrasco (1, 2) , Carlos R. Mafra (2, 3) , Oliver Schlotterer (4)

1 IPHT - Institut de Physique Théorique - UMR CNRS 3681
2 IAS - Institute for Advanced Study [Princeton]
3 University of Southampton
4 AEI - Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik ( Albert-Einstein-Institut )

In this paper we derive the tree-level S-matrix of the effective theory of Goldstone bosons known as the non-linear sigma model (NLSM) from string theory. This novel connection relies on a recent realization of tree-level open-superstring S-matrix predictions as a double copy of super-Yang-Mills theory with Z-theory --- the collection of putative scalar effective field theories encoding all the alpha'-dependence of the open superstring. Here we identify the color-ordered amplitudes of the NLSM as the low-energy limit of abelian Z-theory. This realization also provides natural higher-derivative corrections to the NLSM amplitudes arising from higher powers of alpha' in the abelian Z-theory amplitudes, and through double copy also to Born-Infeld and Volkov-Akulov theories. The Kleiss-Kuijf and Bern-Carrasco-Johansson relations obeyed by Z-theory amplitudes thereby apply to all alpha'-corrections of the NLSM. As such we naturally obtain a cubic-graph parameterization for the abelian Z-theory predictions whose kinematic numerators obey the duality between color and kinematics to all orders in alpha'.

Domaines: Physique des Hautes Energies - Théorie [hep-th]; Physique mathématique [math-ph]

John Joseph M. Carrasco, Carlos R. Mafra, Oliver Schlotterer. Abelian Z-theory: NLSM amplitudes and alpha'-corrections from the open string. 2017. ⟨cea-01426644⟩