Dual conformal invariance for form factors

Abstract

Abstract Form factors of the stress-tensor multiplet operator in N = 4 $$ \mathcal{N}=4 $$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills reveal surprisingly simple structures similar to those appearing in scattering amplitudes. In this paper we show that, as for the case of amplitudes, they also enjoy dual conformal symmetry. We compute the dual conformal anomaly at one loop for an arbitrary number of particles and generic helicities, which matches the expression of the dual conformal anomaly of amplitudes, and perform explicit checks for MHV and NMHV one-loop form factors. In the NMHV case the realisation of dual conformal symmetry requires a delicate cancellation of offending terms arising from three-mass triangles, which we explicitly check in the case of the four-point NMHV form factor.

Keywords

• Scattering Amplitudes
• Supersymmetric Gauge Theory