The double copy: gravity from gluons

Abstract

Three of the four fundamental forces in nature are described by so-called gauge theories, which include the effects of both relativity and quantum mechanics. Gravity, on the other hand, is described by General Relativity, and the lack of a well-behaved quantum theory - believed to be relevant at the centre of black holes, and at the Big Bang itself - remains a notorious unsolved problem. Recently a new correspondence, the double copy, has been discovered between scattering amplitudes (quantities related to the probability for particles to interact) in gravity, and their gauge theory counterparts. This has subsequently been extended to other quantities, providing gauge theory analogues of e.g. black holes. We here review current research on the double copy, and describe some possible applications.

Invited undergraduate-level review submitted to Contemporary Physics. Comments welcome!

References in corpus (18)

• Black holes and the double copy
• Three-Loop Superfiniteness of N=8 Supergravity
• The Kinematic Algebra From the Self-Dual Sector
• Perturbative spacetimes from Yang-Mills theory
• The double copy: Bremsstrahlung and accelerating black holes
• Path integral approach to eikonal and next-to-eikonal exponentiation
• Ambitwistor strings in 4-dimensions
• Classical gluon and graviton radiation from the bi-adjoint scalar double copy
• Yang-Mills origin of gravitational symmetries
• Scattering on plane waves and the double copy
• Light-like Scattering in Quantum Gravity
• On the null origin of the ambitwistor string
• Exact solutions for the biadjoint scalar field
• Next-to-soft corrections to high energy scattering in QCD and gravity
• Extended solutions for the biadjoint scalar field
• Are all supergravity theories Yang-Mills squared?
• Twofold Symmetries of the Pure Gravity Action
• Color-Kinematics Duality and the Regge Limit of Inelastic Amplitudes

Cited by in corpus (13)

• The Newman-Penrose Map and the Classical Double Copy
• Strings, extended objects, and the classical double copy
• On the Lagrangian formulation of the double copy to cubic order
• From polarized gravitational waves to analytically solvable electromagnetic beams
• Double-copy towards supergravity inflation with $\alpha$-attractor models
• Double copy of spontaneously broken Abelian gauge theory
• Proposed method of combining continuum mechanics with Einstein Field Equations
• Nonlocal modification of the Kerr metric
• Five dimensional Weyl double copy
• Field redefinition invariant Lagrange multiplier formalism with gauge symmetries
• On-Shell Calculation of Mixed Electromagnetic and Gravitational Scattering
• Antimatter Gravity Experiments, the Astronomical Challenges to Lambda-CDM Cosmology and the Quantum Vacuum as a Possible Source of Gravity in the Universe
• Untwisting the double copy: the zeroth copy as an optical seed