The Two-Loop Four-Graviton Scattering Amplitudes

Abstract

We present the analytic form of the two-loop four-graviton scattering amplitudes in Einstein gravity. To remove ultraviolet divergences we include counterterms quadratic and cubic in the Riemann curvature tensor. The two-loop numerical unitarity approach is used to deal with the challenging momentum dependence of the interactions. We exploit the algebraic properties of the integrand of the amplitude in order to map it to a minimal basis of Feynman integrals. Analytic expressions are obtained from numerical evaluations of the amplitude. Finally, we show that four-graviton scattering observables depend on fewer couplings than naively expected.

v2: updates to match published version; footnote added; corrected O(D-4) one-loop four-graviton amplitudes and finite remainders in text and ancillary files