A Unitarity Approach to Two-Loop All-Plus Rational Terms

Abstract

We present a calculation of the rational terms in two-loop all-plus gluon amplitudes using $D$-dimensional unitarity. We use a conjecture of separability of the two loops, and then a simple generalization of one-loop $D$-dimensional unitarity to perform calculations. We compute the four- and five-point rational terms analytically, and the six- and seven-point ones numerically. We find agreement with previous calculations of Dalgleish, Dunbar, Godwin, Jehu, Perkins, and Strong. For a special subleading-color amplitude, we compute the eight- and nine-point results numerically, and find agreement with an all-$n$ conjecture of Dunbar, Perkins, and Strong.

108 pages, 41 figures