Transforming the Bootstrap: Using Transformers to Compute Scattering Amplitudes in Planar N = 4 Super Yang-Mills Theory

Abstract

We pursue the use of deep learning methods to improve state-of-the-art computations in theoretical high-energy physics. Planar N = 4 Super Yang-Mills theory is a close cousin to the theory that describes Higgs boson production at the Large Hadron Collider; its scattering amplitudes are large mathematical expressions containing integer coefficients. In this paper, we apply Transformers to predict these coefficients. The problem can be formulated in a language-like representation amenable to standard cross-entropy training objectives. We design two related experiments and show that the model achieves high accuracy (> 98%) on both tasks. Our work shows that Transformers can be applied successfully to problems in theoretical physics that require exact solutions.

26+10 pages, 9 figures, 7 tables, application of machine learning aimed at physics and machine learning audience; v2: clarifications added, matches published version