Elliptic master integrals and the one-loop cosmological wavefunction

Abstract

Loop corrections to the cosmological wavefunction involve similar integrals to those required for scattering amplitudes. For the one-loop triangle of a conformally coupled scalar, the master integrals are elliptic, and so the triangle wavefunction coefficient was expected to be elliptic as well. Using a bootstrap approach, we compute this triangle coefficient exactly and show that it is not: the elliptic periods cancel, and the flat-space wavefunction coefficient is a combination of dilogarithms. The cancellation occurs because the residue of the loop integrand on the elliptic sector is a flat-space amplitude, rational in the loop momentum. The one-loop box, by contrast, is not polylogarithmic, even with a single external leg at each site. Its threshold discontinuity involves elliptic integrals, which we also give in closed form. For regular-tetrahedron momenta the periods of a K3 surface enter its loop integrand.

arXiv comment46 pages, 5 figures, ancillary files included