High-energy evolution to three loops

Abstract

The Balitsky-Kovchegov equation describes the high-energy growth of gauge theory scattering amplitudes as well as nonlinear saturation effects which stop it. We obtain the three-loop corrections to the equation in planar N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory. Our method exploits a recently established equivalence with the physics of soft wide-angle radiation, so-called non-global logarithms, and thus yields at the same time the three-loop evolution equation for non-global logarithms. As a by-product of our analysis, we develop a Lorentz-covariant method to subtract infrared and collinear divergences in cross-section calculations in the planar limit. We compare our result in the linear regime with a recent prediction for the so-called Pomeron trajectory, and compare its collinear limit with predictions from the spectrum of twist-two operators.