On n-point amplitudes in N = 4 SYM

Abstract

The computation of n-point planar amplitudes in N=4 SYM at strong coupling is known to be reduced to the search for solutions of the integrable 2d SO(4,2) σ-model with growing asymptotics on the world-sheet and to the study of their Whitham deformations induced by an -regularization, which breaks both integrability and SO(4,2) symmetry. A multi-parameter (moduli) family of such solutions is constructed for n = 4. They all correspond to the same s and t and some are related by SO(4,2) transformations. Nevertheless, they lead to different regularized areas, whose minimum is the Alday-Maldacena solution. A brief review of results on n-point amplitudes is also provided, with special emphasis on the underlying equivalence of the above regularized minimal area in AdS and a double contour integral along the same boundary, two purely geometric quantities. © SISSA 2007.