The twisted story of worldsheet scattering in $η$-deformed $AdS_5 \times S^5$

Abstract: We study the worldsheet scattering theory of the $\eta$ deformation of the AdS$\mathsf{5} \times $S$^\mathsf{5}$ superstring corresponding to the purely fermionic Dynkin diagram. This theory is a Weyl-invariant integrable deformation of the AdS$\mathsf{5} \times $S$^\mathsf{5}$ superstring, with trigonometric quantum-deformed symmetry. We compute the two-body worldsheet S matrix of this string in the light-cone gauge at tree level to quadratic order in fermions. The result factorizes into two elementary blocks, and solves the classical Yang-Baxter equation. We also determine the corresponding exact factorized S matrix, and show that its perturbative expansion matches our tree-level results, once we correctly identify the deformed light-cone symmetry algebra of the string. Finally, we briefly revisit the computation of the corresponding S matrix for the $\eta$ deformation based on the distinguished Dynkin diagram, finding a tree-level S matrix that factorizes and solves the classical Yang-Baxter equation, in contrast to previous results.