Gluon scattering on self-dual radiative gauge fields

Abstract: We present all-multiplicity formulae, derived from first principles in the MHV sector and motivated by twistor string theory for general helicities, for the tree-level S-matrix of gluon scattering on self-dual radiative backgrounds. These backgrounds are chiral, asymptotically flat gauge fields characterised by their free radiative data, and their underlying integrability is captured by twistor theory. Tree-level gluon scattering scattering amplitudes are expressed as integrals over the moduli space of holomorphic maps from the Riemann sphere to twistor space, with the degree of the map related to the helicity configuration of the external gluons. In the MHV sector, our formula is derived from the Yang-Mills action; for general helicities the formulae are obtained using a background-coupled twistor string theory and pass several consistency tests. Unlike amplitudes on a trivial vacuum, there are residual integrals due to the functional freedom in the self-dual background, but for scattering of momentum eigenstates we are able to do many of these explicitly and even more is possible in the special case of plane wave backgrounds. In general, the number of these integrals is always less than expected from standard perturbation theory, but matches the number associated with space-time MHV rules in a self-dual background field, which we develop for self-dual plane waves.