Towards Color-Kinematics Duality in Generic Spacetimes

Abstract: In this note, we study color-kinematics duality in generic spacetimes. We work with a contact representation for on shell correlators. The position-space integrand is encoded by enumerated differential operators. This setup generalizes certain features of S-matrix kinematics to curved space. Differences between flat and curved space are captured by commutators. We study the nonlinear sigma model at four points as an explicit example and find that color-kinematics duality holds in generic spacetimes. We illustrate our approach in the AdS transition amplitude, a type of on shell correlation function. We find a double copy procedure at four points that connects the nonlinear sigma model, the biadjoint scalar theory, and the special Galileon theory.