Surface Gauge Invariance, Soft Limits and the Transmutation of Gluons into Scalars

Abstract: Over the past year, the "scalar-scaffolding" formalism has revealed a number of new features of gluon amplitudes. In this paper, we leverage these developments to study two distinct but related questions, linked by the scaffolding statement of gauge invariance. We start by revisiting the soft expansion of gluon amplitudes. The scaffolding picture allows for a precise definition of the soft limit and a canonical way to expand the amplitude. At tree-level, this reproduces the classic Weinberg soft theorem, and at one-loop, using surface kinematics, we derive an extension of this theorem valid at the level of the loop integrand. We then switch gears and describe a new relationship between gluon and scalar amplitudes. The expression of surface gauge invariance naturally suggests a certain differential operator acting on individual external gluons. Remarkably, we find that, both for the tree-level amplitude and the surface one-loop integrand, repeated applications of this operator transmutes gluon amplitudes/integrands into those of Tr$(\phi^3)$ scalars. This is an interesting counterpart to the $\delta$-shift connection that lifts "stringy" Tr$(\phi^3)$ amplitudes to those of gluons.