amplituhedron

amplituhedron

English

Etymology

From amplitude +‎ -hedron. Coined by Nima Arkani-Hamed and Jaroslav Trnka in 2013 and published in 2014 in an article in the Journal of High Energy Physics.

Noun

amplituhedron (plural amplituhedra or amplituhedrons)

1. (quantum field theories) A mathematical structure which encodes the integrand of an amplitude in planar N=4 super Yang-Mills theory, used in calculations of scattering amplitudes of particle interactions.
   • 2015, Yvon Gauthier, Towards an Arithmetical Logic, page 173,

     In another parallel universe the amplituhedron, a recent invention in quantum field theory, is a geometric form endowed with a positive Grassmannian, that is an internal arithmetical structure for the calculation of amplitudes in terms of k-planes filling up an n-dimensional space.

   • 2017, Richard L. Amoroso, Universal Quantum Computing, page 486,

     The amplituhedron is not built out of spacetime and probabilities; these properties merely arise as consequences of the jewel's geometry.

   • 2017 July 29, Anil Ananthaswamy, The new shape of reality, New Scientist, Issue 3136, page 31,

     Scattering amplitudes that obey the laws of locality and unitarity do emerge from amplituhedra. But unlike in Feynman diagrams, the amplituhedron does not start with space-time that has these properties.