Causality, unitarity thresholds, anomalous thresholds and infrared singularities from the loop-tree duality at higher orders

Abstract

Abstract We present the first comprehensive analysis of the unitarity thresholds and anomalous thresholds of scattering amplitudes at two loops and beyond based on the loop- tree duality, and show how non-causal unphysical thresholds are locally cancelled in an efficient way when the forest of all the dual on-shell cuts is considered as one. We also prove that soft and collinear singularities at two loops and beyond are restricted to a compact region of the loop three-momenta, which is a necessary condition for implementing a local cancellation of loop infrared singularities with the ones appearing in real emission; without relying on a subtraction formalism.