Heterotic-string amplitudes at one loop: modular graph forms and relations to open strings

Abstract

Abstract We investigate one-loop four-point scattering of non-abelian gauge bosons in heterotic string theory and identify new connections with the corresponding open-string amplitude. In the low-energy expansion of the heterotic-string amplitude, the integrals over torus punctures are systematically evaluated in terms of modular graph forms, certain non-holomorphic modular forms. For a specific torus integral, the modular graph forms in the low-energy expansion are related to the elliptic multiple zeta values from the analogous open-string integrations over cylinder boundaries. The detailed correspondence between these modular graph forms and elliptic multiple zeta values supports a recent proposal for an elliptic generalization of the single-valued map at genus zero.