Automated implementation of on-shell methods for one-loop amplitudes

Abstract

We present the first results from BlackHat, an automated C++ program for calculating one-loop amplitudes. The program implements the unitarity method and on-shell recursion to construct amplitudes. As input to the calculation, it uses compact analytic formul\ae{} for tree amplitudes for four-dimensional helicity states. The program performs all related computations numerically. We make use of recently developed on-shell methods for evaluating coefficients of loop integrals, introducing a discrete Fourier projection as a means of improving efficiency and numerical stability. We illustrate the numerical stability of our approach by computing and analyzing six-, seven-, and eight-gluon amplitudes in QCD and comparing against previously obtained analytic results.