Diagrams, Knots and Numbers
I am quite fascinated by the connection between
Feynman diagrams, (positive) knots and Euler/Zagier sums.
The idea is to relate the overall counterterms of Feynman diagrams
to the topology of the diagrams. This can be done
by relating Feynman diagrams to positive knots.
These knots match the transcendentals found in calculating
these overall counterterms, as an empirical fact.
Slowly, an explanation is emerging, as there are relations to
(quasi-)Hopf algebras, finite type invariants and the like,
but a lot still has to be done.
A recent result along this line is that one can find
Zimmermann's celebrated forest formula as an antipode in a
Hopf algebra. A symbolic
algebra package exemplifying this is the renormalization engine
in hep-th/9810087.
For an overview of the older results, see the
bibliographical notes
on papers concerning Knot/Number/Field Theory
by Broadhurst, myself, and coworkers.
For more recent work,look at my publications
here.
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