A Lie Bracket for the Momentum Kernel

We prove results for the study of the double copy and tree-level colour/kinematics duality for tree-level scattering amplitudes using the properties of Lie polynomials. We show that the ‘S-map’ that was defined to simplify super-Yang–Mills multiparticle superfields is in fact a Lie bracket. A generalized KLT map from Lie polynomials to their dual is obtained by studying our new Lie bracket; the matrix elements of this map yield a recently proposed ‘generalized KLT matrix’, and this reduces to the usual KLT matrix when its entries are restricted to a basis. Using this, we give an algebraic proof for the cancellation of double poles in the KLT formula for gravity amplitudes. We further study Berends–Giele recursion for biadjoint scalar tree amplitudes that take values in Lie polynomials. Field theory amplitudes are obtained from these ‘Lie polynomial amplitudes’ using numerators characterized as homomorphisms from the free Lie algebra to kinematic data. Examples are presented for the biadjoint scalar, Yang–Mills theory and the nonlinear sigma model. That these theories satisfy the Bern–Carrasco–Johansson amplitude relations follows from the structural properties of Lie polynomial amplitudes that we prove.