An Etude on Recursion Relations and Triangulations

Abstract: Following~\cite{Arkani-Hamed:2017thz}, we derive a recursion relation by applying a one-parameter deformation of kinematic variables for tree-level scattering amplitudes in bi-adjoint $\phi^3$ theory. The recursion relies on properties of the amplitude that can be made manifest in the underlying kinematic associahedron, and it provides triangulations for the latter. Furthermore, we solve the recursion relation and present all-multiplicity results for the amplitude: by reformulating the associahedron in terms of its vertices, it is given explicitly as a sum of "volume" of simplicies for any triangulation, which is an analogy of BCFW representation/triangulation of amplituhedron for ${\cal N}=4$ SYM.