On-shell representation and further instances of the 2-split behavior of amplitudes

Abstract: The newly discovered splitting behavior of tree-level scattering amplitudes of particles and strings has been expressed in terms of currents containing one off-shell leg. In this work, we explain how to obtain on-shell representations of the split amplitudes in different theories, thereby avoiding any ambiguity involved in the definition of the currents. Furthermore, we show that this 2-split behavior is also verified in gauge and gravity theories involving higher-dimensional operators, thereby providing additional evidence to its universal character. As a byproduct, we also generalize the transmuting operators to amplitudes in higher-derivative theories.