Dual superconformal symmetry of scattering amplitudes in N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory

We argue that all scattering amplitudes in the maximally supersymmetric N = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory possess a new, dual superconformal symmetry which extends the previously discovered dual conformal symmetry of MHV amplitudes. To reveal this property we formulate the scattering amplitudes as functions on the appropriate dual superspace. Rewritten in this form, all tree-level MHV and next-to-MHV amplitudes exhibit manifest dual superconformal symmetry. We propose a new, compact and Lorentz covariant formula for the tree-level NMHV amplitudes for arbitrary numbers and types of external particles. The dual superconformal symmetry is broken at loop level by infrared divergences. However, we provide evidence that the dual conformal anomaly of the MHV and NMHV superamplitudes is the same and, therefore, their ratio is dual conformally invariant. We show this explicitly for the six-particle amplitudes at one loop. We conjecture that these properties hold for all, MHV and non-MHV, superamplitudes in N = 4 SYM both at weak and at strong coupling. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.