One-loop double copy from gravity coupled to a massive vector field

Abstract

In this work, we compute the one-loop four-graviton amplitudes with a massive abelian vector field (Proca) circulating in the loop. Instead of the conventional Einstein-Hilbert formulation, we employ the Landau-Lifshitz metric density approach, coupling gravity to the Proca field. Within this framework, we found that the resulting contact-terms-free $n$-gon numerators exhibit a manifest double-copy structure, provided the external gravitational trees satisfy this property. This structure enables the direct construction of the corresponding amplitudes with a scalar in the loop. We further show that these numerators can be consistently used to evaluate pure gravity amplitudes in the sectors where contact terms vanish, offering a simplified setting to explore double-copy relations at one loop level.