The analytic value of a 4-loop sunrise graph in a particular kinematical configuration Original Research Article

The 4-loop sunrise graph with two massless lines, two lines of equal mass M and a line of mass m, for external invariant timelike and equal to m2 is considered. We write differential equations in x=m/M for the Master Integrals of the problem, which we Laurent-expand in the regularizing continuous dimension d around d=4, and then solve exactly in x up to order (d−4)3 included; the result is expressed in terms of harmonic polylogarithms of argument x and maximum weight 7. As a by product, we obtain the x=1 value, expected to be relevant in QED 4-loop static quantities like the electron (g−2). The analytic results were checked by an independent precise numerical calculation.