Gauge invariant double copy of Yang-Mills theory

We give an explicit gauge invariant, off-shell, and local double copy construction of gravity from Yang-Mills theory to quartic order. To this end we use the framework of homotopy algebras, and we identify a rich new algebraic structure associated with color-stripped Yang-Mills theory. This algebra, which is a generalization of a Batalin-Vilkovisky algebra, is the underlying structure necessary for double copy. We give a self-contained introduction into these algebras by illustrating them for Chern-Simons theory in three dimensions. We then construct 𝑁=0 supergravity in the form of double field theory in terms of the algebraic Yang-Mills building blocks to quartic order in interactions. As applications of the same universal formula, we rederive the four-graviton scattering amplitude and compute a chiral form of the Courant algebroid gauge structure of double field theory.