CHY formula and MHV amplitudes

In this paper, we study the relation between the Cachazo-He-Yuan (CHY) formula and the maximal-helicity-violating (MHV) amplitudes of Yang-Mills and gravity in four dimensions. We prove that only one special rational solution of the scattering equations found by Weinzierl supports the MHV amplitudes. Namely, localized at this solution, the integrated CHY formula produces the Parke-Taylor formula for MHV Yang-Mills amplitudes as well as the Hodges formula for MHV gravitational amplitudes, with an arbitrary number of external gluons/gravitons. This is achieved by developing techniques, in a manifestly Möbius covariant formalism, to explicitly compute relevant reduced Pfaffians/determinants. We observe and prove two interesting properties (or identities), which facilitate the computations. We also check that all the other (n − 3)! − 1 solutions to the scattering equations do not support the MHV amplitudes, and prove analytically that this is indeed true for the other special rational solution proposed by Weinzierl, that actually supports the anti-MHV amplitudes. Our results reveal a mysterious feature of the CHY formalism that in Yang-Mills and gravity theory, solutions of scattering equations, involving only external momenta, somehow know about the configuration of external polarizations of the scattering amplitudes.