Color-flow decomposition of QCD amplitudes

We introduce a new color decomposition for multiparton amplitudes in QCD, free of fundamental-representation matrices and structure constants. This decomposition has a physical interpretation in terms of the flow of color, which makes it ideal for merging with shower Monte Carlo programs. The color-flow decomposition allows for very efficient evaluation of amplitudes with many quarks and gluons, many times faster than the standard color decomposition based on fundamental-representation matrices. This will increase the speed of event generators for multijet processes, which are the principal backgrounds to signals of new physics at colliders.