Gauge theory high-energy behavior from J-plane unitarity

In a non-abelian gauge theory the t-channel multiparticle unitarity equations continued in the complex j-plane can be systematically expanded around j = 1. The combination of Ward identity constraints with unitarity is sufficient to produce directly many results obtained by Regge limit leading-log and next-to-leading log momentum space calculations. The O(g{sup 2}) BFKL kernel is completely determined. O(g{sup 4}) contributions to the kernel are also determined, including the leading contribution of a new partial-wave amplitude--previously identified as a separate forward component with a holomorphically factorizable spectrum. For this amplitude the only scale ambiguity is the overall normalization and it is anticipated to be a new conformally invariant kernel. The results suggest that all conformally invariant reggeon interactions are determined by t-channel unitarity