We propose new formulae for the two-loop n-point D-dimensional integrands of scattering amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory and gravity. The loop integrands are written as a double-forward limit of tree-level trivalent diagrams, and are inferred from the formalism of the two-loop scattering equations. We discuss the relationship between the formulae for non-supersymmetric theories and the Neveu-Schwarz sector of the formulae for maximally supersymmetric theories, which can be derived from ambitwistor strings. An important property of the loop integrands is that they are expressed in a representation that includes linear-type propagators. This representation exhibits a loop-level version of the colour-kinematics duality, which follows directly from tree level via the double-forward limit. arXiv:1908.05221v1 [hep-th] Contents 6 Conclusion 32 A Two-loop partition functions and propagators on the Riemann sphere 33 A.1 Two-loop partition functions 33 A.2 Two-loop propagators 341 IntroductionWorldsheet techniques inspired by string theory offer an alternative to the Feynman diagram approach for calculating scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory, in particular for theories of massless particles. This broad programme has seen remarkable advances in recent years. Our aims are to extend the lessons learned at tree level and one loop to two-loop amplitudes, and to interpret previous two-loop results for maximally supersymmetric theories in a more general context, allowing for reduced or no supersymmetry. Even though we will motivate our proposal for two-loop amplitudes from the insights of this 'stringy' approach, the proposal itself will not be written in a worldsheet language. It will instead be written in a (non-Feynman) diagrammatic language, whereby the two-loop integrands are suitably defined double-forward limits of tree-level amplitudes. The worldsheet techniques that inspire our work originated in Witten's twistor string [1] describing four-dimensional super-Yang-Mills theory, and in the corresponding 'connected prescription' to compute scattering amplitudes [2]. In this approach, tree-level scattering amplitudes for n massless particles are computed as integrals over the moduli space of punctured Riemann spheres, M 0,n . The -1 -modern version of these advances, applicable to theories of massless particles in any number of dimensions, was developed by Cachazo, He and Yuan (CHY) [3][4][5], who discovered the general type of formulae, and by Mason and Skinner [6], who constructed the associated type of worldsheet model; the ambitwistor string. For a variety of interesting theories in this framework, see e.g. [7,8]. The ambitwistor string models reproducing Yang-Mills and gravity amplitudes are supersymmetric, but the extraction of amplitudes in non-supersymmetric theories is possible even at loop level, as we shall discuss. For a comparison of the bosonic and supersymmetric ambitwistor strings, see [9,10]. For recent work on moduli-space formulae tuned to a specific number of spacetime dimensions using the spinor...