The rational parts of one-loop QCD amplitudes I: The general formalism

A general formalism for computing only the rational parts of one-loop QCD amplitudes is developed. Starting from the Feynman integral representation of the one-loop amplitude, we use tensor reduction and recursive relations to compute the rational parts directly. Explicit formulas for the rational parts are given for all bubble and triangle integrals. Formulas are also given for box integrals up to two-mass-hard boxes which are the needed ingredients to compute up to 6-gluon QCD amplitudes. We use this method to compute explicitly the rational parts of the 5- and 6-gluon QCD amplitudes in two accompanying papers.