Gravitational effective field theory islands, low-spin dominance, and the four-graviton amplitude

Bern, Zvi; Kosmopoulos, Dimitrios; Zhiboedov, Alexander

doi:10.1088/1751-8121/ac0e51

Title: Gravitational effective field theory islands, low-spin dominance, and the four-graviton amplitude

Journal Article · Thu Aug 05 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Journal of Physics. A, Mathematical and Theoretical

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/ac0e51· OSTI ID:1835491

Bern, Zvi; Kosmopoulos, Dimitrios;

We analyze constraints from perturbative unitarity and crossing on the leading contributions of higher-dimension operators to the four-graviton amplitude in four spacetime dimensions, including constraints that follow from distinct helicity configurations. We focus on the leading-order effect due to exchange by massive degrees of freedom which makes the amplitudes of interest infrared finite. In particular, we place a bound on the coefficient of the R³ operator that corrects the graviton three-point amplitude in terms of the R⁴ coefficient. To test the constraints we obtain nontrivial effective field-theory data by computing and taking the large-mass expansion of the one-loop minimally-coupled four-graviton amplitude with massive particles up to spin 2 circulating in the loop. Remarkably, we observe that the leading EFT coefficients obtained from both string and one-loop field-theory amplitudes lie in small islands. The shape and location of the islands can be derived from the dispersive representation for the Wilson coefficients using crossing and assuming that the lowest-spin spectral densities are the largest. Our analysis suggests that the Wilson coefficients of weakly-coupled gravitational physical theories are much more constrained than indicated by bounds arising from dispersive considerations of 2 → 2 scattering. The one-loop four-graviton amplitudes used to obtain the EFT data are computed using modern amplitude methods, including generalized unitarity, supersymmetric decompositions and the double copy.

View Journal Article

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC) High Energy Physics (HEP)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0009937

OSTI ID:: 1835491

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1836503; OSTI ID: 1905681

Journal Information:: Journal of Physics. A, Mathematical and Theoretical, Journal Name: Journal of Physics. A, Mathematical and Theoretical Vol. 54 Journal Issue: 34; ISSN 1751-8113

Publisher:: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United Kingdom

Language:: English

References (46)

Causality, analyticity and an IR obstruction to UV completion Adams, Allan; Arkani-Hamed, Nima; Dubovsky, Sergei Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2006, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2006/10/014	journal	October 2006
On the geometry of the string landscape and the swampland Ooguri, Hirosi; Vafa, Cumrun Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 766, Issue 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2006.10.033	journal	March 2007
The Swampland: Introduction and Review Palti, Eran Fortschritte der Physik, Vol. 67, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/prop.201900037	journal	April 2019
Loop amplitudes in an extended gravity theory Dunbar, David C.; Godwin, John H.; Jehu, Guy R. Physics Letters B, Vol. 780 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2018.02.046	journal	May 2018
Large loop integrals van Neerven, W. L.; Vermaseren, J. A. M. Physics Letters B, Vol. 137, Issue 3-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/0370-2693(84)90237-5	journal	March 1984
Single bremsstrahlung processes in gauge theories Berends, F. A.; Kleiss, R.; De Causmaecker, P. Physics Letters B, Vol. 103, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0370-2693(81)90685-7	journal	July 1981
Massive fields coupled to gravity. Tree-level unitarity versus the equivalence principle Porrati, Massimo Physics Letters B, Vol. 304, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0370-2693(93)91403-a	journal	April 1993
Massive loop amplitudes from unitarity Bern, Z.; Morgan, A. G. Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 467, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/0550-3213(96)00078-8	journal	May 1996
One-loop corrections for e+e− annihilation into μ+μ− in the Weinberg model Passarino, G.; Veltman, M. Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 160, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0550-3213(79)90234-7	journal	November 1979
A relation between tree amplitudes of closed and open strings Kawai, H.; Lewellen, D. C.; Tye, S. -H. H. Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 269, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0550-3213(86)90362-7	journal	May 1986
Analytic properties of npoint loops in perturbation theory Brown, L. M. Il Nuovo Cimento, Vol. 22, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02829004	journal	October 1961
Reduction of a One‐Loop Feynman Diagram with n Vertices in m ‐Dimensional Lorentz Space Petersson, Bengt Journal of Mathematical Physics, Vol. 6, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1704747	journal	December 1965
Consistent non-minimal couplings of massive higher-spin particles Cortese, Ignacio; Rahman, Rakibur; Sivakumar, M. Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 879 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2013.12.005	journal	February 2014
Two-Loop g gg Splitting Amplitudes in QCD Bern, Zvi; Dixon, Lance; Kosower, David Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2004, Issue 08 https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2004/08/012	journal	August 2004
Progress in One-Loop qcd Computations Bern, Zvi; Dixon, Lance; Kosower, David A. Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science, Vol. 46, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.nucl.46.1.109	journal	December 1996
Higher derivative theories for interacting massless gravitons in Minkowski spacetime Bai, Dong; Xing, Yu-Hang Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 932 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2018.05.009	journal	July 2018
A bound on massive higher spin particles Afkhami-Jeddi, Nima; Kundu, Sandipan; Tajdini, Amirhossein Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2019, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep04(2019)056	journal	April 2019
Causal vs. analytic constraints on anomalous quartic gauge couplings Vecchi, L. Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2007, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2007/11/054	journal	November 2007
The Pomeron and gauge/string duality Brower, Richard C.; Polchinski, Joseph; Strassler, Matthew J. Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2007, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2007/12/005	journal	December 2007
Integration by parts: The algorithm to calculate β-functions in 4 loops Chetyrkin, K. G.; Tkachov, F. V. Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 192, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0550-3213(81)90199-1	journal	November 1981
External leg corrections in the unitarity method Britto, Ruth; Mirabella, Edoardo Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2012, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep01(2012)045	journal	January 2012
Normal forms for tensor polynomials. I. The Riemann tensor Fulling, S. A.; King, R. C.; Wybourne, B. G. Classical and Quantum Gravity, Vol. 9, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381/9/5/003	journal	May 1992
Superspace action for the first massive states of the superstring Berkovits, Nathan; Leite, Marcelo M. Physics Letters B, Vol. 454, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0370-2693(99)00334-2	journal	May 1999
Two-Loop Helicity Amplitudes for Gluon-Gluon Scattering in QCD and Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory Bern, Zvi; Freitas, Abilio De; Dixon, Lance Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2002, Issue 03 https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2002/03/018	journal	March 2002
Algebraic reduction of one-loop Feynman diagrams to scalar integrals Stuart, Robin G. Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 48, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-4655(88)90202-0	journal	March 1988
Convex Geometry Perspective on the (Standard Model) Effective Field Theory Space Zhang, Cen; Zhou, Shuang-Yong Physical Review Letters, Vol. 125, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.201601	journal	November 2020
Scalar one-loop integrals 't Hooft, G.; Veltman, M. Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 153 https://doi.org/10.1016/0550-3213(79)90605-9	journal	January 1979
The string landscape, black holes and gravity as the weakest force Arkani-Hamed, Nima; Motl, Luboš; Nicolis, Alberto Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2007, Issue 06 https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2007/06/060	journal	June 2007
First massive state of the superstring in superspace Berkovits, Nathan; Leite, Marcelo M. Physics Letters B, Vol. 415, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0370-2693(97)01269-0	journal	December 1997
On integral relations for invariants constructed from three Riemann tensors and their applications in quantum gravity van Nieuwenhuizen, P.; Wu, C. C. Journal of Mathematical Physics, Vol. 18, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.523128	journal	January 1977
Spinor techniques for calculating Kleiss, R.; Stirling, W. J. Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 262, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0550-3213(85)90285-8	journal	December 1985
Causality in curved spacetimes: The speed of light and gravity de Rham, Claudia; Tolley, Andrew J. Physical Review D, Vol. 102, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.102.084048	journal	October 2020
Multiple bremsstrahlung in gauge theories at high energies (I). General formalism for quantum electrodynamics De Causmaecker, P.; Gastmans, R.; Troost, W. Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 206, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0550-3213(82)90488-6	journal	October 1982
Spontaneous generation of massive multiplets and central charges in extended supersymmetric theories Fayet, P. Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 149, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0550-3213(79)90162-7	journal	March 1979
Classifying and constraining local four photon and four graviton S-matrices Chowdhury, Subham Dutta; Gadde, Abhijit; Gopalka, Tushar Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2020, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep02(2020)114	journal	February 2020
Basics of generalized unitarity Bern, Zvi; Huang, Yu-tin Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, Vol. 44, Issue 45 https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8113/44/45/454003	journal	October 2011
One-loop n-point gauge theory amplitudes, unitarity and collinear limits Bern, Zvi; Dixon, Lance; Dunbar, David C. Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 425, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0550-3213(94)90179-1	journal	August 1994
Improved analytic techniques for tree graph calculations and the subprocess Gunion, J. F.; Kunszt, Z. Physics Letters B, Vol. 161, Issue 4-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/0370-2693(85)90774-9	journal	October 1985
Regularization and renormalization of gauge fields 't Hooft, G.; Veltman, M. Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 44, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0550-3213(72)90279-9	journal	July 1972
Algorithm FIRE—Feynman Integral REduction Smirnov, A. V. Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2008, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2008/10/107	journal	October 2008
Dual conformal symmetry at loop level: massive regularization Henn, Johannes M. Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, Vol. 44, Issue 45 https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8113/44/45/454011	journal	October 2011
Some properties of scattering amplitudes in supersymmetric theories Grisaru, M. T.; Pendleton, H. N. Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 124, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0550-3213(77)90277-2	journal	June 1977
Helicity amplitudes for multiple bremsstrahlung in massless non-abelian gauge theories Xu, Zhan; Zhang, Da-Hua; Chang, Lee Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 291 https://doi.org/10.1016/0550-3213(87)90479-2	journal	January 1987
Supersymmetry relations between contributions to one-loop gauge boson amplitudes Bern, Z.; Morgan, A. G. Physical Review D, Vol. 49, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.49.6155	journal	June 1994
Massive Supergravity and Deconstruction Gregoire, Thomas; Schwartz, Matthew D.; Shadmi, Yael Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2004, Issue 07 https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2004/07/029	journal	July 2004
Dimensionally-regulated pentagon integrals Bern, Zvi; Dixon, Lance; Kosower, David A. Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 412, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/0550-3213(94)90398-0	journal	January 1994

Similar Records

A Celestial route to AdS bulk locality

Journal Article · Fri Aug 18 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online) · OSTI ID:1835491

Bhat, Faizan; Zahed, Ahmadullah

Quantum field theory and the Bieberbach conjecture

Journal Article · Thu Jul 08 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · SciPost Physics · OSTI ID:1835491

Haldar, Parthiv; Sinha, Aninda; Zahed, Ahmadullah

Evanescent Effects can Alter Ultraviolet Divergences in Quantum Gravity without Physical Consequences

Journal Article · Tue Nov 17 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Physical Review Letters · OSTI ID:1835491

Bern, Zvi; Cheung, Clifford; Chi, Huan-Hang; +3 more

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
EFT bounds
scattering amplitudes
gravity

Title: Gravitational effective field theory islands, low-spin dominance, and the four-graviton amplitude

Citation Formats

References (46)

Similar Records

Related Subjects