BMS symmetry, soft particles and memory

Chatterjee, Atreya; Lowe, David A.

doi:10.1088/1361-6382/aab5cc

BMS symmetry, soft particles and memory

Journal Article · Wed Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Classical and Quantum Gravity

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/aab5cc· OSTI ID:2340804

Chatterjee, Atreya ^[1]; ^[2]

Brown Univ., Providence, RI (United States); Brown University
Brown Univ., Providence, RI (United States)

Here, in this work, we revisit unitary irreducible representations of the Bondi–Metzner–Sachs (BMS) group discovered by McCarthy. Representations are labelled by an infinite number of supermomenta in addition to 4-momentum. Tensor products of these irreducible representations lead to particle-like states dressed by soft gravitational modes. Conservation of 4-momentum and supermomentum in the scattering of such states leads to a memory effect encoded in the outgoing soft modes. We note there exist irreducible representations corresponding to soft states with strictly vanishing 4-momentum, which may nevertheless be produced by scattering of particle-like states. This fact has interesting implications for the S-matrix in gravitational theories.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Brown Univ., Providence, RI (United States)

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

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0010010

OSTI ID:: 2340804

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1540377
OSTI ID: 22982944

Journal Information:: Classical and Quantum Gravity, Journal Name: Classical and Quantum Gravity Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 35; ISSN 0264-9381

Publisher:: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (35)

On Unitary Representations of the Inhomogeneous Lorentz Group Wigner, E. The Annals of Mathematics, Vol. 40, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.2307/1968551	journal	January 1939
BMS/GCA Redux: Towards Flatspace Holography from Non-Relativistic Symmetries Bagchi, Arjun; Fareghbal, Reza arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1203.5795	text	January 2012
Gravitational memory, BMS supertranslations and soft theorems Strominger, Andrew; Zhiboedov, Alexander Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2016, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2016)086	journal	January 2016
Notes on the BMS group in three dimensions: II. Coadjoint representation Barnich, Glenn; Oblak, Blagoje Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2015, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2015)033	journal	March 2015
One loop partition function of three-dimensional flat gravity Barnich, G.; González, H. A.; Maloney, A. Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2015, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2015)178	journal	April 2015
Aspects of the BMS/CFT correspondence Barnich, Glenn; Troessaert, Cédric Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2010, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2010)062	journal	May 2010
BMS supertranslations and Weinberg’s soft graviton theorem He, Temple; Lysov, Vyacheslav; Mitra, Prahar Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2015, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2015)151	journal	May 2015
Notes on the BMS group in three dimensions: I. Induced representations Barnich, Glenn; Oblak, Blagoje Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2014, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2014)129	journal	June 2014
GCA in 2d Bagchi, Arjun; Gopakumar, Rajesh; Mandal, Ipsita Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2010, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2010)004	journal	August 2010
Asymptotic symmetries and electromagnetic memory Pasterski, Sabrina Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2017, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2017)154	journal	September 2017
BMS/GCA redux: towards flatspace holography from non-relativistic symmetries Bagchi, Arjun; Fareghbal, Reza Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2012, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP10(2012)092	journal	October 2012
New symmetries of massless QED He, Temple; Mitra, Prahar; Porfyriadis, Achilleas P. Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2014, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP10(2014)112	journal	October 2014
BMS charge algebra Barnich, Glenn; Troessaert, Cédric Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2011, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2011)105	journal	December 2011
Flat holography: aspects of the dual field theory Bagchi, Arjun; Basu, Rudranil; Kakkar, Ashish Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2016, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2016)147	journal	December 2016
Elementary particles, holography and the BMS group Dappiaggi, Claudio Physics Letters B, Vol. 615, Issue 3-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2005.04.028	journal	June 2005
Structure of the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs Group McCarthy, Patrick J. Journal of Mathematical Physics, Vol. 13, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1665917	journal	November 1972
A canonical realization of the BMS algebra Longhi, G.; Materassi, M. Journal of Mathematical Physics, Vol. 40, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.532782	journal	January 1999
Classical central extension for asymptotic symmetries at null infinity in three spacetime dimensions Barnich, Glenn; Compère, Geoffrey Classical and Quantum Gravity, Vol. 24, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381/24/5/F01	journal	February 2007
Conformal Carroll groups Duval, C.; Gibbons, G. W.; Horvathy, P. A. Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, Vol. 47, Issue 33 https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8113/47/33/335204	journal	August 2014
Gravitational waves in general relativity, VII. Waves from axi-symmetric isolated system Bondi, Hermann; Van der Burg, M. G. J.; Metzner, A. W. K. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Vol. 269, Issue 1336, p. 21-52 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1962.0161	journal	August 1962
Gravitational waves in general relativity VIII. Waves in asymptotically flat space-time Sachs, R. K. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Vol. 270, Issue 1340, p. 103-126 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1962.0206	journal	October 1962
Representations of the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs Group. I. Determination of the Representations McCarthy, P. J. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 330, Issue 1583 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1972.0157	journal	November 1972
Representations of the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs Group. II. Properties and Classification of the Representations McCarthy, P. J. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 333, Issue 1594 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1973.0065	journal	May 1973
Representations of the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs Group. III. Poincare Spin Multiplicities and Irreducibility McCarthy, P. J.; Crampin, M. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 335, Issue 1602 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1973.0127	journal	November 1973
Probing excitations in insulators via injection of spin currents Chatterjee, Shubhayu; Sachdev, Subir Physical Review B, Vol. 92, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.165113	journal	October 2015
Asymptotic symmetries and subleading soft graviton theorem Campiglia, Miguel; Laddha, Alok Physical Review D, Vol. 90, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.90.124028	journal	December 2014
Canonical realization of Bondi-Metzner-Sachs symmetry: Quadratic Casimir Gomis, Joaquim; Longhi, Giorgio Physical Review D, Vol. 93, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.93.025030	journal	January 2016
Burg-Metzner-Sachs symmetry, string theory, and soft theorems Avery, Steven G.; Schwab, Burkhard U. W. Physical Review D, Vol. 93, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.93.026003	journal	January 2016
Observable supertranslations Bousso, Raphael; Porrati, Massimo Physical Review D, Vol. 96, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.96.086016	journal	October 2017
Asymptotic charges cannot be measured in finite time Bousso, Raphael; Chandrasekaran, Venkatesa; Halpern, Illan F. Physical Review D, Vol. 97, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.046014	journal	February 2018
Symmetries of Asymptotically Flat Four-Dimensional Spacetimes at Null Infinity Revisited Barnich, Glenn; Troessaert, Cédric Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.111103	journal	September 2010
Correspondence between Asymptotically Flat Spacetimes and Nonrelativistic Conformal Field Theories Bagchi, Arjun Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.171601	journal	October 2010
Soft Hair on Black Holes Hawking, Stephen W.; Perry, Malcolm J.; Strominger, Andrew Physical Review Letters, Vol. 116, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.231301	journal	June 2016
Continuous Spins in the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs Group of Asymptotic Symmetry in General Relativity Girardello, L.; Parravicini, G. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 32, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.32.565	journal	March 1974
BMS modules in three dimensions Campoleoni, A.; Gonzalez, H. A.; Oblak, B. International Journal of Modern Physics A, Vol. 31, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1142/S0217751X16500688	journal	April 2016

Similar Records

Gravitational memory and Ward identities in the local detector frame

Journal Article · Sun Jul 13 20:00:00 EDT 2025 · Physical Review. D. · OSTI ID:3011545

Conformal supergravity, twistors, and the super-BMS group

Journal Article · Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1986 · Ann. Phys. (N.Y.); (United States) · OSTI ID:5210084

Gravitational memory and soft theorems: The local perspective

Journal Article · Sun Jul 13 20:00:00 EDT 2025 · Physical Review. D. · OSTI ID:3011547

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BMS symmetry
asymptotic symmetry group
flat space holography

BMS symmetry, soft particles and memory

Citation Formats

References (35)

Similar Records

Related Subjects