Séminaire de Physique Théorique

UV graviton scattering amplitudes from IR singularities

par Dr Anna Tokareva (Imperial College)

Europe/Paris
Salle 1180, bâtiment E2 (Salle des séminaires )

Salle 1180, bâtiment E2

Salle des séminaires

Description

Scattering amplitudes mediated by graviton exchange display IR singularities in the forward limit. Such divergences can be canceled only if the UV limit of the scattering amplitude behaves in a specific way, which implies a very nontrivial connection between the UV and IR behaviours of the amplitude. We show that this relation can be expressed in terms of an integral transform, obtaining analytic results when t log s -> 0. Carefully applying this limit to dispersion relations, we find that infinite arc integrals, which are usually taken to vanish, can give a nontrivial contribution in the presence of gravity, unlike in the case of finite negative t. This implies that gravitational positivity bounds cannot be trusted unless the size of this contribution is estimated in some way, which implies assumptions on the UV completion of gravitational interactions. We discuss the relevance of these findings in the particular case of QED coupled to gravity.