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arXiv · 2204.02505

Celestial Geometry

Sebastian Mizera·Sabrina Pasterski
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Abstract

Celestial holography expresses $\mathcal{S}$-matrix elements as correlators in a CFT living on the night sky. Poincar\'e invariance imposes additional selection rules on the allowed positions of operators. As a consequence, $n$-point correlators are only supported on certain patches of the celestial sphere, depending on the labeling of each operator as incoming/outgoing. Here we initiate a study of the celestial geometry, examining the kinematic support of celestial amplitudes for different crossing channels. We give simple geometric rules for determining this support. For $n\ge 5$, we can view these channels as tiling together to form a covering of the celestial sphere. Our analysis serves as a stepping off point to better understand the analyticity of celestial correlators and illuminate the connection between the 4D kinematic and 2D CFT notions of crossing symmetry.

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Sebastian Mizera, Sabrina Pasterski. 2022-04-05. Celestial Geometry. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep09(2022)045

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