arXiv subjects

Alfredo Guevara

Publications and source records attributed to Alfredo Guevara.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Scattering in Black Hole Backgrounds and Higher-Spin Amplitudes: Part I

The scattering of massless waves of helicity $|h|=0,\frac{1}{2},1$ in Schwarzschild and Kerr backgrounds is revisited in the long-wavelenght regime. Using a novel description of such backgrounds in terms of gravitating massive particles, we compute classical wave scattering in terms of $2\to 2$ QFT amplitudes in flat space, to all orders in spin. The results are Newman-Penrose amplitudes which are in direct correspondence with solutions of the Regge-Wheeler/Teukolsky equation. By introducing a precise prescription for the point-particle limit, in Part I of this work we show how both agree for $h=0$ at finite values of the scattering angle and arbitrary spin orientation. Associated classical observables such as the scattering cross sections, wave polarizations and time delay are studied at all orders in spin. The effect of the black hole spin on the polarization and helicity of the waves is found in agreement with previous analysis at linear order in spin. In the particular limit of small scattering angle, we argue that wave scattering admits a universal, point-particle description determined by the eikonal approximation. We show how our results recover the scattering eikonal phase with spin up to second post-Minkowskian order, and match it to the effective action of null geodesics in a Kerr background. Using this correspondence we derive classical observables such as polar and equatorial scattering angles. This study serves as a preceding analysis to Part II, where the Gravitational Wave ($h=2$) case will be studied in detail.

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arXiv2023

Self-Dual Black Holes in Celestial Holography

We construct two-dimensional quantum states associated to four-dimensional linearized rotating self-dual black holes in $(2,2)$ signature Klein space. The states are comprised of global conformal primaries circulating on the celestial torus, the Kleinian analog of the celestial sphere. By introducing a generalized tower of Goldstone operators we identify the states as coherent exponentiations carrying an infinite tower of ${\rm w}_{1+\infty}$ charges or soft hair. We relate our results to recent approaches to black hole scattering, including a connection to Wilson lines, $\mathcal{S}$-matrix results, and celestial holography in curved backgrounds.

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arXiv2022

Towards Gravity From a Color Symmetry

Using tools from color-kinematics duality we propose a holographic construction of gravitational amplitudes, based on a 2d Kac-Moody theory on the celestial sphere. In the $N\to \infty$ limit the gauge group corresponds to $w_{1+\infty}$, due to the $U(N)$ generators enjoying a simple quantum group structure, which is in turn inherited from a twistor fiber over the celestial sphere. We show how four-dimensional momentum-space is emergent in this picture, which connects directly to the so-called kinematic algebra of the tree-level S-Matrix. On the other hand, the framework can be embedded within a celestial CFT to make contact with holographic symmetry algebras previously observed in the soft expansion. Kac-Moody currents play the role of a graviton to all orders in such expansion, and also lead to a natural notion of Goldstone modes for $w_{1+\infty}$. Focusing on MHV amplitudes, main examples are a BCFW type recursion relation and holomorphic three-point amplitudes.

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arXiv2022

Notes on Resonances and Unitarity from Celestial Amplitudes

We study the celestial description of the $O(N)$ sigma model in the large $N$ limit as introduced by Coleman, Jackiw and Politzer. Focusing on three dimensions, we analyze the implications of a UV complete, all-loop order 4-point amplitude of pions in terms of correlation functions defined on the celestial circle. We find these retain many key features from the previously studied tree-level case, such as their relation to Generalized Free Field theories and crossing-symmetry, but also incorporate new properties such as IR/UV softness and S-matrix metastable states. In particular, to understand unitarity, we propose a form of the optical theorem that controls the imaginary part of the correlator based solely on the presence of these resonances. We also explicitly analyze the conformal block expansions and factorization of four-point functions into three-point functions. We find that summing over resonances is key for these factorization properties to hold. We end with some topics for future study.

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arXiv2021

Reconstructing Classical Spacetimes from the S-Matrix in Twistor Space

We present a holographic construction of solutions to the gravitational wave equation starting from QFT scattering amplitudes. The construction amounts to a change of basis from momentum to $(2,2)$ twistor space, together with a recently introduced analytic continuation between $(2,2)$ and $(1,3)$ spacetimes. We test the transform for three and four-point amplitudes in a classical limit, recovering both stationary and dynamical solutions in GR as parametrized by their tower of multipole moments, including the Kerr black hole. As a corollary, this provides a link between the Kerr-Schild classical double copy and the QFT double copy.

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arXiv2021

Black Holes in Klein Space

The analytic continuation of the general signature $(1,3)$ Lorentzian Kerr-Taub-NUT black holes to signature $(2,2)$ Kleinian black holes is studied. Their global structure is characterized by a toric Penrose diagram resembling their Lorentzian counterparts. Kleinian black holes are found to be self-dual when their mass and NUT charge are equal for any value of the Kerr rotation parameter $a$. Remarkably, it is shown that the rotation $a$ can be eliminated by a large diffeomorphism; this result also holds in Euclidean signature. The continuation from Lorentzian to Kleinian signature is naturally induced by the analytic continuation of the S-matrix. Indeed, we show that the geometry of linearized black holes, including Kerr-Taub-NUT, is captured by $(2,2)$ three-point scattering amplitudes of a graviton and a massive spinning particle. This stands in sharp contrast to their Lorentzian counterparts for which the latter vanishes kinematically, and enables a direct link to the S-matrix.

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arXiv2021

On the Double Copy for Spinning Matter

We explore various tree-level double copy constructions for amplitudes including massive particles with spin. By working in general dimensions, we use that particles with spins $s\leq 2$ are fundamental to argue that the corresponding double copy relations partially follow from compactification of their massless counterparts. This massless origin fixes the coupling of gluons, dilatons and axions to matter in a characteristic way (for instance fixing the gyromagnetic ratio), whereas the graviton couples universally reflecting the equivalence principle. For spin-1 matter we conjecture all-order Lagrangians reproducing the interactions with up to two massive lines and we test them in a classical setup, where the massive lines represent spinning compact objects such as black holes. We also test the amplitudes via CHY formulae for both bosonic and fermionic integrands. At five points, we show that by applying generalized gauge transformations one can obtain a smooth transition from quantum to classical BCJ double copy relations for radiation, thereby providing a QFT derivation for the latter. As an application, we show how the theory arising in the classical double copy of Goldberger and Ridgway can be naturally identified with a certain compactification of $\mathcal{N}=4$ Supergravity.

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arXiv2021

Celestial OPE blocks

Starting from the defining two-point and three-point functions of Celestial CFTs, Euclidean integral blocks are constructed for the OPE of scalar primaries. In their integral form they can alternatively be fixed using Poincaré symmetry acting on both massless and massive states. Subsequently, an analytic continuation is done to define the Lorentzian version of the correlation functions and the OPE blocks as valued on the $(1,1)$ cylinder, the universal cover of the recently studied celestial torus. The continuation is essentially the same that is used in the derivation of the KLT relations for string amplitudes. It is shown explicitly that the continued OPE blocks encode the contributions from massive primary states as well as their shadow and light-transformed partners of continuous spin. The corresponding pairings are also studied, thus the construction provides the fundamental relation between correlation functions and OPE coefficients in the scalar CCFT.

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arXiv2021

Holographic Symmetry Algebras for Gauge Theory and Gravity

All 4D gauge and gravitational theories in asymptotically flat spacetimes contain an infinite number of non-trivial symmetries. They can be succinctly characterized by generalized 2D currents acting on the celestial sphere. A complete classification of these symmetries and their algebras is an open problem. Here we construct two towers of such 2D currents from positive-helicity photons, gluons, or gravitons with integer conformal weights. These generate the symmetries associated to an infinite tower of conformally soft theorems. The current algebra commutators are explicitly derived from the poles in the OPE coefficients, and found to comprise a rich closed subalgebra of the complete symmetry algebra.

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arXiv2021

A worldsheet for Kerr

We show that the Newman-Janis shift property of the exact Kerr solution can be interpreted in terms of a worldsheet effective action. This holds both in gravity, and for the single-copy $\sqrt{\text{Kerr}}$ solution in electrodynamics. At the level of equations of motion, we show that the Newman-Janis shift holds also for the leading interactions of the Kerr black hole. These leading interactions are conveniently described using chiral classical equations of motion with the help of the spinor-helicity method familiar from scattering amplitudes.

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arXiv2019

Black-hole scattering with general spin directions from minimal-coupling amplitudes

We study the link between classical scattering of spinning black holes and quantum amplitudes for massive spin-$s$ particles. Generic spin orientations of the black holes are considered, allowing their spins to be deflected on par with their momenta. We rederive the spin-exponentiated structure of the relevant tree-level amplitude from minimal coupling to Einstein's gravity, which in the $s\to\infty$ limit generates the black holes' complete series of spin-induced multipoles. The resulting scattering function is seen to encode in a simple way the known net changes in the black-hole momenta and spins at first post-Minkowskian order. We connect our findings to a rigorous framework developed elsewhere for computing such observables from amplitudes.

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arXiv2019

A Soft Theorem for the Tropical Grassmannian

We study the soft limit of a recently proposed generalization of the biadjoint scalar amplitudes $m^{(k)}_{n}$, which have been conjectured to have a relation to the tropical Grassmannian $\text{Tr G}(k,n)$. Using the CHY formulation along with the Global Residue Theorem, we prove the soft factorization for $m^{(k)}_{n}$ amplitudes for arbitrary $k$ and $n$. We find that the soft factors are in direct correspondence to vertices of the associahedron $\mathcal{A}_{k-1}$, and hence take the form of $m^{(2)}_{n}$ amplitudes. This entails that all scattering amplitudes of the ordinary biadjoint scalar theory can be interpreted as an infinite family of soft factors. Additionally, Grassmannian duality reveals that generalized amplitudes $m^{(k)}_{n}$ with $k>2$ satisfy not only a soft theorem, but also a non-trivial "hard" theorem. We perform numerical checks of our theorems against previous results for $\text{Tr G}(4,7)$ and $\text{Tr G}(5,8)$, thereby providing strong evidence of their relation with the CHY formulation.

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arXiv2019

Scattering of Spinning Black Holes from Exponentiated Soft Factors

We provide evidence that the classical scattering of two spinning black holes is controlled by the soft expansion of exchanged gravitons. We show how an exponentiation of Cachazo-Strominger soft factors, acting on massive higher-spin amplitudes, can be used to find spin contributions to the aligned-spin scattering angle, conjecturally extending previously known results to higher orders in spin at one-loop order. The extraction of the classical limit is accomplished via the on-shell leading-singularity method and using massive spinor-helicity variables. The three-point amplitude for arbitrary-spin massive particles minimally coupled to gravity is expressed in an exponential form, and in the infinite-spin limit it matches the effective stress-energy tensor of the linearized Kerr solution. A four-point gravitational Compton amplitude is obtained from an extrapolated soft theorem, equivalent to gluing two exponential three-point amplitudes, and becomes itself an exponential operator. The construction uses these amplitudes to: 1) recover the known tree-level scattering angle at all orders in spin, 2) recover the known one-loop linear-in-spin interaction, 3) match a previous conjectural expression for the one-loop scattering angle at quadratic order in spin, 4) propose new one-loop results through quartic order in spin. These connections link the computation of higher-multipole interactions to the study of deeper orders in the soft expansion.

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arXiv2019

Notes on Conformal Soft Theorems and Recursion Relations in Gravity

Celestial amplitudes are flat-space amplitudes which are Mellin-transformed to correlators living on the celestial sphere. In this note we present a recursion relation, based on a tree-level BCFW recursion, for gravitational celestial amplitudes and use it to explore the notion of conformal softness. As the BCFW formula exponentiates in the soft energy, it leads directly to conformal soft theorems in an exponential form. These appear from a soft piece of the amplitude characterized by a discrete family of singularities with weights $Δ=1-\mathbb{Z}_+$. As a byproduct, in the case of the MHV sector we provide a direct celestial analogue of Hodges' recursion formula at all multiplicities.

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arXiv2019

From Scattering Amplitudes to Classical Physics: Universality, Double Copy and Soft Theorems

We introduce a covariant Multipole Expansion for the scattering of a massive particle emitting photons or gravitons in $D$ dimensions. We find that these amplitudes exhibit very powerful features such as universality, soft exponentiation, orbit and spin multipoles, etc. Using ${\rm{SO}}(D)$ representation theory we show that the photon and graviton amplitudes are related via a new double copy procedure for massive spinning states. All these features are then promoted to properties of the observables arising in the classical version of such theories. Focusing on radiation, we provide two main applications: 1) An exponential Soft Theorem relating conservative effects and gravitational radiation to all orders in $ω$; whose leading order directly leads to the $D=4$ Memory Effect. 2) A classical double copy to evaluate gravitational radiation from QED Bremsstrahlung, matching previous classical computations and extending them to spin-quadrupole order.

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arXiv2019

Scattering Equations: From Projective Spaces to Tropical Grassmannians

We introduce a natural generalization of the scattering equations, which connect the space of Mandelstam invariants to that of points on ${\mathbb{CP}^1}$, to higher-dimensional projective spaces $\mathbb{CP}^{k-1}$. The standard, $k=2$ Mandelstam invariants, $s_{ab}$, are generalized to completely symmetric tensors $\textsf{s}_{a_1a_2\ldots a_k}$ subject to a `massless' condition $\textsf{s}_{a_1a_2\cdots a_{k-2}\,b\,b}=0$ and to `momentum conservation'. The scattering equations are obtained by constructing a potential function and computing its critical points. We mainly concentrate on the $k=3$ case: study solutions and define the generalization of biadjoint scalar amplitudes. We compute all `biadjoint amplitudes' for $(k,n)=(3,6)$ and find a direct connection to the tropical Grassmannian. This leads to the notion of $k=3$ Feynman diagrams. We also find a concrete realization of the new kinematic spaces, which coincides with the spinor-helicity formalism for $k=2$, and provides analytic solutions analogous to the MHV ones.

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arXiv2018

$Δ$-Algebra and Scattering Amplitudes

In this paper we study an algebra that naturally combines two familiar operations in scattering amplitudes: computations of volumes of polytopes using triangulations and constructions of canonical forms from products of smaller ones. We mainly concentrate on the case of $G(2,n)$ as it controls both general MHV leading singularities and CHY integrands for a variety of theories. This commutative algebra has also appeared in the study of configuration spaces and we called it the $Δ$-algebra. As a natural application, we generalize the well-known square move. This allows us to generate infinite families of new moves between non-planar on-shell diagrams. We call them sphere moves. Using the $Δ$-algebra we derive familiar results, such as the KK and BCJ relations, and prove novel formulas for higher-order relations. Finally, we comment on generalizations to $G(k,n)$.

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arXiv2018

The S Matrix of 6D Super Yang-Mills and Maximal Supergravity from Rational Maps

We present new formulas for $n$-particle tree-level scattering amplitudes of six-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(1,1)$ super Yang-Mills (SYM) and $\mathcal{N}=(2,2)$ supergravity (SUGRA). They are written as integrals over the moduli space of certain rational maps localized on the $(n-3)!$ solutions of the scattering equations. Due to the properties of spinor-helicity variables in six dimensions, the even-$n$ and odd-$n$ formulas are quite different and have to be treated separately. We first propose a manifestly supersymmetric expression for the even-$n$ amplitudes of $\mathcal{N}=(1,1)$ SYM theory and perform various consistency checks. By considering soft-gluon limits of the even-$n$ amplitudes, we deduce the form of the rational maps and the integrand for $n$ odd. The odd-$n$ formulas obtained in this way have a new redundancy that is intertwined with the usual $\text{SL}(2, \mathbb{C})$ invariance on the Riemann sphere. We also propose an alternative form of the formulas, analogous to the Witten-RSV formulation, and explore its relationship with the symplectic (or Lagrangian) Grassmannian. Since the amplitudes are formulated in a way that manifests double-copy properties, formulas for the six-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(2,2)$ SUGRA amplitudes follow. These six-dimensional results allow us to deduce new formulas for five-dimensional SYM and SUGRA amplitudes, as well as massive amplitudes of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM on the Coulomb branch.

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