arXiv subjects

James Bonifacio

Publications and source records attributed to James Bonifacio.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Moduli Bounds from Spin-2 Sum Rules

Mirbabayi and Villadoro have provided strong numerical evidence for a universal upper bound on the mass of the lightest scalar field in gravitational Kaluza--Klein (KK) theories. This bound states that the lightest KK graviton, with mass $m_{1}$, must couple to at least one scalar with mass $m_{\rm sc}$ such that $(m_{\rm sc} /m_{1})^2 \leq 4/3$. We give a proof of this bound using the approach of the conformal bootstrap applied to sum rules for massive spin-2 scattering amplitudes. We additionally show that each heavier KK graviton, with mass $m_n$, must couple to at least one scalar with mass $m_{\rm sc}$ such that $(m_{\rm sc} /m_{n})^2 < 36/25$.

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arXiv2026

Bootstrapping Euclidean Lattices

We derive spectral identities involving the Laplace spectrum and the integrals of products of eigenfunctions on flat tori and orbifolds. Using semidefinite programming, we derive upper bounds on sums of squares of triple products from these spectral identities, following the approach of the conformal bootstrap. Physically, these upper bounds give constraints on sums of squares of cubic coupling constants in toroidal compactifications of higher-dimensional field theories. For Euclidean lattices, one of the bootstrap bounds leads to an upper bound on the mean square number of minimal vectors that are minimal distance from each minimal vector, divided by the kissing number of the lattice. By finding exact functionals for the semidefinite programming problems, we prove that this bound is saturated in 2, 4, 8, and 24 dimensions by the hexagonal lattice, the $D_4$ lattice, the $E_8$ lattice, and the Leech lattice, respectively.

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arXiv2025

Weyl bound for trilinear periods via conformal bootstrap

Let $f_1,f_2$ be holomorphic modular forms of the same weight for a cocompact lattice $\Gamma < \mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbf{R})$. We estimate the rate of decay of the coefficients in the expansion of $f_1\overline{f_2}$ in a Laplace eigenbasis. By specializing our main theorem to the case where $\Gamma$ is arithmetic, we obtain new instances of the Weyl bound for triple product $L$-functions in the spectral aspect. Our method builds on the conformal bootstrap in physics.

math.NT↗

arXiv2023

Fermionic Shift Symmetries in (Anti) de Sitter Space

We study extended shift symmetries that arise for fermionic fields on anti-de Sitter (AdS) space and de Sitter (dS) space for particular values of the mass relative to the curvature scale. We classify these symmetries for general mixed-symmetry fermionic fields in arbitrary dimension and describe how fields with these symmetries arise as the decoupled longitudinal modes of massive fermions as they approach partially massless points. For the particular case of AdS$_4$, we look for non-trivial Lie superalgebras that can underly interacting theories that involve these fields. We study from this perspective the minimal such theory, the Akulov--Volkov theory on AdS$_4$, which is a non-linear theory of a spin-$1/2$ Goldstino field that describes the spontaneous breaking of ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetry on AdS$_4$ down to the isometries of AdS$_4$. We show how to write the nonlinear supersymmetry transformation for this theory using the fermionic ambient space formalism. We also study the Lie superalgebras of candidate multi-field examples and rule out the existence of a supersymmetric special galileon on AdS$_4$.

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arXiv2023

Spectral Bounds on Hyperbolic 3-Manifolds: Associativity and the Trace Formula

We constrain the low-energy spectra of Laplace operators on closed hyperbolic manifolds and orbifolds in three dimensions, including the standard Laplace-Beltrami operator on functions and the Laplacian on powers of the cotangent bundle. Our approach employs linear programming techniques to derive rigorous bounds by leveraging two types of spectral identities. The first type, inspired by the conformal bootstrap, arises from the consistency of the spectral decomposition of the product of Laplace eigensections, and involves the Laplacian spectra as well as integrals of triple products of eigensections. We formulate these conditions in the language of representation theory of $\mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb{C})$ and use them to prove upper bounds on the first and second Laplacian eigenvalues. The second type of spectral identities follows from the Selberg trace formula. We use them to find upper bounds on the spectral gap of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on hyperbolic 3-orbifolds, as well as on the systole length of hyperbolic 3-manifolds, as a function of the volume. Further, we prove that the spectral gap $λ_1$ of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on all closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds satisfies $λ_1 < 47.32$. Along the way, we use the trace formula to estimate the low-energy spectra of a large set of example orbifolds and compare them with our general bounds, finding that the bounds are nearly sharp in several cases.

math.SP↗

arXiv2022

The graviton four-point function in de Sitter space

We compute the tree-level late-time graviton four-point correlation function, and the related quartic wavefunction coefficient, for Einstein gravity in de Sitter spacetime. We derive this result in several ways: by direct calculation, using the in-in formalism and the wavefunction of the universe; by a heuristic derivation leveraging the flat space wavefunction coefficient; and by using the boostless cosmological bootstrap, in particular the combination of the cosmological optical theorem, the amplitude limit, and the manifestly local test. We find agreement among the different methods.

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arXiv2021

Exceptional scalar theories in de Sitter space

The special galileon and Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) theories are effective field theories of a single scalar field that have many interesting properties in flat space. These theories can be extended to all maximally symmetric spaces, where their algebras of shift symmetries are simple. We study aspects of the curved space versions of these theories: for the special galileon, we find a new compact expression for its Lagrangian in de Sitter space and a field redefinition that relates it to the previous, more complicated formulation. This field redefinition reduces to the well-studied galileon duality redefinition in the flat space limit. For the DBI theory in de Sitter space, we discuss the brane and dilaton formulations of the theory and present strong evidence that these are related by a field redefinition. We also give an interpretation of the symmetries of these theories in terms of broken diffeomorphisms of de Sitter space.

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arXiv2021

Bootstrapping Closed Hyperbolic Surfaces

The eigenvalues of the Laplace-Beltrami operator and the integrals of products of eigenfunctions and holomorphic $s$-differentials satisfy certain consistency conditions on closed hyperbolic surfaces. These consistency conditions can be derived by using spectral decompositions to write quadruple overlap integrals in terms of triple overlap integrals in different ways. We show how to efficiently construct these consistency conditions and use them to derive upper bounds on eigenvalues, following the approach of the conformal bootstrap. As an example of such a bootstrap bound, we find a numerical upper bound on the spectral gap of closed orientable hyperbolic surfaces that is nearly saturated by the Bolza surface.

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arXiv2021

Bootstrap Bounds on Closed Hyperbolic Manifolds

The eigenvalues of the Laplace-Beltrami operator and the integrals of products of eigenfunctions must satisfy certain consistency conditions on compact Riemannian manifolds. These consistency conditions are derived by using spectral decompositions to write quadruple overlap integrals in terms of products of triple overlap integrals in multiple ways. In this paper, we show how these consistency conditions imply bounds on the Laplacian eigenvalues and triple overlap integrals of closed hyperbolic manifolds, in analogy to the conformal bootstrap bounds on conformal field theories. We find an upper bound on the gap between two consecutive nonzero eigenvalues of the Laplace-Beltrami operator in terms of the smaller eigenvalue, an upper bound on the smallest eigenvalue of the rough Laplacian on symmetric, transverse-traceless, rank-2 tensors, and bounds on integrals of products of eigenfunctions and eigentensors. Our strongest bounds involve numerically solving semidefinite programs and are presented as exclusion plots. We also prove the analytic bound $λ_{i+1} \leq 1/2+3 λ_i+\sqrt{λ_i^2+2 λ_i+1/4}$ for consecutive nonzero eigenvalues of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on closed orientable hyperbolic surfaces. We give examples of genus-2 surfaces that nearly saturate some of these bounds. To derive the consistency conditions, we make use of a transverse-traceless decomposition for symmetric tensors of arbitrary rank.

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arXiv2021

Bootstrap Bounds on Closed Einstein Manifolds

A compact Riemannian manifold is associated with geometric data given by the eigenvalues of various Laplacian operators on the manifold and the triple overlap integrals of the corresponding eigenmodes. This geometric data must satisfy certain consistency conditions that follow from associativity and the completeness of eigenmodes. We show that it is possible to obtain nontrivial bounds on the geometric data of closed Einstein manifolds by using semidefinite programming to study these consistency conditions, in analogy to the conformal bootstrap bounds on conformal field theories. These bootstrap bounds translate to constraints on the tree-level masses and cubic couplings of Kaluza-Klein modes in theories with compact extra dimensions. We show that in some cases the bounds are saturated by known manifolds.

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arXiv2021

From Amplitudes to Contact Cosmological Correlators

Our understanding of quantum correlators in cosmological spacetimes, including those that we can observe in cosmological surveys, has improved qualitatively in the past few years. Now we know many constraints that these objects must satisfy as consequences of general physical principles, such as symmetries, unitarity and locality. Using this new understanding, we derive the most general scalar four-point correlator, i.e., the trispectrum, to all orders in derivatives for manifestly local contact interactions. To obtain this result we use techniques from commutative algebra to write down all possible scalar four-particle amplitudes without assuming invariance under Lorentz boosts. We then input these amplitudes into a contact reconstruction formula that generates a contact cosmological correlator in de Sitter spacetime from a contact scalar or graviton amplitude. We also show how the same procedure can be used to derive higher-point contact cosmological correlators. Our results further extend the reach of the boostless cosmological bootstrap and build a new connection between flat and curved spacetime physics.

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arXiv2020

Matter Couplings and Equivalence Principles for Soft Scalars

Scalar effective field theories with enhanced soft limits behave in many ways like gauge theories and gravity. In particular, symmetries fix the structure of interactions and the tree-level S-matrix in both types of theories. We explore how this analogy persists in the presence of matter by considering theories with additional fields coupled to the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) scalar or the special galileon in a way that is consistent with their symmetries. Using purely on-shell arguments, we show that these theories obey analogues of the S-matrix equivalence principle whereby all matter fields must couple to the DBI scalar or the special galileon through a particular quartic vertex with a universal coupling. These equivalence principles imply the universality of the leading double soft theorems in these theories, which are scalar analogues of Weinberg's gravitational soft theorem, and can be used to rule out interactions with massless higher-spin fields when combined with analogues of the generalized Weinberg-Witten theorem. We verify in several examples that amplitudes with external matter fields nontrivially exhibit enhanced single soft limits and we show that such amplitudes can be constructed using soft recursion relations when they have sufficiently many external DBI or special galileon legs, including amplitudes with massive higher-spin fields. As part of our analysis we construct a recently conjectured special galileon-vector effective field theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

Unitarization from Geometry

We study the perturbative unitarity of scattering amplitudes in general dimensional reductions of Yang-Mills theories and general relativity on closed internal manifolds. For the tree amplitudes of the dimensionally reduced theory to have the expected high-energy behavior of the higher-dimensional theory, the masses and cubic couplings of the Kaluza-Klein states must satisfy certain sum rules that ensure there are nontrivial cancellations between Feynman diagrams. These sum rules give constraints on the spectra and triple overlap integrals of eigenfunctions of Laplacian operators on the internal manifold and can be proven directly using Hodge and eigenfunction decompositions. One consequence of these constraints is that there is an upper bound on the ratio of consecutive eigenvalues of the scalar Laplacian on closed Ricci-flat manifolds with special holonomy. This gives a sharp bound on the allowed gaps between Kaluza-Klein excitations of the graviton that also applies to Calabi-Yau compactifications of string theory.

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arXiv2020

Amplitudes and 4D Gauss-Bonnet Theory

It has recently been argued that there may be a nontrivial four-dimensional limit of the higher-dimensional Gauss--Bonnet and Lovelock interactions and that this might provide a loophole allowing for new four-dimensional gravitational theories, possibly without a standard Lagrangian. We investigate this claim by studying tree-level graviton scattering amplitudes, allowing us to draw conclusions independently of the Lagrangian. By taking four-dimensional limits of higher-dimensional scattering amplitudes of the Gauss--Bonnet theory, we find four-dimensional amplitudes that are different from general relativity; however, these amplitudes are not new since they all come from certain scalar-tensor theories. The nontrivial limit that does not lead to infinite strong coupling around flat space leads to $(\partialϕ)^4$ theory. We argue that there cannot be any six-derivative purely gravitational four-point amplitudes in any dimension other than those coming from Lovelock theory by directly constructing the on-shell amplitudes. In particular, there can be no new such amplitudes in four dimensions beyond those of general relativity. We also present some new results on the spin-averaged cross section for graviton-graviton scattering in general relativity and Gauss--Bonnet theory in arbitrary dimensions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

Constraints on a Gravitational Higgs Mechanism

We show that it is impossible to improve the high-energy behavior of the tree-level four-point amplitude of a massive spin-2 particle by including the exchange of any number of scalars and vectors in four spacetime dimensions. This constrains possible weakly coupled ultraviolet extensions of massive gravity, ruling out gravitational analogues of the Higgs mechanism based on particles with spins less than two. Any tree-level ultraviolet extension that is Lorentz invariant and unitary must involve additional massive particles with spins greater than or equal to two, as in Kaluza-Klein theories and string theory.

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arXiv2019

Kaluza-Klein Reduction of Massive and Partially Massless Spin-2 Fields

We describe the dimensional reduction of massive and partially massless spin-2 fields on general Einstein direct product manifolds. As with massless fields, the higher-dimensional gauge symmetry of the partially massless field displays itself upon dimensional reduction as a tower of Stückelberg symmetries for the massive modes of the tower. Unlike the massless case, the zero mode of the gauge symmetry does not display itself as a lower-dimensional non-Stuckelberg gauge symmetry enforcing partial masslessness on the zero mode. Partial masslessness is destroyed by the dimensional reduction and the zero mode gauge symmetry instead serves to eliminate the radion. In addition, we study the fully non-linear dimensional reduction of dRGT massive gravity on a circle, which results in a massive scalar-tensor-vector theory which we expect to be ghost-free, and whose scalar-tensor sector is a special case of mass-varying massive gravity.

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arXiv2019

Shift-Symmetric Spin-1 Theories

We study interacting massive spin-1 theories in de Sitter (dS) and anti-de Sitter (AdS) space that possess shift symmetries parametrized by (A)dS Killing vectors. We show how they emerge from the massless limit of massive spin-2 theories on (A)dS space. In the case of massive gravity, the corresponding spin-1 theory realizes a symmetry breaking pattern that takes two copies of the (A)dS isometry group down to a diagonal subgroup. By taking the flat space limit of this theory, we find a new symmetry of the decoupling limit of massive gravity in flat space. This symmetry acts on the vector modes, is parametrized by an antisymmetric tensor, and fixes the nonlinear structure of the scalar-vector sector of the decoupling limit.

hep-th↗

arXiv2018

Shift Symmetries in (Anti) de Sitter Space

We construct a class of extended shift symmetries for fields of all integer spins in de Sitter (dS) and anti-de Sitter (AdS) space. These generalize the shift symmetry, galileon symmetry, and special galileon symmetry of massless scalars in flat space to all symmetric tensor fields in (A)dS space. These symmetries are parametrized by generalized Killing tensors and exist for fields with particular discrete masses corresponding to the longitudinal modes of massive fields in partially massless limits. We construct interactions for scalars that preserve these shift symmetries, including an extension of the special galileon to (A)dS space, and discuss possible generalizations to interacting massive higher-spin particles.

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