arXiv subjects

Massimo Taronna

Publications and source records attributed to Massimo Taronna.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Celestial Mellin Amplitudes II: Spin-1 and Spin-2 Exchange, and Beyond

We further develop celestial Mellin amplitudes arXiv:2412.11992 to capture the exchange of particles with spin. For massless external scalar fields, we derive closed-form celestial Mellin amplitudes for a spin-1 and spin-2 exchange---both massless and massive---and extract the associated OPE data in the direct-channel. For gauge-boson and graviton exchanges, we identify in the celestial OPE the spin-1 current and the spin-2 stress tensor, together with the boundary gauge boson and graviton. Perturbative time-ordered correlators involving spinning fields can be obtained from those of scalars through the action of differential operators on the external points. In Mellin space these actions become finite-difference (shift) operators in the Mellin variables, which we use to extend our results to arbitrary integer spin.

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arXiv2025

(Non-)Conserved Currents and Cosmological Correlators

We study the fate of global symmetries at the late-time boundary of de Sitter space. In anti-de Sitter space, bulk gauge symmetries generally correspond to conserved global currents on the boundary. We show that in de Sitter space such currents tend to acquire anomalous dimensions due to multiplet recombination with composite operators, which is a consequence of the shadow structure of the boundary operator spectrum. As a result, global symmetries are generically (weakly) broken. This mechanism is transparent in the EAdS reformulation of dS late-time correlators given in arXiv:2007.09993 and arXiv:2109.02725, where Dirichlet modes mix with composites and acquire small masses, while Neumann modes remain protected by gauge invariance. We demonstrate this mechanism explicitly in scalar QED, scalar minimally coupled to Gravity, Yang-Mills theory, and pure Einstein gravity, extracting the corresponding anomalous dimensions. We argue that it extends to higher-spin and partially massless fields.

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arXiv2025

Cosmological Correlators in Gauge Theory and Gravity from EAdS

In this work we examine in more detail the map between late-time correlators in de Sitter space and boundary correlators in Euclidean anti-de Sitter space, elaborating on the general construction presented in arXiv:2007.09993 and arXiv:2109.02725 for EFTs of bosonic spinning fields. This map may be phrased as an equivalence between the generating functional of late-time correlators in the Schwinger--Keldysh formalism and the generating functional for boundary correlators in the corresponding EAdS theory. We extend the construction to gauge bosons and gravitons, and clarify additional subtleties that appear in even boundary dimensions. We give the resulting EAdS Feynman rules for scalar QED, pure Yang--Mills theory and Einstein gravity in dS space, illustrating them with contact and tree-level exchange diagrams. The sinusoidal factors relating dS and EAdS diagrams lead to selection rules for late-time falloffs, with possible residual local terms only in IR-divergent cases. Finally, we emphasise that the relation between dS and EAdS propagators is manifest in Mellin space, and we provide new expressions for gauge-boson and graviton propagators in axial/temporal gauge, including their longitudinal components. These results provide a practical framework for studying cosmological correlators involving gauge fields and gravitons.

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arXiv2025

Conformal Partial Wave Expansion of Celestial Correlators

A novel definition of holographic correlation functions on the celestial sphere of Minkowski space was recently introduced in arXiv:2301.01810 as the extrapolation of bulk time-ordered correlation functions to the celestial sphere. In this work, focusing on theories of scalar fields in $(d+2)$-dimensional Minkowski space, we show that in perturbation theory such celestial correlation functions admit a conformal partial wave expansion with meromorphic spectral density, and hence also an expansion into conformal blocks. This is achieved in the hyperbolic slicing of Minkowski space by extending the harmonic function (``spectral") decomposition of AdS bulk-to-bulk propagators to the Minkowski Feynman propagator. We study the conformal partial wave expansion of celestial correlators for four-point contact and tree-level exchange diagrams, and extract the contributions to their conformal block expansions in the direct channel. When all scalar fields are massless, the tree-level exchange diagram takes a remarkably simple form and is given by a finite sum of conformal blocks (and, for $d=2$, their derivatives as well). We also discuss the conformal partial wave expansion at the non-perturbative level, where Lorentz unitarity manifests as positivity of the spectral density.

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arXiv2024

Cosmological Correlators for Bogoliubov Initial States

We consider late-time correlators in de Sitter (dS) space for initial states related to the Bunch-Davies vacuum by a Bogoliubov transformation. We propose to study such late-time correlators by reformulating them in the familiar language of Witten diagrams in Euclidean anti-de Sitter space (EAdS), showing that they can be perturbatively re-cast in terms of corresponding dS boundary correlators in the Bunch-Davies vacuum and in turn, Witten diagrams in EAdS. Unlike the standard relationship between late-time correlators in the Bunch-Davies vacuum and EAdS Witten diagrams, this involves points on the upper and lower sheet of the EAdS hyperboloid which account for antipodal singularities of the two-point functions. Such Bogoliubov states include an infinite one parameter family of de Sitter invariant vacua as a special case, where the late-time correlators are constrained by Conformal Ward identities. In momentum space, it is well known that their late-time correlators exhibit singularities in collinear ("folded") momentum configurations. We give a position space interpretation of such solutions to the conformal Ward identities, where in embedding space they can be generated from the solution without collinear singularities by application of the antipodal map. We also discuss the operator product expansion (OPE) limit of late-time correlators in a generic dS invariant vacuum. Many results are derived using the Mellin space representation of late-time correlators, which in this work we extend to accommodate generic dS invariant vacua.

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arXiv2024

Celestial Holography Revisited II: Correlators and K\"all\'en-Lehmann

In this work we continue the investigation of the extrapolate dictionary for celestial holography recently proposed in [2301.01810], at both the perturbative and non-perturbative level. Focusing on scalar field theories, we give a complete set of Feynman rules for extrapolate celestial correlation functions and their radial reduction in the hyperbolic slicing of Minkowski space. We prove to all orders in perturbation theory that celestial correlators can be re-written in terms of corresponding Witten diagrams in EAdS which, in the hyperbolic slicing of Minkowski space, follows from the fact that the same is true in dS space. We then initiate the study of non-perturbative properties of celestial correlators, deriving the radial reduction of the K\"all\'en-Lehmann spectral representation of the exact Minkowski two-point function. We discuss the analytic properties of the radially reduced spectral function, which is a meromorphic function of the spectral parameter, and highlight a connection with the Watson-Sommerfeld transform.

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arXiv2023

Celestial Holography Revisited

We revisit the prescription commonly used to define holographic correlators on the celestial sphere of Minkowski space as an integral transform of flat space scattering amplitudes, known as celestial amplitudes. We propose a resolution to a discrepancy noted in the computation of celestial amplitudes, which arises from the regularisation and the commutation of a divergent integral in the definition of conformal primary wave functions. Motivated by this, we propose a novel, off-shell, prescription for holographic correlators on the celestial sphere which we refer to as celestial correlators. The latter are defined by the Mellin transform of bulk time-ordered correlators with respect to the radial direction in the hyperbolic slicing of Minkowski space, which are then extrapolated to the celestial sphere along the hyperbolic directions. This prescription is analogous to the extrapolate definition of holographic correlators in AdS/CFT and, like in AdS, is centered on (off-shell) correlation functions as opposed to (on-shell) S-matrix elements. We show that celestial correlators defined in this new way are manifestly recast in terms of corresponding Witten diagrams in Euclidean anti-de Sitter space in perturbation theory. We discuss the possibility of using this definition of celestial correlators in terms of bulk correlation functions to explore the non-perturbative properties of celestial correlators dual to conformal field theories in Minkowski space. We furthermore show that celestial amplitudes can also be defined by a similar extrapolation of S-matrices in position space via a Mellin transformation in the radial direction. This provides the proper regularisation of conformal primary wave functions, which is inherited from the corresponding Wightman functions.

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arXiv2022

Snowmass Theory Frontier: Astrophysics and Cosmology

We summarize progress made in theoretical astrophysics and cosmology over the past decade and areas of interest for the coming decade. This Report is prepared as the TF09 "Astrophysics and Cosmology" topical group summary for the Theory Frontier as part of the Snowmass 2021 process.

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arXiv2022

From Celestial Correlators to AdS, and back

We present a general relation between celestial correlation functions in $d$-dimensions and Witten diagrams in $\left(d+1\right)$-dimensional Euclidean anti-de Sitter (EAdS) space, to all orders in perturbation theory. Contact diagram processes are proportional to contact Witten diagrams, and particle exchanges can be recast as a continuum of particle exchanges in EAdS where the exchanged particles carrying unitary Principal Series representations of $SO\left(d+1,1\right)$. One can then try to import familiar EAdS techniques to study the properties of celestial correlators. In this work we use this relation to infer the analytic structure of the spectral density in the conformal partial wave expansion of celestial correlators which, at least perturbatively, should be a meromorphic function of the spectral parameter. We also discuss non-perturbative constraints from unitarity in Euclidean Conformal Field Theory, which requires positivity of the spectral density. This extends similar relations recently uncovered between boundary correlation functions in de Sitter space and Witten diagrams in EAdS, suggesting that EAdS could play a central role in efforts towards holography for all lambdas.

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arXiv2022

Snowmass White Paper: The Cosmological Bootstrap

This white paper summarizes recent progress in the cosmological bootstrap, an approach to the study of the statistics of primordial fluctuations from consistency with unitarity, locality and symmetry assumptions. We review the key ideas of the bootstrap method, with an eye towards future directions and ambitions of the program. Focusing on recent progress involving de Sitter and quasi-de Sitter backgrounds, we highlight the role of singularities and unitarity in constraining the form of the correlators. We also discuss nonperturbative formulations of the bootstrap, connections to anti-de Sitter space, and potential implications for holography.

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arXiv2021

From dS to AdS and back

We describe in more detail the general relation uncovered in our previous work between boundary correlators in de Sitter (dS) and in Euclidean anti-de Sitter (EAdS) space, at any order in perturbation theory. Assuming the Bunch-Davies vacuum at early times, any given diagram contributing to a boundary correlator in dS can be expressed as a linear combination of Witten diagrams for the corresponding process in EAdS, where the relative coefficients are fixed by consistent on-shell factorisation in dS. These coefficients are given by certain sinusoidal factors which account for the change in coefficient of the contact sub-diagrams from EAdS to dS, which we argue encode (perturbative) unitary time evolution in dS. dS boundary correlators with Bunch-Davies initial conditions thus perturbatively have the same singularity structure as their Euclidean AdS counterparts and the identities between them allow to directly import the wealth of techniques, results and understanding from AdS to dS. This includes the Conformal Partial Wave expansion and, by going from single-valued Witten diagrams in EAdS to Lorentzian AdS, the Froissart-Gribov inversion formula. We give a few (among the many possible) applications both at tree and loop level. Such identities between boundary correlators in dS and EAdS are made manifest by the Mellin-Barnes representation of boundary correlators, which we point out is a useful tool in its own right as the analogue of the Fourier transform for the dilatation group. The Mellin-Barnes representation in particular makes manifest factorisation and dispersion formulas for bulk-to-bulk propagators in (EA)dS, which imply Cutkosky cutting rules and dispersion formulas for boundary correlators in (EA)dS. Our results are completely general and in particular apply to any interaction of (integer) spinning fields.

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arXiv2021

On the consistency of (partially-)massless matter couplings in de Sitter space

We study the consistency of the cubic couplings of a (partially-)massless spinning field to two scalars in $\left(d+1\right)$-dimensional de Sitter space. Gauge invariance of observables with external (partially)-massless spinning fields translates into Ward-Takahashi identities on the boundary. Using the Mellin-Barnes representation for boundary correlators in momentum space, we give a systematic study of Ward-Takahashi identities for tree-level 3- and 4-point processes involving a single external (partially-)massless field of arbitrary integer spin-$J$. 3-point Ward-Takahashi identities constrain the mass of the scalar fields to which a (partially-)massless spin-$J$ field can couple. 4-point Ward-Takahashi identities then constrain the corresponding cubic couplings. For massless spinning fields, we show that Weinberg's flat space results carry over to $\left(d+1\right)$-dimensional de Sitter space: For spins $J=1,2$ gauge-invariance implies charge-conservation and the equivalence principle while, assuming locality, higher-spins $J>2$ cannot couple consistently to scalar matter. This result also applies to anti-de Sitter space. For partially-massless fields, restricting for simplicity to those of depth-2, we show that there is no consistent coupling to scalar matter in local theories. Along the way we give a detailed account of how contact amplitudes with and without derivatives are represented in the Mellin-Barnes representation. Various new explicit expressions for 3- and 4-point functions involving (partially-)massless fields and conformally coupled scalars in dS$_4$ are given.

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arXiv2021

Revisiting Higher-Spin Gyromagnetic Couplings

We analyze Bosonic, Heterotic, and Type II string theories compactified on a generic torus having constant moduli. By computing the hamiltonian giving the interaction between massive string excitations and $U(1)$ gauge fields arising from the graviton and Kalb-Ramond field upon compactification, we derive a general formula for such couplings that turns out to be universal in all these theories. We also confirm our result by explicitly evaluating the relevant string three-point amplitudes. From this expression, we determine the gyromagnetic ratio $g$ of massive string states coupled to both gauge-fields. For a generic mixed symmetry state, there is one gyromagnetic coupling associated with each row of the corresponding Young Tableau diagram. For all the states having zero Kaluza Klein or Winding charges, the value of $g$ turns out to be $1$. We also explicitly consider totally symmetric and mixed symmetry states (having two rows in the Young diagram) associated with the first Regge-trajectory and obtain their corresponding $g$ value.

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arXiv2020

The Unique Polyakov Blocks

In this work we present a closed form expression for Polyakov blocks in Mellin space for arbitrary spin and scaling dimensions. We provide a prescription to fix the contact term ambiguity uniquely by reducing the problem to that of fixing the contact term ambiguity at the level of cyclic exchange amplitudes -- defining cyclic Polyakov blocks -- in terms of which any fully crossing symmetric correlator can be decomposed. We also give another, equivalent, prescription which does not rely on a decomposition into cyclic amplitudes and we underline the relation between cyclic amplitudes and dispersion relations in Mellin space. We extract the OPE data of double-twist operators in the direct channel expansion of the cyclic Polyakov blocks using and extending the analysis of \cite{Sleight:2018epi,Sleight:2018ryu} to include contributions that are non-analytic in spin. The relation between cyclic Polyakov blocks and analytic Bootstrap functionals is underlined.

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arXiv2020

From AdS to dS Exchanges: Spectral Representation, Mellin Amplitudes and Crossing

We present a simple general relation between tree-level exchanges in AdS and dS. This relation allows to directly import techniques and results for AdS Witten diagrams, both in position and momentum space, to boundary correlation functions in dS. In this work we apply this relation to define Mellin amplitudes and a spectral representation for exchanges in dS. We also derive the conformal block decomposition of a dS exchange, both in the direct and crossed channels, from their AdS counterparts. The relation between AdS and dS exchanges itself is derived using a recently introduced Mellin-Barnes representation for boundary correlators in momentum space, where (A)dS exchanges are straightforwardly fixed by a combination of factorisation, conformal symmetry and boundary conditions.

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arXiv2019

A note on higher-order vertices of higher-spin fields in flat and (A)dS space

In this work we classify homogeneous solutions to the Noether procedure in (A)dS for an arbitrary number of external legs and in general dimensions. We also give a review of the corresponding flat space classification and its relation with the (A)dS result presented here. The role of dimensional dependent identities is also investigated.

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arXiv2019

Anomalous Dimensions from Crossing Kernels

In this note we consider the problem of extracting the corrections to CFT data induced by the exchange of a primary operator and its descendents in the crossed channel. We show how those corrections which are analytic in spin can be systematically extracted from crossing kernels. To this end, we underline a connection between: Wilson polynomials (which naturally appear when considering the crossing kernels given recently in arXiv:1804.09334), the spectral integral in the conformal partial wave expansion, and Wilson functions. Using this connection, we determine closed form expressions for the OPE data when the external operators in 4pt correlation functions have spins $J_1$-$J_2$-$0$-$0$, and in particular the anomalous dimensions of double-twist operators of the type $[\mathcal{O}_{J_1}\mathcal{O}_{J_2}]_{n,\ell}$ in $d$ dimensions and for both leading and sub-leading twist. The OPE data are expressed in terms of Wilson functions, which naturally appear as a spectral integral of a Wilson polynomial. As a consequence, our expressions are manifestly analytic in spin and are valid up to finite spin. We present some applications to CFTs with slightly broken higher-spin symmetry. The Mellin Barnes integral representation for $6j$ symbols of the conformal group in general $d$ and its relation with the crossing kernels are also discussed.

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arXiv2019

Bootstrapping Inflationary Correlators in Mellin Space

We develop a Mellin space approach to boundary correlation functions in anti-de Sitter (AdS) and de Sitter (dS) spaces. Using the Mellin-Barnes representation of correlators in Fourier space, we show that the analytic continuation between AdS$_{d+1}$ and dS$_{d+1}$ is encoded in a collection of simple relative phases. This allows us to determine the late-time tree-level three-point correlators of spinning fields in dS$_{d+1}$ from known results for Witten diagrams in AdS$_{d+1}$ by multiplication with a simple trigonometric factor. At four point level, we show that Conformal symmetry fixes exchange four-point functions both in AdS$_{d+1}$ and dS$_{d+1}$ in terms of the dual Conformal Partial Wave (which in Fourier space is a product of boundary three-point correlators) up to a factor which is determined by the boundary conditions. In this work we focus on late-time four-point correlators with external scalars and an exchanged field of integer spin-$\ell$. The Mellin-Barnes representation makes manifest the analytic structure of boundary correlation functions, providing an analytic expression for the exchange four-point function which is valid for general $d$ and generic scaling dimensions, in particular massive, light and (partially-)massless fields. When $d=3$ we reproduce existing explicit results available in the literature for external conformally coupled and massless scalars. From these results, assuming the weak breaking of the de Sitter isometries, we extract the corresponding correction to the inflationary three-point function of general external scalars induced by a general spin-$\ell$ field at leading order in slow roll. These results provide a step towards a more systematic understanding of de Sitter observables at tree level and beyond using Mellin space methods.

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