arXiv subjects

Tim Adamo

Publications and source records attributed to Tim Adamo.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Plane wave backgrounds and colour-kinematics duality

We obtain the detailed Feynman rules for perturbative gauge theory on a fixed Yang-Mills plane wave background. Using these rules, the tree-level 4-point gluon amplitude is computed and some 1-loop Feynman diagrams are considered. As an application, we test the extent to which colour-kinematics duality, the relation between the colour and kinematic constituents of the amplitude, holds on the plane wave background. Although the duality is obstructed, the obstruction has an interesting constrained structure. This plane wave version of colour-kinematics duality reduces on a flat background to the well-known identities underpinning the BCJ relations for colour-ordered partial amplitudes, and constrains representations of tree-level amplitudes beyond 4-points.

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arXiv2018

Ambitwistor string vertex operators on curved backgrounds

We present vertex operators for ambitwistor strings around generic Yang-Mills, gravity and NS-NS backgrounds. The requirement that vertex operators lie in the BRST cohomology of the worldsheet theory enforces the appropriate linear equations of motion (as well as gauge fixing conditions) for the respective perturbations in these backgrounds. Due to the nature of ambitwistor strings, no approximation is taken and all calculations around the backgrounds are exact.

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arXiv2018

Yang-Mills theory from the worldsheet

We give a new description of classical Yang-Mills theory by coupling a two-dimensional chiral CFT (which gives the tree-level S-matrix of Yang-Mills theory at genus zero) to a background non-abelian gauge field. The resulting model is solvable, and when the gravitational degrees of freedom are decoupled the non-linear Yang-Mills equations are imposed as an exact worldsheet anomaly cancellation condition. When gravitational modes are reinstated, we find gauge anomalies analogous to those appearing in heterotic string theory.

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arXiv2018

Scattering of conformal higher spin fields

We develop a formalism for describing the most general notion of tree-level scattering amplitudes in 4d conformal higher spin theory. As conformal higher spin fields obey higher-derivative equations of motion, there are many distinct on-shell external states which may contribute to their scattering, some of which grow polynomially with time, leading to ill-defined amplitudes. We characterize the set of admissible scattering states which produce finite tree amplitudes, noting that there are more such states than just standard massless higher spins obeying two-derivative equations of motion. We use conformal gravity as a prime example, where the set of scattering states includes the usual Einstein graviton and a `ghost' massless spin 1 particle. An extension of the usual spinor helicity formalism allows us to encode these scattering states efficiently in terms of `twistor-spinors'. This leads to compact momentum space expressions for all finite tree-level 3-point amplitudes of conformal higher spin theory. While some of these 3-point amplitudes vanish (including all those with only standard two-derivative higher spin external states), there are many others which are non-vanishing. We also comment on the generalization to scattering of conformal higher spins in AdS$_4$.

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arXiv2018

Lectures on twistor theory

Broadly speaking, twistor theory is a framework for encoding physical information on space-time as geometric data on a complex projective space, known as a twistor space. The relationship between space-time and twistor space is non-local and has some surprising consequences, which we explore in these lectures. Starting with a review of the twistor correspondence for four-dimensional Minkowski space, we describe some of twistor theory's historic successes (e.g., describing free fields and integrable systems) as well as some of its historic shortcomings. We then discuss how in recent years many of these problems have been overcome, with a view to understanding how twistor theory is applied to the study of perturbative QFT today. These lectures were given in 2017 at the XIII Modave Summer School in mathematical physics.

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arXiv2017

Scattering on plane waves and the double copy

Perturbatively around flat space, the scattering amplitudes of gravity are related to those of Yang-Mills by colour-kinematic duality, under which gravitational amplitudes are obtained as the 'double copy' of the corresponding gauge theory amplitudes. We consider the question of how to extend this relationship to curved scattering backgrounds, focusing on certain 'sandwich' plane waves. We calculate the 3-point amplitudes on these backgrounds and find that a notion of double copy remains in the presence of background curvature: graviton amplitudes on a gravitational plane wave are the double copy of gluon amplitudes on a gauge field plane wave. This is non-trivial in that it requires a non-local replacement rule for the background fields and the momenta and polarization vectors of the fields scattering on the backgrounds. It must also account for new 'tail' terms arising from scattering off the background. These encode a memory effect in the scattering amplitudes, which naturally double copies as well.

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arXiv2017

Amplitudes on plane waves from ambitwistor strings

In marked contrast to conventional string theory, ambitwistor strings remain solvable worldsheet theories when coupled to curved background fields. We use this fact to consider the quantization of ambitwistor strings on plane wave metric and plane wave gauge field backgrounds. In each case, the worldsheet model is anomaly free as a consequence of the background satisfying the field equations. We derive vertex operators (in both fixed and descended picture numbers) for gravitons and gluons on these backgrounds from the worldsheet CFT, and study the 3-point functions of these vertex operators on the Riemann sphere. These worldsheet correlation functions reproduce the known results for 3-point scattering amplitudes of gravitons and gluons in gravitational and gauge theoretic plane wave backgrounds, respectively.

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arXiv2017

Space-time CFTs from the Riemann sphere

We consider two-dimensional chiral, first-order conformal field theories governing maps from the Riemann sphere to the projective light cone inside Minkowski space -- the natural setting for describing conformal field theories in two fewer dimensions. These theories have a SL(2) algebra of local bosonic constraints which can be supplemented by additional fermionic constraints depending on the matter content of the theory. By computing the BRST charge associated with gauge fixing these constraints, we find anomalies which vanish for specific target space dimensions. These critical dimensions coincide precisely with those for which (biadjoint) cubic scalar theory, gauge theory and gravity are classically conformally invariant. Furthermore, the BRST cohomology of each theory contains vertex operators for the full conformal multiplets of single field insertions in each of these space-time CFTs. We give a prescription for the computation of three-point functions, and compare our formalism with the scattering equations approach to on-shell amplitudes.

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arXiv2017

Conformal higher spin scattering amplitudes from twistor space

We use the formulation of conformal higher spin (CHS) theories in twistor space to study their tree-level scattering amplitudes, finding expressions for all three-point anti-MHV amplitudes and all MHV amplitudes involving positive helicity conformal gravity particles and two negative helicity higher spins. This provides the on-shell analogue for the covariant coupling of CHS fields to a conformal gravity background. We discuss the restriction of the theory to a ghost-free unitary subsector, analogous to restricting conformal gravity to general relativity with a cosmological constant. We study the flat-space limit and show that the restricted amplitudes vanish, supporting the conjecture that in the unitary sector the S-matrix of CHS theories is trivial. However, by appropriately rescaling the amplitudes we find non-vanishing results which we compare with chiral flat-space higher spin theories.

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arXiv2016

The Kerr-Newman metric: A Review

The Kerr-Newman metric describes a very special rotating, charged mass and is the most general of the asymptotically flat stationary 'black hole' solutions to the Einstein-Maxwell equations of general relativity. We review the derivation of this metric from the Reissner-Nordstrom solution by means of a complex transformation algorithm and provide a brief overview of its basic geometric properties. We also include some discussion of interpretive issues, related metrics, and higher-dimensional analogues.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Twistor methods for AdS$_5$

We consider the application of twistor theory to five-dimensional anti-de Sitter space. The twistor space of AdS$_5$ is the same as the ambitwistor space of the four-dimensional conformal boundary; the geometry of this correspondence is reviewed for both the bulk and boundary. A Penrose transform allows us to describe free bulk fields, with or without mass, in terms of data on twistor space. Explicit representatives for the bulk-to-boundary propagators of scalars and spinors are constructed, along with twistor action functionals for the free theories. Evaluating these twistor actions on bulk-to-boundary propagators is shown to produce the correct two-point functions.

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arXiv2015

Gravity with a cosmological constant from rational curves

We give a new formula for all tree-level correlators of boundary field insertions in gauged N=8 supergravity in AdS_4; this is an analog of the tree-level S-matrix in anti-de Sitter space. The formula is written in terms of rational maps from the Riemann sphere to twistor space, with no reference to bulk perturbation theory. It is polynomial in the cosmological constant, and equal to the classical scattering amplitudes of supergravity in the flat space limit. The formula is manifestly supersymmetric, independent of gauge choices on twistor space, and equivalent to expressions computed via perturbation theory at 3-point MHV-bar and n-point MHV. We also show that the formula factorizes and obeys BCFW recursion in twistor space.

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arXiv2015

On tree amplitudes of supersymmetric Einstein-Yang-Mills theory

We present a new formula for all single trace tree amplitudes in four dimensional super Yang-Mills coupled to Einstein supergravity. Like the Cachazo-He-Yuan formula, our expression is supported on solutions of the scattering equations, but with momenta written in terms of spinor helicity variables. Supersymmetry and parity are both manifest. In the pure gravity and pure Yang-Mills sectors, it reduces to the known twistor-string formulae. We show that the formula behaves correctly under factorization and sketch how these amplitudes may be obtained from a four-dimensional (ambi)twistor string.

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arXiv2015

Scattering equations, supergravity integrands, and pure spinors

The tree-level S-matrix of type II supergravity can be computed in scattering equation form by correlators in a worldsheet theory analogous to a chiral, infinite tension limit of the pure spinor formalism. By defining a non-minimal version of this theory, we give a prescription for computing correlators on higher genus worldsheets which manifest space-time supersymmetry. These correlators are conjectured to provide the loop integrands of supergravity scattering amplitudes, supported on the scattering equations. We give non-trivial evidence in support of this conjecture at genus one and two with four external states. Throughout, we find a close correspondence with the pure spinor formalism of superstring theory, particularly regarding regulators and zero-mode counting.

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arXiv2015

General relativity as a two-dimensional CFT

The tree-level scattering amplitudes of general relativity encode the full non-linearity of the Einstein field equations. Yet remarkably compact expressions for these amplitudes have been found which seem unrelated to a perturbative expansion of the Einstein-Hilbert action. This suggests an entirely different description of GR which makes this on-shell simplicity manifest. Taking our cue from the tree-level amplitudes, we discuss how such a description can be found. The result is a formulation of GR in terms of a solvable two-dimensional CFT, with the Einstein equations emerging as quantum consistency conditions.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Perturbative gauge theory at null infinity

We describe a theory living on the null conformal boundary of four-dimensional Minkowski space, whose states include the radiative modes of Yang-Mills theory. The action of a Kac-Moody symmetry algebra on the correlators of these states leads to a Ward identity for asymptotic 'large' gauge transformations which is equivalent to the soft gluon theorem. The subleading soft gluon behavior is also obtained from a Ward identity for charges acting as vector fields on the sphere of null generators of the boundary. Correlation functions of the Yang-Mills states are shown to produce the full classical S-matrix of Yang-Mills theory. The model contains additional states arising from non-unitary gravitational degrees of freedom, indicating a relationship with the twistor-string of Berkovits & Witten.

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arXiv2015

A Worldsheet Theory for Supergravity

We present a worldsheet theory that describes maps into a curved target space equipped with a B-field and dilaton. The conditions for the theory to be consistent at the quantum level can be computed exactly, and are that the target space fields obey the nonlinear d=10 supergravity equations of motion, with no higher curvature terms. The path integral is constrained to obey a generalization of the scattering equations to curved space. Remarkably, the supergravity field equations emerge as quantum corrections to these curved space scattering equations.

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arXiv2014

Perturbative gravity at null infinity

We describe a theory that lives on the null conformal boundary of asymptotically flat space-time, and whose states encode the radiative modes of (super)gravity. We study the induced action of the BMS group, verifying that the Ward identity for certain BMS supertranslations is equivalent to Weinberg's soft graviton theorem in the bulk. The subleading behaviour of soft gravitons may also be obtained from a Ward identity for certain superrotation generators in the extended BMS algebra proposed by Barnich & Troessaert. We show that the theory computes the complete classical gravitational S-matrix, perturbatively around the Minkowski vacuum.

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