arXiv subjects

Walter D. Goldberger

Publications and source records attributed to Walter D. Goldberger.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Quantum dynamics of perfect fluids

We study the quantum field theory of zero temperature perfect fluids. Such systems are defined by quantizing a classical field theory of scalar fields $ϕ^I$ that act as Lagrange coordinates on an internal spatial manifold of fluid configurations. Invariance under volume preserving diffeomorphisms acting on these scalars implies that the long-wavelength spectrum contains vortex (transverse modes) with an exact $ω_T=0$ dispersion relation. As a consequence, physically interpreting the results obtained via perturbative quantization of this theory has proven to be challenging. In this paper, we show that correlators evaluated in a class of semi-classical (Gaussian) initial states prepared at $t=0$ are well-defined and accessible via perturbation theory. The width of the initial state effectively acts as an infrared regulator without explicitly breaking diffeomorphism invariance of the classical action. As an application, we compute the stress tensor two-point correlators and show that vortex modes give a non-trivial contribution to the response function, non-local in both space and time.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Effective Field Theory for Compact Binary Dynamics

I review the effective field theory (EFT) description of gravitating compact objects. The focus is on kinematic regimes where gravity is perturbative, in particular the adiabatic inspiral phase relevant to gravitational wave detection. For such configurations, there is a hierarchy of length scales which all play a role in the dynamics, ranging from the gravitational radius, to the size of the objects, to their typical orbital separation, and finally the wavelength of the radiation emitted by the system. To disentangle these scales, and to achieve manifest power counting in the expansion parameter, it is necessary to construct a tower of EFTs of gravity, each coupled to distinct line defect localized degrees of freedom. I describe the relevant effective theories at each scale as well as the matching between these theories across each physical threshold. While the main applications of these methods are to classical dynamics, quantum gravity effects, e.g. Hawking graviton exchange, can be systematically incorporated if the momentum transfers are small compared to the Planck mass.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Effective field theories of gravity and compact binary dynamics: A Snowmass 2021 whitepaper

In this whitepaper, I describe modern applications of effective field theory (EFT) techniques to classical and quantum gravity, with relevance to problems in astrophysics and cosmology. As in applications of EFT to high-energy, nuclear, or condensed matter physics, the Wilsonian paradigm based on decoupling of short distance scales via renormalization group evolution remains a powerful organizing principle in the context of gravity. However, the presence of spacetime geometry brings in new elements ( non-trivial time-dependence, cosmological or black hole event horizons) which necessitate the introduction of novel field theoretic methods not usually encountered in applications of EFTs to physics at the energy and intensity frontiers. After a brief overview of recent developments in the application of EFT methods to gravity, I will focus on the EFT description of compact binary dynamics, including an overview of some of its applications to the experimental program in gravitational wave detection at LIGO/VIRGO and other observatories.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

Non-conservative effects on Spinning Black Holes from World-Line Effective Field Theory

We generalize the worldline EFT formalism developed in [4-9] to calculate the non-conservative tidal effects on spinning black holes in a long wavelength approximation that is valid to all orders in the magnitude of the spin. We present results for the rate of change of mass and angular momentum in a background field and find agreement with previous calculations obtained by different techniques. We also present new results for both the non-conservative equations of motion and power loss/gain for a binary inspiral, which start at 5PN and 2.5PN order respectively and manifest the Penrose process.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

Horizon radiation reaction forces

Using Effective Field Theory (EFT) methods, we compute the effects of horizon dissipation on the gravitational interactions of relativistic binary black hole systems. We assume that the dynamics is perturbative, i.e it admits an expansion in powers of Newton's constant (post-Minkowskian, or PM, approximation). As applications, we compute corrections to the scattering angle in a black hole collision due to dissipative effects to leading PM order, as well as the post-Newtonian (PN) corrections to the equations of motion of binary black holes in non-relativistic orbits, which represents the leading order finite size effect in the equations of motion. The methods developed here are also applicable to the case of more general compact objects, eg. neutron stars, where the magnitude of the dissipative effects depends on non-gravitational physics (e.g, the equation of state for nuclear matter).

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

Virtual Hawking Radiation

We consider the effects of off-shell Hawking radiation on scattering processes involving black holes coupled to quantum fields. The focus here is to the case of gravitational scattering of a scalar field mediated by the exchange of virtual Hawking gravitons from a four-dimensional Schwarzschild black hole. Our result is obtained in the context of a worldline effective field theory for the black hole, and is valid in the semi-classical limit where the Schwarzschild radius $r_s$ is larger than the Planck length $1/m_{Pl}$. In addition, we assume that four-momentum exchange $q$ is smaller than $r_s^{-1}$ and that the incoming particle has energy larger then the black hole's Hawking temperature. The inelastic cross section we obtain is a new, leading order quantum gravity effect, arising at the same order in $q^2/m_{Pl}^2$ as the well understood one-loop graviton vacuum polarization corrections to gravitational scattering between massive particles.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

Strings, extended objects, and the classical double copy

We extend Shen's recent formulation (arXiv:1806.07388) of the classical double copy, based on explicit color-kinematic duality, to the case of finite-size sources with non-zero spin. For the case of spinning Yang-Mills sources, the most general consistent double copy consists of gravitating objects which carry pairs of spin degrees of freedom. We find that the couplings of such objects to background fields match those of a classical (i.e. heavy) closed bosonic string, suggesting a string theory interpretation of sources related by color-kinematics duality. As a special case, we identify a limit, corresponding to unoriented strings, in which the 2-form Kalb-Ramond axion field decouples from the gravitational side of the double copy. Finally, we apply the classical double copy to extended objects, described by the addition of finite-size operators to the worldline effective theory. We find that consistency of the color-to-kinematics map requires that the Wilson coefficients of tidal operators obey certain relations, indicating that the extended gravitating objects generated by the double copy of Yang-Mills are not completely generic.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

An Effective Field Theory of Quantum Mechanical Black Hole Horizons

We develop an effective theory which describes black holes with quantum mechanical horizons that is valid at scales long compared to the Schwarzschild radius but short compared to the lifetime of the black hole. Our formalism allows one to calculate the quantum mechanical effects in scattering processes involving black hole asymptotic states. We point out that the EFT Wightman functions which describe Hawking radiation in the Unruh vacuum are not Planck suppressed and are actually {\it enhanced} relative to those in the Boulware vacuum, for which such radiation is absent. We elaborate on this point showing how the non-Planck suppressed effects of Hawking radiation cancel in classical observables.

hep-th↗

arXiv2018

Spinning particles, axion radiation, and the classical double copy

We extend the perturbative double copy between radiating classical sources in gauge theory and gravity to the case of spinning particles. We construct, to linear order in spins, perturbative radiating solutions to the classical Yang-Mills equations sourced by a set of interacting color charges with chromomagnetic dipole spin couplings. Using a color-to-kinematics replacement rule proposed earlier by one of the authors, these solutions map onto radiation in a theory of interacting particles coupled to massless fields that include the graviton, a scalar (dilaton) $ϕ$ and the Kalb-Ramond axion field $B_{μν}$. Consistency of the double copy imposes constraints on the parameters of the theory on both the gauge and gravity sides of the correspondence. In particular, the color charges carry a chromomagnetic interaction which, in $d=4$, corresponds to a gyromagnetic ratio equal to Dirac's value $g=2$. The color-to-kinematics map implies that on the gravity side, the bulk theory of the fields $(ϕ,g_{μν},B_{μν})$ has interactions which match those of $d$-dimensional `string gravity,' as is the case both in the BCJ double copy of pure gauge theory scattering amplitudes and the KLT relations between the tree-level $S$-matrix elements of open and closed string theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2017

Classical gluon and graviton radiation from the bi-adjoint scalar double copy

We find double copy relations between classical radiating solutions in Yang-Mills theory coupled to dynamical color charges and their counterparts in a cubic bi-adjoint scalar field theory which interacts linearly with particles carrying bi-adjoint charge. The particular color-to-kinematics replacements we employ are motivated by the BCJ double copy correspondence for on-shell amplitudes in gauge and gravity theories. They are identical to those recently used to establish relations between classical radiating solutions in gauge theory and in dilaton gravity. Our explicit bi-adjoint solutions are constructed to second order in a perturbative expansion, and map under the double copy onto gauge theory solutions which involve at most cubic gluon self-interactions. If the correspondence is found to persist to higher orders in perturbation theory, our results suggest the possibility of calculating gravitational radiation from colliding compact objects, directly from a scalar field with vastly simpler (purely cubic) Feynman vertices.

hep-th↗

arXiv2017

Bound states and the classical double copy

We extend the perturbative classical double copy to the analysis of bound systems. We first obtain the leading order perturbative gluon radiation field sourced by a system of interacting color charges in arbitrary time dependent orbits, and test its validity by taking relativistic bremsstrahlung and non-relativistic bound state limits. By generalizing the color to kinematic replacement rules recently used in the context of classical bremsstrahlung, we map the gluon emission amplitude to the radiation fields of dilaton gravity sourced by interacting particles in generic (self-consistent) orbits. As an application, we reproduce the leading post-Newtonian radiation fields and energy flux for point masses in non-relativistic orbits from the double copy of gauge theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2017

Radiation and the classical double copy for color charges

We construct perturbative classical solutions of the Yang-Mills equations coupled to dynamical point particles carrying color charge. By applying a set of color to kinematics replacement rules first introduced by Bern, Carrasco and Johansson (BCJ), these are shown to generate solutions of d-dimensional dilaton gravity, which we also explicitly construct. Agreement between the gravity result and the gauge theory double copy implies a correspondence between non-Abelian particles and gravitating sources with dilaton charge. When the color sources are highly relativistic, dilaton exchange decouples, and the solutions we obtain match those of pure gravity. We comment on possible implications of our findings to the calculation of gravitational waveforms in astrophysical black hole collisions, directly from computationally simpler gluon radiation in Yang-Mills theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

OPE convergence in non-relativistic conformal field theories

Motivated by applications to the study of ultracold atomic gases near the unitarity limit, we investigate the structure of the operator product expansion (OPE) in non-relativistic conformal field theories (NRCFTs). The main tool used in our analysis is the representation theory of charged (i.e. non-zero particle number) operators in the NRCFT, in particular the mapping between operators and states in a non-relativistic "radial quantization" Hilbert space. Our results include: a determination of the OPE coefficients of descendant operators in terms of those of the underlying primary state, a demonstration of convergence of the (imaginary time) OPE in certain kinematic limits, and an estimate of the decay rate of the OPE tail inside matrix elements which, as in relativistic CFTs, depends exponentially on operator dimensions. To illustrate our results we consider several examples, including a strongly interacting field theory of bosons tuned to the unitarity limit, as well as a class of holographic models. Given the similarity with known statements about the OPE in SO(2,d) invariant field theories, our results suggest the existence of a bootstrap approach to constraining NRCFTs, with applications to bound state spectra and interactions. We briefly comment on a possible implementation of this non-relativistic conformal bootstrap program.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

One-particle-irreducible consistency relations for cosmological perturbations

We derive consistency relations for correlators of scalar cosmological perturbations which hold in the "squeezed limit" in which one or more of the external momenta become soft. Our results are formulated as relations between suitably defined one-particle irreducible N-point and (N-1)-point functions that follow from residual spatial conformal diffeomorphisms of the unitary gauge Lagrangian. As such, some of these relations are exact to all orders in perturbation theory, and do not rely on approximate deSitter invariance or other dynamical assumptions (e.g., properties of the operator product expansion or the behavior of modes at horizon crossing). The consistency relations apply model-independently to cosmological scenarios where the time evolution is driven by a single scalar field. Besides reproducing the known results for single-field inflation in the slow roll limit, we verify that our consistency relations hold more generally, for instance in ghost condensate models in flat space. We comment on possible extensions of our results to multi-field models.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Black hole mass dynamics and renormalization group evolution

We examine the real-time dynamics of a system of one or more black holes interacting with long wavelength gravitational fields. We find that the (classical) renormalizability of the effective field theory that describes this system necessitates the introduction of a time dependent mass counterterm, and consequently the mass parameter must be promoted to a dynamical degree of freedom. To track the time evolution of this dynamical mass, we compute the expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor within the in-in formalism, and fix the time dependence by imposing energy-momentum conservation. Mass renormalization induces logarithmic ultraviolet divergences at quadratic order in the gravitational coupling, leading to a new time-dependent renormalization group (RG) equation for the mass parameter. We solve this RG equation and use the result to predict heretofore unknown high order logarithms in the energy distribution of gravitational radiation emitted from the system.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Superembedding Methods for Current Superfields

We extend the superembedding formalism for 4D N=1 superconformal field theory (SCFT) to the case of fields in arbitrary representations of the superconformal group SU(2,2|1). As applications we obtain manifestly superconformally covariant expressions for two- and three-point functions involving conserved currents, e.g. the supercurrent multiplet or global symmetry current superfields. The embedding space results are presented in a compact form by employing an index-free formalism. Our expressions are consistent with the literature, but the manifestly covariant forms of correlators presented here are new.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Superembedding methods for 4d N=1 SCFTs

We extend SO(4,2) covariant lightcone embedding methods of four-dimensional CFTs to N=1 superconformal field theory (SCFT). Manifest superconformal SU(2,2|1) invariance is achieved by realizing 4D superconformal space as a surface embedded in the projective superspace spanned by certain complex chiral supermatrices. Because SU(2,2|1) acts linearly on the ambient space, the constraints on correlators implied by superconformal Ward identities are automatically solved in this formalism. Applications include new, compact expressions for correlation functions containing one anti-chiral superfield and arbitrary chiral superfield insertions, and manifestly invariant expressions for the superconformal cross-ratios that parametrize the four-point function of two chiral and two anti-chiral fields. Superconformal expressions for the leading singularities in the OPE of chiral and anti-chiral operators are also given. Because of covariance, our expressions are valid in any superconformally flat background, e.g., AdS_4 or R times S^3.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Viscosity Sum Rules at Large Scattering Lengths

We use the operator product expansion (OPE) and dispersion relations to obtain new model-independent "Borel-resummed" sum rules for both shear and bulk viscosity of many-body systems of spin-1/2 fermions with predominantly short range S-wave interactions. These sum rules relate Gaussian weights of the frequency-dependent viscosities to the Tan contact parameter C(a). Our results are valid for arbitrary values of the scattering length a, but receive small corrections from operators of dimension larger than 5 in the OPE, and can be used to study transport properties in the vicinity of the infinite scattering length fixed point. In particular, we find that the exact dependence of the shear viscosity sum rule on scattering length is controlled by the function C(a). The sum rules that we obtain depend on a frequency scale w that can be optimized to maximize their overlap with low-energy data.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗