We study the large gauge transformations of massless higher-spin fields in four-dimensional Minkowski space. Upon imposing suitable fall-off conditions, providing higher-spin counterparts of the Bondi gauge, we observe the existence of an infinite-dimensional asymptotic symmetry algebra. The corresponding Ward identities can be held responsible for Weinberg's factorization theorem for amplitudes involving soft particles of spin greater than two.
Supertranslations, and at least in 2+1 dimensions superrotations, are asymptotic symmetries of the metric in asymptotically flat spacetimes. They are not, however, symmetries of the boundary term of the Einstein-Hilbert action, which therefore induces an action for the Goldstone-like fields that parametrize these symmetries. I show that in 2+1 dimensions, this action is closely related to a chiral Liouville action, as well as the "Schwarzian" action that appears in two-dimensional near-AdS physics.
We show that the asymptotic symmetries close to nonextremal black hole horizons are generated by an extension of supertranslations. This group is generated by a semidirect sum of Virasoro and Abelian currents. The charges associated with the asymptotic Killing symmetries satisfy the same algebra. When considering the special case of a stationary black hole, the zero mode charges correspond to the angular momentum and the entropy at the horizon.
We review recent results on symmetries of asymptotically flat spacetimes at null infinity. In higher dimensions, the symmetry algebra realizes the Poincaré algebra. In three and four dimensions, besides the infinitesimal supertranslations that have been known since the sixties, the algebras are evenly balanced because there are also infinitesimal superrotations. We provide the classification of central extensions of the bms3 and bms4 algebras. Applications and consequences as well as directions for future work are briefly indicated.
A framework that structures the gravitational memory effects and which is consistent with gravitational electric-magnetic duality is presented. A correspondence is described between memory observables, particular subleading residual gauge transformations, associated overleading gauge transformations and their canonical surface charges. It is shown that matter-induced transitions can generate infinite towers of independent memory effects at null infinity. These memories are associated with an infinite number of conservation laws at spatial infinity which lead to degenerate towers of subleading …
It is shown that black hole spacetimes in classical Einstein gravity are characterized by, in addition to their ADM mass $M$, momentum $\vec P$, angular momentum $\vec J$ and boost charge $\vec K$, an infinite head of supertranslation hair. The distinct black holes are distinguished by classical superrotation charges measured at infinity. Solutions with supertranslation hair are diffeomorphic to the Schwarzschild spacetime, but the diffeomorphisms are part of the BMS subgroup and act nontrivially on the physical phase space. It is shown that a black hole can be supertranslated by throwing in a…
In a Rindler-type coordinate system spanned in a region outside of a black hole horizon, we have nonvanishing classical holographic charges as soft hairs on the horizon for stationary black holes. Taking a large black hole mass limit, the spacetimes with the charges are described by asymptotic Rindler metrics. We construct a general theory of gravitational holographic charges for a (1+3)-dimensional linearized gravity field in the Minkowski background with Rindler horizons. Although matter crossing a Rindler horizon causes horizon deformation and a time-dependent coordinate shift, that is, gra…
The Kerr metric models the final classical black hole state after gravitational collapse of matter and radiation. Any stationary metric which is close to the Kerr metric has been proven to be diffeomorphic to it. Now, finite supertranslation diffeomorphisms are symmetries which map solutions to inequivalent solutions as such diffeomorphisms generate conserved superrotation charges. The final state of gravitational collapse is therefore parameterized by its mass, angular momentum and supertranslation field, signaled by its conserved superrotation charges. In this paper, we first derive the angl…
We elaborate on the proposal of flat holography in which four-dimensional physics is encoded in two-dimensional celestial conformal field theory (CCFT). The symmetry underlying CCFT is the extended BMS symmetry of (asymptotically) flat spacetime. We use soft and collinear theorems of Einstein-Yang-Mills theory to derive the OPEs of BMS field operators generating superrotations and supertranslations. The energy-momentum tensor, given by a shadow transform of a soft graviton operator, implements superrotations in the Virasoro subalgebra of $\mathfrak{bms_4}$. Supertranslations can be obtained fr…
The surface charges associated with the symmetries of asymptotically flat four dimensional spacetimes at null infinity are constructed. They realize the symmetry algebra in general only up to a field-dependent central extension that satisfies a suitably generalized cocycle condition. This extension vanishes when using the globally well defined BMS algebra. For the Kerr black hole and the enlarged BMS algebra with both supertranslations and superrotations, some of the supertranslations charges diverge whereas there are no divergences for the superrotation charges. The central extension is propo…
We investigate asymptotic symmetries in flat backgrounds of dimension higher than or equal to four. For spin two we provide the counterpart of the extended BMS transformations found by Campiglia and Laddha in four-dimensional Minkowski space. We then identify higher-spin supertranslations and generalised superrotations in any dimension. These symmetries are in one-to-one correspondence with spin-$s$ partially-massless representations on the celestial sphere, with supertranslations corresponding in particular to the representations with maximal depth. We discuss the definition of the correspond…
We derive a closed-form expression of the orbit of Minkowski spacetime under arbitrary Diff$(S^2)$ super-Lorentz transformations and supertranslations. Such vacua are labelled by the superboost, superrotation and supertranslation fields. Impulsive transitions among vacua are related to the refraction memory effect and the displacement memory effect. A phase space is defined whose asymptotic symmetry group consists of arbitrary Diff$(S^2)$ super-Lorentz transformations and supertranslations. It requires a renormalization of the symplectic structure. We show that our final surface charge express…
We compute the memory effect produced at the black hole horizon by a transient gravitational shockwave. As shown by Hawking, Perry, and Strominger (HPS) such a gravitational wave produces a deformation of the black hole geometry which from future null infinity is seen as a Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) supertranslation. This results in a diffeomorphic but physically distinct geometry which differs from the original black hole by their charges at infinity. Here we give the complementary description of this physical process in the near-horizon region as seen by an observer hovering just outside the …
The Poincaré invariant vacuum is not unique in quantum gravity. The BMS supertranslation symmetry originally defined at null infinity is spontaneously broken and results in inequivalent Poincaré vacua. In this paper we construct the unique vacua which interpolate between past and future null infinity in BMS gauge and which are entirely characterized by an arbitary Goldstone boson defined on the sphere which breaks BMS invariance. We show that these vacua contain a defect which carries no Poincaré charges but which generically carries superrotation charges. We argue that there is a huge degener…
In this paper, we revisit the question of identifying Soft Graviton theorem in higher (even) dimensions with Ward identities associated with Asymptotic symmetries. Building on the prior work of \cite{strominger}, we compute, from first principles, the (asymptotic) charge associated to Supertranslation symmetry in higher even dimensions and show that (i) these charges are non-trivial, finite and (ii) the corresponding Ward identities are indeed the soft graviton theorems.
We revisit the status of asymptotic symmetries in higher even dimensions and propose a definition of superrotation charge beyond linearized gravity. We prove that there is a well-defined spacetime action of the superrotation charge on the space of asymptotically flat geometries. Additionally, we demonstrate that the Ward identity associated with superrotation charges follows from the subleading soft graviton theorem, which is a universal constraint (in $d> 4$) along with the leading soft graviton theorem.
We construct a free field realization of an extension of the BMS algebra in $2+1$ dimensional space-time. Besides the supertranslations and superrotations, the extension contains an infinite set of superdilatations. We also comment the difficulties that appear when trying to extend the algebra to that of the full conformal group.
Inspired by the recent work on the spacetime structure near generic black hole horizons [1], the near horizon charges for an explicit example in higher dimensions than four (d > 4), namely for the five dimensional Myers-Perry metric with two equal rotation parameter are found in Hamiltonian formalism. Finding the supertranslation and the one-form superrotation, it is proved that the Myers-Perry black hole with two equal rotation parameter a = b does not satisfy the gauge flatness condition due to the non-vanishing associated field strength in five dimensional spacetime. It is shown that as the…
Asymptotic symmetries of theories with gravity in d=2m+2 spacetime dimensions are reconsidered for m>1 in light of recent results concerning d=4 BMS symmetries. Weinberg's soft graviton theorem in 2m+2 dimensions is re-expressed as a Ward identity for the gravitational S-matrix. The corresponding asymptotic symmetries are identified with 2m+2-dimensional supertranslations. An alternate derivation of these asymptotic symmetries as diffeomorphisms which preserve finite-energy boundary conditions at null infinity and act non-trivially on physical data is given. Our results differ from those of pr…
We study light-ray operators constructed from the energy-momentum tensor in $d$-dimensional Lorentzian conformal field theory. These include in particular the average null energy operator. The commutators of parallel light-ray operators on a codimension one light-sheet form an infinite-dimensional algebra. We determine this light-ray algebra and find that the $d$-dimensional (generalized) BMS algebra, including both the supertranslation and the superrotation, is a subalgebra. We verify this algebra in correlation functions of free scalar field theory. We also determine the infinite-dimensional…
Weinberg's celebrated factorisation theorem holds for soft quanta of arbitrary integer spin. The same result, for spin one and two, has been rederived assuming that the infinite-dimensional asymptotic symmetry group of Maxwell's equations and of asymptotically flat spaces leave the S-matrix invariant. For higher spins, on the other hand, no such infinite-dimensional asymptotic symmetries were known and, correspondingly, no a priori derivation of Weinberg's theorem could be conjectured. In this contribution we review the identification of higher-spin supertranslations and superrotations in $D=4…
We construct canonical realizations of the $\mathfrak{bms}_3$ algebra as symmetry algebras of a free Klein-Gordon (KG) field in $2+1$ dimensions, for both the massive and massless case. We consider two types of realizations, one on-shell, written in terms of the Fourier modes of the scalar field, and the other one off-shell with non-local transformations written in terms of the KG field and its momenta. These realizations contain both supertranslations and superrotations, for which we construct the corresponding Noether charges.
We consider the memory effect in even dimensional spacetimes of dimension $d \ge 4$ arising from a burst of gravitational radiation. When $d=4$, the natural frames in the stationary eras before and after the burst differ by the composition of a boost and supertranslation, and this supertranslation characterizes the "memory effect," i.e., the permanent displacement of test particles near infinity produced by the radiation burst. However, we show that when $d > 4$, this supertranslation and the corresponding memory effect vanish. Consequently, when $d >4$, it is natural to impose stronger asympt…
We develop the analysis of the asymptotic properties of gravity in higher spacetime dimensions $D$, with a particular emphasis on the case $D=5$. Our approach deals with spatial infinity and is Hamiltonian throughout. It is shown that the asymptotic symmetry algebra BMS$_5$, which is realized non linearly, contains a four-fold family of angle-dependent supertranslations. The structure of this non-linear algebra is investigated and a presentation in which the Poincaré subalgebra is linearly realized is constructed. Invariance of the energy is studied. Concluding comments on higher dimensions $D…
We investigate the notion of asymptotic symmetries in classical gravity in higher even dimensions, with $D = 6$ space-time dimensions as the prototype. Unlike in four dimensions, certain non-linearities persist which necessitates the complete non-linear analysis we undertake. We show that the free data is parametrized by a pair of symmetric trace-free tensors at future (past) null infinity. This involves a redefinition of the radiative field. We define a symplectic structure generating the radiative phase space at ${\cal I}^{\pm}$ with appropriate boundary conditions which are preserved by the…
