We demonstrate the universality of the gravitational classical deflection angle of massless particles through O(G^3) by studying the high-energy limit of full two-loop four-graviton scattering amplitudes in pure Einstein gravity as well as N >= 4 supergravity. As a by-product, our first-principles calculation provides a direct confirmation of the massless deflection angle in Einstein gravity proposed long ago by Amati, Ciafaloni and Veneziano, and is inconsistent with a recently proposed alternative.
We consider the tree-level scattering amplitudes in the NS-NS (Neveu-Schwarz) massless sector of closed superstrings in the case where one external state becomes soft. We compute the amplitudes generically for any number of dimensions and any number and kind of the massless closed states through the subsubleading order in the soft expansion. We show that, when the soft state is a graviton or a dilaton, the full result can be expressed as a soft theorem factorizing the amplitude in a soft and a hard part. This behavior is similar to what has previously been observed in field theory and in the b…
Relativistic spin states are convention dependent. In this work we prove that the zero momentum-transfer limits of the leading two form factors in the decomposition of the energy-momentum tensor matrix elements are independent of this choice. In particular, we demonstrate that these constraints are insensitive to whether the corresponding states are massive or not, and that they arise purely due to the Poincaré covariance of the states.
We demonstrate that full description of both electromagnetic and gravitational radiation from massless particles lies outside the scope of classical theory. Synchrotron radiation from the hypothetical massless charge in quantum electrodynamics in external magnetic field has finite total power while the corresponding classical formula diverges in the massless limit. We argue that in both cases classical theory describes correctly only the low-frequency part of the spectra, while the total power diverges because of absence of the UV frequency cutoff. Failure of description of gravitational radia…
By adopting a local QFT framework one can derive in a non-perturbative manner the constraints imposed by Poincaré symmetry on the form factors appearing in the Lorentz covariant decomposition of the energy-momentum tensor matrix elements. In particular, this approach enables one to prove that these constraints are in fact independent of the internal properties of the states appearing in the matrix elements. Here we outline the rationale behind this approach, and report on some of the implications of these findings.
We show the universal soft behavior of massless particles at the tree level by considering the operator product expansion of the soft vertex operator with the hard vertex operators. We find that after eliminating total derivative terms the world-sheet integral for the soft vertex is determined only by the regions that are close to the hard verteces. This analyses can be applied to massless particles in various theories such as bosonic closed string, closed superstring and heterotic string. When the hard particle is massive we find that a mixing with different vertex operators occurs.
We investigate the dynamics of homogeneous gravitational collapse of a massless vector field in the presence of a positive cosmological constant $Λ$. The corresponding density function $ρ(a)$ obtained for the massless vector field is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the scale factor $a (t)$. The variation of the scale factor shows that for $0\, \leΛ< 1$, we obtain the gravitational collapse of the vector fields leading singularity formation in a {\it finite} comoving time resulting in a {\it Blackhole} such that with increasing $Λ$, the singularity formation time, $t_s$ increases.…
In this paper, we calculate the contribution of the late time mode of a massless vector field to the power spectrum of the primordial gravitational wave using retarded Green's propagator. We consider a non-trivial coupling between gravity and the vector field. We find that the correction is scale-invariant and of order $\frac{H^4}{M_P^4}$. The non-minimal coupling leads to a dependence of $\frac{H^2}{M^2}$, which can amplify the correlation function up to the level of $\frac{H^2}{M^2_P}$.
We study the spherically symmetric gravitational collapse of massless scalar matter field in asymptotic flat spacetime in $f(R)$ gravity. In the Einstein frame of $f(R)$ gravity, an additional scalar field arises due to the conformal transformation. We find that besides the usual competition between gravitational energy and kinetic energy in the process of gravitational collapse, the new scalar field brought by the conformal transformation adds one more competing force in the dynamical system. The dynamical competition can be controlled by tuning the amplitudes of the initial perturbations of …
The angular and frequency characteristics of the gravitational radiation emitted in collisions of massless particles is studied perturbatively in the context of classical General Relativity for small values of the ratio $α\equiv 2 r_S/b$ of the Schwarzschild radius over the impact parameter. The particles are described with their trajectories, while the contribution of the leading nonlinear terms of the gravitational action is also taken into account. The old quantum results are reproduced in the zero frequency limit $ω\ll 1/b$. The radiation efficiency $ε\equiv E_{\rm rad}/2E$ outside a narro…
This paper studies the whole process of gravitational collapse and accretion of a massless scalar field in asymptotically flat spacetime. Two kinds of initial configurations are considered. One is the initial data without black hole, the other contains a black hole. Under suitable initial conditions, we find that multi-horizon will appear, which means that the initial black hole formed by gravitational collapse or existing at the beginning will instantly expand and suddenly grow, rather than grows gradually in the accretion process. A new type of critical behavior is found around the instant e…
In this work, the field of a gravitational shockwave generated by a massless point-like particle is calculated at the event horizon of a stationary Kerr-Newman black hole. Using the geometric framework of generalized Kerr-Schild deformations in combination with the spin-coefficient formalism of Newman and Penrose, it is shown that the field equations of the theory, at the event horizon of the black hole, can be reduced to a single linear ordinary differential equation for the so-called profile function of the geometry. This differential relation is solved exactly. Based on the results obtained…
We provide a simple and clear verification of the physical need for temperature gradients in equilibrium states when gravitational fields are present. Our argument will be built in a completely kinematic manner, in terms of the gravitational red-shift/blue-shift of light, together with a relativistic extension of Maxwell's two column argument. We conclude by showing that it is the universality of the gravitational interaction (the uniqueness of free-fall) that ultimately permits Tolman's equilibrium temperature gradients without any violation of the laws of thermodynamics.
We demonstrate that the use of on-shell methods involving calculation of the discontinuity across the t-channel cut associated with the exchange of a pair of massless particles can be used to evaluate loop contributions to the electromagnetic and gravitational scattering of both massive and massless particles. In the gravitational case the use of factorization permits a straightforward and algebraic calculation of higher order scattering results, which were obtained previously by considerably more arduous Feynman diagram techniques.
We study the possibility that massless particles, such as photons, are produced by a gravitational wave. That such a process should occur is implied by tree-level, Feynman diagrams such as two gravitons turning into two photons i.e. $g + g \rightarrow γ+ γ$. Here we calculate the rate at which a gravitational wave creates a massless, scalar field. This is done by placing the scalar field in the background of a plane gravitational wave and calculating the 4-current of the scalar field. Even in the vacuum limit of the scalar field it has a non-zero vacuum expectation value (similar to what occur…
We discuss the role of gravitational corrections to the running of the electric charge through the evaluation of scattering amplitudes of charged particles in massless scalar electrodynamics. Computing the complete divergent part of the S-matrix amplitude for two distinct scattering processes, we show that quantum gravitational corrections do not alter the running behavior of the electric charge. Our result does not exclude the possibility that the presence of a second dimensional constant in the model (a cosmological constant or the presence of massive particles) could alter this behavior, as…
Universality of Primordial Anisotropies in Gravitational Wave Background
School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University（同济大学物理科学与工程学院）；Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamaguchi University（山口大学理工学研究科）；Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo（东京大学宇宙线研究所 Kavli宇宙物理数学研究所）；Institute for Advanced Study of Tongji University（同济大学高等研究院）；Center for Gravitation and Cosmology, Yangzhou University（扬州大学引力与宇宙学中心）
We calculate the quantum corrections to the gauge-invariant gravitational potentials of spinning particles in flat space, induced by loops of both massive and massless matter fields of various types. While the corrections to the Newtonian potential induced by massless conformal matter for spinless particles are well-known, and the same corrections due to massless minimally coupled scalars [Class. Quant. Grav. 27 (2010) 245008], massless non-conformal scalars [Phys. Rev. D 87 (2013) 104027] and massive scalars, fermions and vector bosons [Phys. Rev. D 91 (2015) 064047] have been recently derive…
We consider single graviton loop corrections to the effective field equation of a massless, minimally coupled scalar on de Sitter background in the simplest gauge. We find a large temporal logarithm in the approach to freeze-in at late times, but no correction to the feeze-in amplitude. We also find a large spatial logarithm (at large distances) in the scalar potential generated by a point source, which can be explained using the renormalization group with one of the higher derivative counterterms regarded as a curvature-dependent field strength renormalization. We discuss how these results se…
We employ gauge-gravity duality to study the backreaction effect of 4-dimensional large-$N$ quantum field theories on constant-curvature backgrounds, and in particular de Sitter space-time. The field theories considered are holographic QFTs, dual to RG flows between UV and IR CFTs. We compute the holographic QFT contribution to the gravitational effective action for 4d Einstein manifold backgrounds. We find that for a given value of the cosmological constant $λ$, there generically exist two backreacted constant-curvature solutions, as long as $λ< λ_{\textrm{max}} \sim M_p^2 / N^2$, otherwise n…
We discuss the ultra-relativistic gravitational scattering of two massive particles at two-loop (3PM) level. We find that in this limit the real part of the eikonal, determining the deflection angle, is universal for gravitational theories in the two derivative approximation. This means that, regardless of the number of supersymmetries or the nature of the probes, the result connects smoothly with the massless case discussed since the late eighties by Amati, Ciafaloni and Veneziano. We analyse the problem both by using the analyticity and crossing properties of the scattering amplitudes and, i…
If two ultrarelativistic nonrotating black holes of masses $m_1$ and $m_2$ approach each other with fixed center-of-momentum (COM) total energy $E = \sqrt{s} \gg (m_1+m_2)c^2$ that has a corresponding Schwarzschild radius $R = 2GE/c^4$ much larger than the Schwarzschild radii of the individual black holes, here it is conjectured that at the critical impact parameter $b_c$ between scattering and coalescing into a single black hole, there will be an inspiral of many orbital rotations for $m_1c^2/E \ll 1$ and $m_2c^2/E \ll 1$ before a final black hole forms, during which all of the initial kineti…
In the context of the bosonic string theory, we shall extract the general radiation amplitude of a massless closed string from the interaction of two parallel unstable D$p$-branes. The branes are non-stationary and have been dressed by background fields. The foregoing amplitude will be rewritten for the massless state radiation from the branes with the large distance. Besides, we shall study the gravitational and dilatonic radiations from this configuration.
The angular and frequency characteristics of the gravitational radiation emitted in collisions of massless particles is studied perturbatively in the context of classical General Relativity for small values of the ratio $α= 2 r_S/b$ of the Schwarzschild radius over the impact parameter. The particles are described with their trajectories, while the contribution of the leading nonlinear terms of the gravitational action is also taken into account. The old quantum results are reproduced in the zero frequency limit $ω\ll 1/b$. The radiation efficiency $ε\equiv E_{\rm rad}/2E$ outside a narrow con…
We compute the scattering amplitudes of four massless states for chiral (closed) bosonic and type II superstrings using the Kawai-Lewellen-Tye ($KLT$) factorization method. The amplitude in the chiral bosonic case is identical to a field theory amplitude corresponding to the spin-$2$ tachyon, massless gravitational sector and massive spin-2 tardyon states of the spectrum. Chiral type II superstrings amplitude only possess poles associated with the massless gravitational sector. We briefly discuss the extension of the calculation to heterotic superstrings.
The free Dirac equation is solved in a Bianchi Type I space-time, which represents a homogeneous but anisotropic universe, to show the creation of fermionic particles. It is found that unlike in the isotropic case, massless fermion production is possible. An estimate of the energy density of massless particles created during an early anisotropic phase of cosmological expansion is shown to cause substantial back-reaction on the gravitational field. The potential relevance to dark matter particle production, primordial magnetogenesis, and early universe cosmology is discussed briefly.
We use the conformal bootstrap equations to study the non-perturbative gravitational scattering between infalling and outgoing particles in the vicinity of a black hole horizon in AdS. We focus on irrational 2D CFTs with large $c$ and only Virasoro symmetry. The scattering process is described by the matrix element of two light operators (particles) between two heavy states (BTZ black holes). We find that the operator algebra in this regime is (i) universal and identical to that of Liouville CFT, and (ii) takes the form of an exchange algebra, specified by an R-matrix that exactly matches with…
In this paper we discuss the universality of the renormalization of the gauge coupling constant in the quantum electrodynamics coupled to the Einstein's gravity in the framework of effective field theory in an arbitrary gauge. We observe that the renormalization of the three-point functions with different particles receive different contributions from the gravitational sector. Despite that, the universality of the gauge coupling constants is guaranteed by the Ward identity that makes the renormalized electric charge receive no contribution from the gravitational sector at one-loop order.
We investigate the asymptotic safety scenario for a scalar-gravity system. This system contains two avatars of the dynamical Newton coupling, a gravitational self-coupling and a scalar-graviton coupling. We uncover an effective universality for the dynamical Newton coupling on the quantum level: its momentum-dependent avatars are in remarkable quantitative agreement in the scaling regime of the UV fixed point. For the background Newton coupling, this effective universality is not present, but qualitative agreement remains.
We introduce a covariant Multipole Expansion for the scattering of a massive particle emitting photons or gravitons in $D$ dimensions. We find that these amplitudes exhibit very powerful features such as universality, soft exponentiation, orbit and spin multipoles, etc. Using ${\rm{SO}}(D)$ representation theory we show that the photon and graviton amplitudes are related via a new double copy procedure for massive spinning states. All these features are then promoted to properties of the observables arising in the classical version of such theories. Focusing on radiation, we provide two main a…
The striking GW170817 event indicated that the graviton is nearly massless, since the gamma rays emitted from the two neutron stars merging arrived almost simultaneously with the gravitational waves. Thus, the graviton must also be massless during the inflationary and post-inflationary era, since there is no obvious reason to believe otherwise. In this letter we shall investigate the theoretical implications of the constraint that the graviton is massless to an Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory with linear coupling of the scalar field to the four dimensional Gauss-Bonnet invariant. As we show, the …
