Celestial amplitudes represent 4D scattering of particles in boost, rather than the usual energy-momentum, eigenstates and hence are sensitive to both UV and IR physics. We show that known UV and IR properties of quantum gravity translate into powerful constraints on the analytic structure of celestial amplitudes. For example the soft UV behavior of quantum gravity is shown to imply that the exact four-particle scattering amplitude is meromorphic in the complex boost weight plane with poles confined to even integers on the negative real axis. Would-be poles on the positive real axis from UV asymptotics are shown to be erased by a flat space analog of the AdS resolution of the bulk point singularity. The residues of the poles on the negative axis are identified with operator coefficients in the IR effective action. Far along the real positive axis, the scattering is argued to grow exponentially according to the black hole area law. Exclusive amplitudes are shown to simply factorize into conformally hard and conformally soft factors. The soft factor contains all IR divergences and is given by a celestial current algebra correlator of Goldstone bosons from spontaneously broken asymptotic symmetries. The hard factor describes the scattering of hard particles together with the boost-eigenstate clouds of soft photons or gravitons required by asymptotic symmetries. These provide an IR safe $\mathcal{S}$-matrix for the scattering of hard particles.
Celestial holography provides a promising avenue to studying bulk scattering in flat spacetime from the perspective of boundary celestial conformal field theory (CCFT). A key ingredient in connecting the two sides is the celestial amplitude, which is given by the Mellin transform of momentum space scattering amplitude in energy. As such, celestial amplitudes can be identified with the correlation functions in celestial conformal field theory. In this paper, we introduce the further notion of celestial Mellin amplitude, which is given by the Mellin transform of celestial amplitude in coordinate…
Massless scattering amplitudes in four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime can be Mellin transformed to correlation functions on the celestial sphere at null infinity called celestial amplitudes. We study various properties of massless four-point scalar and gluon celestial amplitudes such as conformal partial wave decomposition, crossing relations and optical theorem. As a byproduct, we derive the analog of the single and double soft limits for all gluon celestial amplitudes.
Celestial and momentum space amplitudes for massless particles are related to each other by a change of basis provided by the Mellin transform. Therefore properties of celestial amplitudes have counterparts in momentum space amplitudes and vice versa. In this paper, we study the celestial avatar of dual superconformal symmetry of $\mathcal{N}=4$ Yang-Mills theory. We also analyze various differential equations known to be satisfied by celestial $n$-point tree-level MHV amplitudes and identify their momentum space origins.
We study scattering amplitudes in the shadow conformal primary basis, which satisfies the same defining properties as the original conformal primary basis and has many advantages over it. The shadow celestial amplitudes exhibit locality manifestly on the celestial sphere, and behave like correlation functions in conformal field theory under the operator product expansion (OPE) limit. We study the OPE limits for three-point shadow celestial amplitude, and general $2\to n-2$ shadow celestial amplitudes from a large class of Feynman diagrams. In particular, we compute the conformal block expansio…
Celestial amplitudes provide holographic imprints of four-dimensional scattering processes in terms of conformal correlation functions on a two-dimensional sphere describing Minkowski space at null infinity. We construct the generators of Poincare and conformal groups in the celestial representation and discuss how these symmetries are manifest in the amplitudes.
Scattering amplitudes of massless particles in Minkowski space can be expressed in a conformal basis by Mellin transforming the momentum space amplitudes to correlation functions on the celestial sphere at null infinity. In this paper, we study celestial amplitudes of loop level gluons and gravitons. We focus on the rational amplitudes that carry all-plus and single-minus external helicities. Because these amplitudes are finite, they provide a concrete example of celestial amplitudes of Yang- Mills and gravity theory beyond tree level. We give explicit examples of four and five point functions…
In this paper, we study the implications of bulk locality on the celestial amplitude. In the context of the four-point amplitude, the fact that the bulk S-matrix factorizes locally in poles of Mandelstam variables is reflected in the imaginary part of the celestial amplitude. In particular, on the real axis in the complex plane of the boost weight, the imaginary part of the celestial amplitude can be given as a positive expansion on the Poincaré partial waves, which are nothing but the projection of flat-space spinning polynomials onto the celestial sphere. Furthermore, we derive the celestial…
Lecture notes prepared for the 2021 SAGEX PhD School in Amplitudes hosted by the University of Copenhagen August 10th through 13th. Topics covered include: the manifestation of asymptotic symmetries via soft theorems, their organization into currents in a celestial CFT, aspects of the holographic dictionary, a literature guide, and accompanying exercises.
In this paper we evaluate the modified celestial amplitude for gravitons and gluons, as defined in arXiv:1801.10171[hep-th]. We find that the modified (tree) amplitude is finite for gravitons in Einstein gravity. The modified amplitude behaves like correlation function of operators inserted at various points of null-infinity in the Minkowski space-time. Therefore, unlike the standard celestial amplitudes, these are three dimensional objects. We also show that this amplitude admits conformal soft factorization recently studied in the literature.
Off-shell celestial amplitudes with both time-like and space-like external legs are defined. The Feynman rules for scalar amplitudes, viewed as a set of recursion relations for off-shell momentum space amplitudes, are transformed to the celestial sphere using the split representation. For four-point celestial amplitudes, the Feynman expansion is shown to be equivalent to a conformal partial wave decomposition, providing an interpretation of conformal partial wave expansion coefficients as integrals over off-shell three-point structures. A conformal partial wave decomposition for a simple four-…
Pasterski, Shao and Strominger have recently proposed that massless scattering amplitudes can be mapped to correlators on the celestial sphere at infinity via a Mellin transform. We apply this prescription to arbitrary $n$-point tree-level gluon amplitudes. The Mellin transforms of MHV amplitudes are given by generalized hypergeometric functions on the Grassmannian $Gr(4,n)$, while generic non-MHV amplitudes are given by more complicated Gelfand $A$-hypergeometric functions.
The analytic structures of scattering amplitudes in gauge theory and gravity are examined on the celestial sphere. The celestial amplitudes in the two theories - computed by employing a regulated Mellin transform - can be compared at low multiplicity. It is established by direct computation that up to five external particles, the double copy relations of Kawai, Lewellen and Tye continue to hold identically, modulo certain multiplicative factors which are explicitly determined. Supersymmetric representations of the amplitudes are utilized throughout, manifesting the double copy structure betwee…
Celestial amplitude is a new reformulation of momentum space scattering amplitude and offers a promising way for flat holography. In this paper, we study the celestial amplitude in $\mathcal N=4$ Super-Yang-Mills (SYM) theory aiming at understanding the role of superconformal symmetry in celestial holography. We first construct the superconformal generators acting on the celestial superfield which assembles all the on-shell fields in the multiplet together in terms of celestial variables and Grassmann parameters. These generators satisfy the superconformal algebra of $\mathcal N=4$ SYM theory.…
Recently, scattering amplitudes in four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime have been interpreted as conformal correlation functions on the two-dimensional celestial sphere, the so-called celestial amplitudes. In this note we consider tree-level scattering amplitudes in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory and present a Grassmannian formulation of their celestial counterparts. This result paves the way towards a geometric picture for celestial superamplitudes, in the spirit of positive geometries.
We consider Yang-Mills theory with the coupling constant and theta angle determined by the vacuum expectation values of a dynamical (complex) dilaton field. We discuss the tree-level N-gluon MHV scattering amplitudes in the presence of a nontrivial background dilaton field and construct the corresponding celestial amplitudes by taking Mellin transforms with respect to the lightcone energies. In this way, we obtain two-dimensional CFT correlators of primary fields on the celestial sphere. We show that the celestial Yang-Mills amplitudes evaluated in the presence of a spherical dilaton shockwave…
We start by constructing a conformally covariant improvement of the celestial light transform which keeps track of the mixing between incoming and outgoing states under finite Lorentz transformations in $\mathbb{R}^{2,2}$. We then compute generic 2, 3 and 4-point celestial amplitudes for massless external states in the ambidextrous basis prepared by composing this $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ intertwiner with the usual celestial map between momentum and boost eigenstates. The results are non-distributional in the celestial coordinates $(z,\bar{z})$ and conformally covariant in all scattering ch…
Both celestial and momentum space amplitudes in four dimensions are beset by divergences resulting from spacetime translation and sometimes scale invariance. In this paper we consider a (linearized) marginal deformation of the celestial CFT for Yang-Mills theory which preserves 2D conformal invariance but breaks both spacetime translation and scale invariance and involves a chirally coupled massive scalar. The resulting celestial amplitudes are completely finite (apart from the usual soft and collinear divergences) and take the canonical CFT form. Moreover, we show they can be simply rewritten…
The formalism of relativistic partial wave expansion is developed for four-point celestial amplitudes of massless external particles. In particular, relativistic partial waves are found as eigenfunctions to the product representation of celestial Poincaré Casimir operators with appropriate eigenvalues. The requirement of hermiticity of Casimir operators is used to fix the corresponding integral inner product, and orthogonality of the obtained relativistic partial waves is verified explicitly. The completeness relation, as well as the relativistic partial wave expansion follow. Example celestia…
Using the ambitwistor string, we compute tree-level celestial amplitudes for biadjoint scalars, Yang-Mills and gravity to all multiplicities. They are presented in compact CHY-like formulas with operator-valued scattering equations and numerators acting on a generalized hypergeometric function. With these we extend the celestial double copy to tree-level amplitudes with arbitrary number of external states. We also show how color-kinematics duality is implemented in celestial amplitudes and its interpretation in terms of a generalized twisted cohomology theory.
The functional structure of celestial amplitudes as constrained by Poincaré symmetry is investigated in $2,3,$ and $4$-point cases for massless external particles of various spin, as well as massive external scalars. Functional constraints and recurrence relations are found (akin to the findings in arXiv:1901.01622) that must be obeyed by the respective permissible correlator structures and function coefficients. In specific three-point cases involving massive scalars the resulting recurrence relations can be solved, e.g. reproducing purely from symmetry a three-point function coefficient know…
We discuss the properties of recently constructed "single-valued" celestial four-gluon amplitudes. We show that the amplitude factorizes into the "current" part and the "scalar" part. The current factor is given by the group-dependent part of the Wess-Zumino-Witten correlator of four holomorphic currents with a non-vanishing level of Kač-Moody algebra. The scalar factor can be expressed in terms of a complex integral of the Koba-Nielsen form, similar to the integrals describing four-point correlators in Coulomb gas models and, more generally, in the infinite central charge limit of Liouville t…
In a recent paper, here referred to as part I, we considered the celestial four-gluon amplitude with one gluon represented by the shadow transform of the corresponding primary field operator. This correlator is ill-defined because it contains branch points related to the presence of conformal blocks with complex spin. In this work, we adopt a procedure similar to minimal models and construct a single-valued completion of the shadow correlator, in the limit when the shadow is "soft." By following the approach of Dotsenko and Fateev, we obtain an integral representation of such a single-valued c…
The all-loop resummation of SU$(N)$ gauge theory amplitudes is known to factorize into an IR-divergent (soft and collinear) factor and a finite (hard) piece. The divergent factor is universal, whereas the hard function is a process-dependent quantity. We prove that this factorization persists for the corresponding celestial amplitudes. Moreover, the soft/collinear factor becomes a scalar correlator of the product of renormalized Wilson lines defined in terms of celestial data. Their effect on the hard amplitude is a shift in the scaling dimensions by an infinite amount, proportional to the cus…
We show that the Mellin transform of an $n$-point tree level MHV gluon scattering amplitude, also known as the celestial amplitude in pure Yang-Mills theory, satisfies a system of $(n-2)$ linear first order partial differential equations corresponding to $(n-2)$ positive helicity gluons. Although these equations closely resemble Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov equations for $SU(N)$ current algebra there is also an additional "correction" term coming from the subleading soft gluon current algebra. These equations can be used to compute the leading term in the gluon-gluon OPE on the celestial sphere. Sim…
Recent attempts at the construction of holography for asymptotically flat spacetimes have taken two different routes. Celestial holography, involving a two dimensional (2d) CFT dual to 4d Minkowski spacetime, has generated novel results in asymptotic symmetry and scattering amplitudes. A different formulation, using Carrollian CFTs, has been principally used to provide some evidence for flat holography in lower dimensions. Understanding of flatspace scattering has been lacking in the Carroll framework. In this work, using ideas from Celestial holography, we show that 3d Carrollian CFTs living …
The Cachazo-Strominger subleading soft graviton theorem for a positive helicity soft graviton is equivalent to the Ward identities for $\overline{SL(2,\mathbb C)}$ currents. This naturally gives rise to a $\overline{SL(2,\mathbb C)}$ current algebra living on the celestial sphere. The generators of the $\overline{SL(2,\mathbb C)}$ current algebra and the supertranslations, coming from a positive helicity leading soft graviton, form a closed algebra. We find that the OPE of two graviton primaries in the Celestial CFT, extracted from MHV amplitudes, is completely determined in terms of this alge…
We show that associativity of the tree-level OPE in a celestial CFT imposes constraints on the coupling constants of the corresponding bulk theory. These constraints are the same as those derived in arXiv:2111.11356 from the Jacobi identity of the algebra of soft modes. The constrained theories are interesting as apparently well-defined celestial CFTs with a deformed $w_{1+\infty}$ symmetry algebra. We explicitly work out the ramifications of these constraints on scattering amplitudes involving gluons, gravitons and scalars in these theories. We find that all four-point amplitudes constructibl…
These notes consist of 3 lectures on celestial holography given at the Pre-Strings school 2021. We start by reviewing how semiclassically, the subleading soft graviton theorem implies an enhancement of the Lorentz symmetry of scattering in four-dimensional asymptotically flat gravity to Virasoro. This leads to the construction of celestial amplitudes as $\mathcal{S}$-matrices computed in a basis of boost eigenstates. Both massless and massive asymptotic states are recast as insertions on the celestial sphere transforming as global conformal primaries under the Lorentz SL$(2, \mathbb{C})$. We c…
We propose a new program for computing a certain integrand of scattering amplitudes of four-dimensional gauge theories which we call the \textit{form factor integrand}, starting from 6d holomorphic theories on twistor space. We show that the form factor integrands can be expressed as sums of products of 1.) correlators of a 2d chiral algebra, related to the algebra of asymptotic symmetries uncovered recently in the celestial holography program, and 2.) OPE coefficients of a 4d non-unitary CFT. We prove that conformal blocks of the chiral algebras are in one-to-one correspondence with local ope…
Low multiplicity celestial amplitudes of gluons and gravitons tend to be distributional in the celestial coordinates $z,\bar z$. We provide a new systematic remedy to this situation by studying celestial amplitudes in a basis of light transformed boost eigenstates. Motivated by a novel equivalence between light transforms and Witten's half-Fourier transforms to twistor space, we light transform every positive helicity state in the coordinate $z$ and every negative helicity state in $\bar z$. With examples, we show that this "ambidextrous" prescription beautifully recasts two- and three-point c…
We study the celestial description of the $O(N)$ sigma model in the large $N$ limit as introduced by Coleman, Jackiw and Politzer. Focusing on three dimensions, we analyze the implications of a UV complete, all-loop order 4-point amplitude of pions in terms of correlation functions defined on the celestial circle. We find these retain many key features from the previously studied tree-level case, such as their relation to Generalized Free Field theories and crossing-symmetry, but also incorporate new properties such as IR/UV softness and S-matrix metastable states. In particular, to understand…
