The Fradkin-Schwinger functional methods to represent a Green function in an external gravitational field are used to study the eikonal and the next-to-eikonal limit, including the nonlinear gravitational interactions, of the scattering amplitudes of an ultra-relativistic scalar particle on a static super-massive scalar target in the nearly forward limit. The functional approach confirms the exponentiation of the leading eikonal which also applies to the first non-leading power in the energy of the light particle, moreover includes the interaction at impact parameter much larger than the Schwarzschild radius associated with the center of mass energy in the ultra-relativistic limit.
In this thesis we study the conservative gravitational dynamics of binary systems using the eikonal approximation; allowing us to use scattering amplitude techniques to calculate dynamical quantities in classical gravity. This has implications for the study of binary black hole systems and their resulting gravitational waves.
The bulk point singularity limit of conformal correlation functions in Lorentzian signature acts as a microscope to look into local bulk physics in AdS. From it we can extract flat space scattering processes localized in AdS that ultimate should be related to corresponding observables on the conformal field theory at the boundary. In this paper we use this interesting property to propose a map from flat space s-matrix to conformal correlation functions and try it on perturbative gravitational scattering. In particular, we show that the eikonal limit of gravitation scattering maps to a correlat…
Following a semi-classical eikonal approach --- justified at transplanckian energies order by order in the deflection angle $Θ_s\sim\frac{4G\sqrt{s}}{b} \equiv \frac{2 R}{b}$ --- we investigate the infrared features of gravitational scattering and radiation in four space-time dimensions, and we illustrate the factorization and cancellation of the infinite Coulomb phase for scattering and the eikonal resummation for radiation. As a consequence, both the eikonal phase $2δ(E,b)$ and the gravitational-wave (GW) spectrum $\frac{\mathrm{d}E^{GW}}{\mathrm{d}ω}$ are free from infrared problems in a fr…
In this paper we study the two-body gravitational scattering of massive scalars with different masses in general spacetime dimensions. We focus on the Regge limit (eikonal regime) of the resulting scattering amplitudes and discuss how to extract the classical information representing the scattering of two black holes. We derive the leading eikonal and explicitly show the resummation of the first leading energy contribution up to second order in Newton's gravitational constant. We also calculate the subleading eikonal showing that in general spacetime dimensions it receives a non-trivial contri…
We consider the eikonal phase associated with the gravitational scattering of a highly energetic light particle off a very heavy object in AdS spacetime. A simple expression for this phase follows from the WKB approximation to the scattering amplitude and has been computed to all orders in the ratio of the impact parameter to the Schwarzschild radius of the heavy particle. The eikonal phase is related to the deflection angle by the usual stationary phase relation. We consider the flat space limit and observe that for sufficiently small impact parameters (or angular momenta) the eikonal phase d…
We initiate a study into the eikonal exponentiation of the amplitude in impact-parameter space when spinning particles are involved in the scattering. Considering the gravitational scattering of two spin-1/2 particles, we demonstrate that the leading eikonal exhibits exponentiation up to $\mathcal{O}(G^{2})$ in the limit where the spacetime dimension $D\rightarrow4$. We find this to hold for general spin orientations. The exponentiation of the leading eikonal including spin is understood through the unitarity properties at leading order in $\hbar$ of momentum-space amplitudes, allowing the ext…
We apply factorization and eikonal methods from gauge theories to scattering amplitudes in gravity. We hypothesize that these amplitudes factor into an IR-divergent soft function and an IR-finite hard function, with the former given by the expectation value of a product of gravitational Wilson line operators. Using this approach, we show that the IR-divergent part of the n-graviton scattering amplitude is given by the exponential of the one-loop IR divergence, as originally discovered by Weinberg, with no additional subleading IR-divergent contributions in dimensional regularization.
We identify an eikonal regime in celestial CFT$_2$ in which massless 2-2 scattering is dominated by t-channel exchange. We derive a formula for the celestial amplitude that resums exchanges of arbitrary integer spin to all orders in the coupling. The resulting eikonal phase takes the same form as in flat space with the powers of center-of-mass energy replaced by weight-shifting operators on the celestial sphere. We independently compute the celestial two-point function for a scalar propagating in a shockwave background and show that to leading order in the gravitational coupling and for a suit…
Using $\mathcal N=8$ supergravity as a theoretical laboratory, we extract the 3PM gravitational eikonal for two colliding massive scalars from the classical limit of the corresponding elastic two-loop amplitude. We employ the eikonal phase to obtain the physical deflection angle and to show how its non-relativistic (NR) and ultra-relativistic (UR) regimes are smoothly connected. Such a smooth interpolation rests on keeping contributions to the loop integrals originating from the full soft region, rather than restricting it to its potential sub-region. This task is efficiently carried out by us…
Eikonal exponentiation in QFT describes the emergence of classical physics at long distances in terms of a non-trivial resummation of infinitely many diagrams. Long ago, 't Hooft proposed a beautiful correspondence between ultra-relativistic scalar eikonal scattering and one-to-one scattering in a background shockwave space-time, bypassing the need to resum. In this spirit, we propose here a covariant method for computing one-to-one amplitudes in curved background space-times which gives rise what we conjecture to be a general expression for the eikonal amplitude. We show how the one-to-one sc…
Observables related to the real part of the gravitational eikonal, such as the deflection angle and time delay, have been found so far to have a smooth post-Minkowskian (PM) expansion whose validity extends from the non-relativistic to the most extreme ultra-relativistic (UR) regime, which smoothly connects with massless particle collisions. To describe gravitational radiation, the eikonal phase has to be promoted to a unitary operator for which we motivate a proposal and start discussing properties in the soft-radiation limit. A convergent PM expansion is found to only hold below an UR bound …
The asymptotic behavior of the elastic scattering amplitude by the exchange of graviton between two scalar particles at high energies and fixed momentum transfers is reconsidered in the Logunov-Tavkhelidze equation in the linearized gravitational theory. The corrections to the eikonal approximation in the quasi-potential approach of relative order $1/p$ is developed with the principal contributions at high energy. The eikonal expression of scattering amplitude and the formal first correction are derived. The Yukawa potential is applied to discuss the results.
In this paper we study the subleading contributions to eikonal scattering in (super)gravity theories with particular emphasis on the role of both elastic and inelastic scattering processes. For concreteness we focus on the scattering of various massless particles off a stack of D$p$-branes in type II supergravity in the limit of large impact parameter $b$. We analyse the relevant field theory Feynman diagrams which naturally give rise to both elastic and inelastic processes. We show that in the case analysed the leading and subleading eikonal only depend on elastic processes, while inelastic p…
In the scope of black hole spectroscopy, several attempts have been made in the past decades in order to test black holes or gravitational theories via black hole quasinormal modes. In the eikonal approximation, the quasinormal modes are generically associated with the photon ring of the black hole. This correspondence is valid for most cases in general relativity, but may not be true in other theories of gravity. In this paper, we consider the generalized energy-momentum squared gravity in which matter fields are non-minimally coupled to geometry. We investigate the axial perturbations of the…
We generalize the semiclassical treatment of graviton radiation to gravitational scattering at very large energies $\sqrt{s}\gg m_P$ and finite scattering angles $Θ_s$, so as to approach the collapse regime of impact parameters $b \simeq b_c \sim R\equiv 2G\sqrt{s}$. Our basic tool is the extension of the recently proposed, unified form of radiation to the ACV reduced-action model and to its resummed-eikonal exchange. By superimposing that radiation all-over eikonal scattering, we are able to derive the corresponding (unitary) coherent-state operator. The resulting graviton spectrum, tuned on …
We generalize the semiclassical treatment of graviton radiation to gravitational scattering at very large energies $\sqrt{s}\gg m_P$ and finite scattering angles $Θ_s$, so as to approach the collapse regime of impact parameters $b \simeq b_c \sim R\equiv 2G\sqrt{s}$. Our basic tool is the extension of the recently proposed, unified form of radiation to the ACV reduced-action model and to its resummed-eikonal exchange. By superimposing that radiation all-over eikonal scattering, we are able to derive the corresponding (unitary) coherent-state operator. The resulting graviton spectrum, tuned on …
We formulate Wilson loop observables as products of eikonal Wilson lines given in terms of on-shell scattering amplitudes. Using these, we derive the Dirac-Schwinger-Zwanziger quantization condition and its gravitational (Taub-NUT) double copy, where we find a relativistic generalisation of the usual non-relativistic gravitational quantization condition. We also compute the relativistic Wilson loop for an anyon-anyon system, obtaining a similar relativistic generalisation of the Aharonov-Bohm phase for gravitational anyons.
The all-order structure of scattering amplitudes is greatly simplified by the use of Wilson line operators, describing eikonal emissions from straight lines extending to infinity. A generalization at subleading powers in the eikonal expansion, known as Generalized Wilson Line (GWL), has been proposed some time ago, and has been applied both in QCD phenomenology and in the high energy limits of gravitational amplitudes. In this paper we revisit the construction of the scalar gravitational GWL starting from first principles in the worldline formalism. We identify the correct Hamiltonian that lea…
The asymptotic behavior of the scattering amplitude for two scalar particles at high energies with fixed momentum transfers is studied. The study is done within the effective theory of quantum gravity based on quasi-potential equation. By using the modified perturbation theory, a systematic method is developed to find the leading eikonal scattering amplitudes together with corrections to them in the one-loop gravitational approximation. The relation is established and discussed between the solutions obtained by means of the operator and functional approaches applied to quasi-potential equation…
Using the worldline quantum field theory (WQFT) formalism for classical scattering, we study the deflection of light by a heavy massive spinless/spinning object. WQFT requires the use of the worldline dressed propagator of a photon in a gravitational background, which we construct from first principles. The action required to set up the worldline path integral is constructed using auxiliary variables, which describe dynamically the spin degrees of freedom of the photon and take care of path ordering. We test the fully regulated path integral by recovering the photon--photon-graviton vertex. Wi…
Abdus Salam Centre for Theoretical Physics, Imperial College（阿卜杜斯·萨拉姆理论物理中心，帝国理工学院）；University of Southampton（南安普顿大学）；Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学）；University of Pennsylvania（宾夕法尼亚大学）；Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques（高等科学研究所）
Confronting eikonal and post-Kerr methods with numerical evolution of scalar field perturbations in spacetimes beyond Kerr
Università di Napoli “Federico II”（那不勒斯费德里克二世大学）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Napoli（意大利国家核物理研究所那不勒斯分部）；University of Tübingen（蒂宾根大学）；Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)（马克斯·普朗克引力物理学研究所（爱因斯坦研究所））；Ministero dell’Istruzione e del Merito (M.I.M., ex M.I.U.R.)（意大利教育与功绩部）；Scuola Superiore Meridionale（南方高等学院）
Using soft-graviton theorems a well-known zero-frequency limit (ZFL) for the gravitational radiation flux $dE^{GW}/d ω$ is re-derived and extended to order ${\cal O}(ω)$ and ${\cal O}(ω^2)$ for arbitrary massless multi-particle collisions. The (angle-integrated, unpolarized) ${\cal O}(ω)$ correction to the flux turns out to be absent in the case of two-particle elastic collisions. The ${\cal O}(ω^2)$ correction is instead non-vanishing and takes a simple general expression which is then applied to bremsstrahlung from two-particle elastic collisions. For a tree-level process the outcome is fini…
Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) serves as a useful toy model for classical observables in gravitational two-body systems with reduced complexity due to the linearity of QED. We investigate scattering observables in scalar QED at the sixth order in the charges (two-loop order) in a classical regime analogous to the post-Minkowskian expansion in General Relativity. We employ modern scattering amplitude tools and extract classical observables by both eikonal methods and the formalism of Kosower, Maybee, and O'Connell (KMOC). In addition, we provide a simplified approach to extracting the radial act…
We study water waves propagating over a smooth obstacle in a fluid of varying depth, motivated by the observation that submerged islands in the ocean act as effective lenses that increase the amplitude and destructive power of tsunami waves near focal points. We show that islands of substantial height (compared to the water depth) lead to strong focusing in their immediate vicinity, and generate caustics of either cusp or butterfly type. We highlight similarities and differences with focusing of (high-frequency) gravitational waves by a neutron star. In the linear regime, the comparison is mad…
An exponential representation of the S-matrix provides a natural framework for understanding the semi-classical limit of scattering amplitudes. While sharing some similarities with the eikonal formalism it differs from it in details. Computationally, rules are simple because pieces that must be subtracted are given by combinations of unitarity cuts. Analyzing classical gravitational scattering to third Post-Minkowskian order in both maximal supergravity and Einstein gravity we find agreement with other approaches, including the contributions from radiation reaction terms. The kinematical relat…
We compute the scattering amplitude for classical black-hole scattering to third order in the Post-Minkowskian expansion, keeping all terms needed to derive the scattering angle to that order from the eikonal formalism. Our results confirm a conjectured relation between the real and imaginary parts of the amplitude by Di Vecchia, Heissenberg, Russo, and Veneziano, and are in agreement with a recent computation by Damour based on radiation reaction in general relativity.
We examine the Regge (high energy) limit of 4-point scattering in both QCD and gravity, using recently developed techniques to systematically compute all corrections up to next-to-leading power in the exchanged momentum i.e. beyond the eikonal approximation. We consider the situation of two scalar particles of arbitrary mass, thus generalising previous calculations in the literature. In QCD, our calculation describes power-suppressed corrections to the Reggeisation of the gluon. In gravity, we confirm a previous conjecture that next-to-soft corrections correspond to two independent deflection …
