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我们考虑将将量子有效场理论中的高维算符绑定到高点算符的技术的扩展。 在X =(∂ϕ)2的理论多项式的上下文中工作,我们研究如何针对因超出(∂ϕ)的算子修改基于因果关系,散射振幅的解析度和频谱表示的统一性来限制此类算子的技术 4。 在我们阐明的弱耦合假设下,我们使用所有三种方法表明,在某些n的X n项的系数λn大于其他项的理论中,λn必须为正值( 在大多数情况下,度量标准签名中的n个偶数(奇数)分别为负)。 在此过程中,我们提出了任意尺寸的所有大型高自旋玻色子的传播分子的第一性原理推导。 我们以更大的普遍性来讨论限制P(X)理论的微妙之处和挑战。 最后,我们检查了有关Lagrangian和Hamilton的Legendre变换上的能量条件,因果关系,稳定性和对合条件之间的联系。
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JHEP11(2018)015
Published for SISSA by Springer
Received: April 26, 2018
Revised: September 7, 2018
Accepted: October 24, 2018
Published: November 6, 2018
Higher-point positivity
Venkatesa Chandrasekaran, Grant N. Remmen and Arvin Shahbazi-Moghaddam
Center for Theoretical Physics and Department of Physics, University of California,
Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A.
E-mail: ven chandrasekaran@berkeley.edu, grant.remmen@berkeley.edu,
arvinshm@berkeley.edu
Abstract: We consider the extension of techniques for bounding higher-dimension oper-
ators in quantum effective field theories to higher-point operators. Working in the context
of theories polynomial in X = (∂φ)
2
, we examine how the techniques of bounding such
operators based on causality, analyticity of scattering amplitudes, and unitarity of the
spectral representation are all modified for operators beyond (∂φ)
4
. Under weak-coupling
assumptions that we clarify, we show using all three methods that in theories in which the
coefficient λ
n
of the X
n
term for some n is larger than the other terms in units of the
cutoff, λ
n
must be positive (respectively, negative) for n even (odd), in mostly-plus metric
signature. Along the way, we present a first-principles derivation of the propagator numer-
ator for all massive higher-spin bosons in arbitrary dimension. We remark on subtleties
and challenges of bounding P (X) theories in greater generality. Finally, we examine the
connections among energy conditions, causality, stability, and the involution condition on
the Legendre transform relating the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian.
Keywords: Effective Field Theories, Scattering Amplitudes
ArXiv ePrint: 1804.03153
Open Access,
c
The Authors.
Article funded by SCOAP
3
.
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2018)015
JHEP11(2018)015
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Bounds from analyticity 3
2.1 The forward limit 3
2.2 Higher-point dispersion relations and bounds for P (X) 4
2.2.1 Even n 5
2.2.2 Odd n 7
3 Bounds from causality 8
4 Bounds from unitarity 10
4.1 All massive bosonic higher-spin propagators in arbitrary D 11
4.2 Bounds for P(X) 13
5 Challenges of more general bounds 15
6 The Legendre transform 15
7 Conclusions 17
1 Introduction
A dramatic development in our knowledge of quantum field theory has been the discovery
that not all effective field theories are consistent with ultraviolet completion in quantum
gravity. Certain Lagrangians that one can write down possess pathologies that are a priori
hidden, but that can be elucidated though careful consideration of consistency conditions
that can be formulated in the infrared and that are thought to be obeyed by any rea-
sonable ultraviolet completion. Such infrared conditions include analyticity of scattering
amplitudes, quantum mechanical unitarity, and causality of particle propagation [1–13],
as well as self-consistency of black hole entropy in the context of the recent proof of the
weak gravity conjecture [14]. Delineating the space of consistent low-energy effective field
theories is of great current interest in the context of the swampland program [15–17],
which seeks to characterize and bound in theory space the possible effective field theo-
ries amenable to ultraviolet completion in quantum gravity. Infrared requirements form
a powerful set of tools, giving us rigorous positivity bounds that complement intuition
from ultraviolet examples. Such self-consistency constraints have been used to bound the
couplings of many different higher-dimension operators in scalar field theory [1], gauge
theory [1], Einstein-Maxwell theory [5, 14], higher-curvature corrections to gravity [3, 7, 9],
and massive gravity [8].
– 1 –
JHEP11(2018)015
The simplest positivity bound on effective theories applies to the coupling of the (∂φ)
4
operator. In a massless theory of a real scalar φ with a shift symmetry, the first higher-
dimension operator that one can add to the kinetic term −∂
µ
φ∂
µ
φ/2 is the operator
(∂φ)
4
= ∂
µ
φ∂
µ
φ∂
ν
φ∂
ν
φ. (1.1)
In a theory given by −
1
2
(∂φ)
2
+ λ(∂φ)
4
, the forward amplitude for two-to-two φ scattering
is A(s) = 16λs
2
. A standard dispersion relation argument [1] then relates the coefficient
of s
2
in this forward amplitude at low energies to an integral over the cross section at high
energies, which physically must be positive. That is, analyticity of scattering amplitudes
guarantees that λ is positive. Similarly, one can compute the speed of propagation of φ
perturbations in a nonzero φ background: one finds that subluminality requires λ > 0
and that if λ < 0 it is straightforward to build causal paradoxes involving superluminal
signaling between two bubbles of φ background with a relative boost. A litany of other
examples of analyticity and causality bounds focuses on similar four-point interactions,
though for more complicated theories and fields involving gauge bosons and gravitons.
In this paper, we explore a new direction in the space of positivity bounds: higher-
point operators. In particular, we will bound the P (X) theory, whose Lagrangian is simply
a polynomial in
X = ∂
µ
φ∂
µ
φ, (1.2)
which in the effective field theory we can write as
1
L = −
1
2
X +
∞
X
i=2
λ
i
X
i
. (1.3)
A case of particular tractability is an nth-order P(X) theory, in which the λ
i
are very
small or zero for i < n for some n > 1, where n is the first nonnegligible higher-order term
in the P(X) polynomial:
L = −
1
2
X +
∞
X
i=n
λ
i
X
i
. (1.4)
We use a weak-coupling assumption from the ultraviolet to the infrared to guarantee a
well-defined ~ counting at all energy scales, as in ref. [9], so that the vanishing of the
tree-level λ
i
for i < n is well defined.
We will show that analyticity of scattering amplitudes and causality of signal propa-
gation imply the same positivity bound on the theory in eq. (1.4):
λ
n
> 0 if n is even,
λ
n
< 0 if n is odd.
(1.5)
We will also find that eq. (1.5) comes about as a consequence of unitarity of quantum
mechanics in the context of spectral representations for a particular class of ultraviolet
completions. This bound represents progress for the program of constraining the allowed
1
We will use mostly-plus metric signature throughout.
– 2 –
JHEP11(2018)015
space of self-consistent low-energy effective theories, constituting a generalization of the
well known (∂φ)
4
bound. Further, the formalism we develop along the way for applying
infrared consistency bounds to higher-point operators is useful in its own right.
Considering X
n
as the first nonnegligible operator in the effective field theory can be
motivated physically in several different ways. We can consider tree-level completions of the
X
i
operators through massive states coupling to (∂φ)
i
. If there is no coupling of massive
states to (∂φ)
i
for i < n, then the tree-level value of λ
i
vanishes for i < n. We can then
place the positivity bound in eq. (1.5) on λ
n
using the tree-level amplitude. Note that this
logic does not contradict the positivity bound on (∂φ)
4
in ref. [1], since λ
2
could still be
generated at loop level, though λ
n
from the tree-level completion would be parametrically
larger in units of the cutoff.
2
Moreover, from the perspective of the effective field theory,
the higher-dimension operators in the nth-order P (X) theory in eq. (1.4) can be viewed as
a sector of a larger theory. For example, taking a complex scalar φ with a Z
n
symmetry
φ → e
2πim/n
φ for integer m, the allowed higher-dimension operators are of the form X
np
,
¯
X
np
, and
ˆ
X
p
for integer p, where
¯
X = ∂
µ
φ
∗
∂
µ
φ
∗
and
ˆ
X = ∂
µ
φ∂
µ
φ
∗
. In particular, all
operators X
i
for i < n would be forbidden and the scattering of 2n φ particles at tree level
would occur only through the X
n
contact operator, just as in the nth-order P (X) theory
in eq. (1.4).
This paper is organized as follows. In section 2, we consider the application of ana-
lyticity bounds for higher-point amplitudes and derive our bound (1.5) on the nth-order
P (X) theory. Next, in section 3 we find that the bound (1.5) also follows from demanding
the absence of causal paradoxes. In section 4 we consider a particular class of tree-level
completions and find that the couplings obey eq. (1.5) as a consequence of unitarity of
the spectral representation. Along the way, we present an elegant derivation of the prop-
agator for higher-spin massive bosons in arbitrary spacetime dimension. We discuss the
obstacles, in the form of kinematic singularities, that preclude straightforward generaliza-
tion of some of these bounds to arbitrary (i.e., not strictly nth-order) P (X) theories in
section 5. In section 6 we show that there is a deep relationship between positivity bounds
and the involution property of the Legendre transform relating the Lagrangian and Hamil-
tonian formulations of the mechanics of the P (X) theory. We conclude and discuss future
directions in section 7.
2 Bounds from analyticity
In this section, we derive the bound in eq. (1.5) through a generalization of the dispersion
relation argument that has been previously applied to two-to-two scattering amplitudes [1].
We first discuss formalism for general n-to-n particle scattering, before considering our
specific theory of interest and deriving the bounds.
2.1 The forward limit
Consider a general effective field theory for which one wishes to bound the couplings of
higher-dimension operators using analyticity of scattering amplitudes. Fundamentally, such
2
We assume a sufficiently weak coupling that it is consistent to drop the lower-point operators that are
suppressed by loop factors, despite additional bounds coming from inelastic scattering [18].
– 3 –
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