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Main Authors: Aoki, Katsuki, Huang, Yu-tin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.13520
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author Aoki, Katsuki
Huang, Yu-tin
author_facet Aoki, Katsuki
Huang, Yu-tin
contents In this work, we study the analytic properties of S-matrix for unstable particles, which is defined as the residues on the unphysical sheets where unstable poles reside. We demonstrate that anomalous thresholds associated with UV physics are unavoidable for unstable particles. This is in contrast to stable particles, where the anomalous thresholds are due to IR physics, set by the scale of the external kinematics. As a result, any dispersive representation for the amplitude will involve contributions from these thresholds that are not computable from the IR theory, and thus invalidate the general positivity bound. Indeed using toy models, we explicitly demonstrate that the four-derivative couplings for unstable particles can become negative, violating positivity bounds even for non-gravitational theories. Along the way, we show that contributions from anomalous thresholds in a given channel can be captured by the double discontinuity of that channel.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2312_13520
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Anomalous Thresholds for the S-matrix of Unstable Particles
Aoki, Katsuki
Huang, Yu-tin
High Energy Physics - Theory
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
In this work, we study the analytic properties of S-matrix for unstable particles, which is defined as the residues on the unphysical sheets where unstable poles reside. We demonstrate that anomalous thresholds associated with UV physics are unavoidable for unstable particles. This is in contrast to stable particles, where the anomalous thresholds are due to IR physics, set by the scale of the external kinematics. As a result, any dispersive representation for the amplitude will involve contributions from these thresholds that are not computable from the IR theory, and thus invalidate the general positivity bound. Indeed using toy models, we explicitly demonstrate that the four-derivative couplings for unstable particles can become negative, violating positivity bounds even for non-gravitational theories. Along the way, we show that contributions from anomalous thresholds in a given channel can be captured by the double discontinuity of that channel.
title Anomalous Thresholds for the S-matrix of Unstable Particles
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.13520