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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.17328 |
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| _version_ | 1866917556855504896 |
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| author | Cremonini, Sera McPeak, Brian Tang, Yuezhang |
| author_facet | Cremonini, Sera McPeak, Brian Tang, Yuezhang |
| contents | The requirement that particles propagate causally on non-trivial backgrounds implies interesting constraints on higher-derivative operators. This work is part of a systematic study of the positivity bounds derivable from time delays on shockwave backgrounds. First, we discuss shockwaves in field theory, which are infinitely boosted Coulomb-like field configurations. We show how a positive time delay implies positivity of four-derivative operators in scalar field theory and electromagnetism, consistent with the results derived using dispersion relations, and we comment on how additional higher-derivative operators could be included.
We then turn to gravitational shockwave backgrounds. We compute the infinite boost limit of Reissner-Nordström black holes to derive charged shockwave backgrounds. We consider photons traveling on these backgrounds and interacting through four-derivative corrections to Einstein-Maxwell theory. The inclusion of gravity introduces a logarithmic term into the time delay that interferes with the straightforward bounds derivable in pure field theory, a fact consistent with CEMZ and with recent results from dispersion relations. We discuss two ways to extract a physically meaningful quantity from the logarithmic time delay -- by introducing an IR cutoff, or by considering the derivative of the time delay -- and comment on the bounds implied in each case. Finally, we review a number of additional shockwave backgrounds which might be of use in future applications, including spinning shockwaves, those in higher dimensions or with a cosmological constant, and shockwaves from boosted extended objects. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2312_17328 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Electric shocks: bounding Einstein-Maxwell theory with time delays on boosted RN backgrounds Cremonini, Sera McPeak, Brian Tang, Yuezhang High Energy Physics - Theory The requirement that particles propagate causally on non-trivial backgrounds implies interesting constraints on higher-derivative operators. This work is part of a systematic study of the positivity bounds derivable from time delays on shockwave backgrounds. First, we discuss shockwaves in field theory, which are infinitely boosted Coulomb-like field configurations. We show how a positive time delay implies positivity of four-derivative operators in scalar field theory and electromagnetism, consistent with the results derived using dispersion relations, and we comment on how additional higher-derivative operators could be included. We then turn to gravitational shockwave backgrounds. We compute the infinite boost limit of Reissner-Nordström black holes to derive charged shockwave backgrounds. We consider photons traveling on these backgrounds and interacting through four-derivative corrections to Einstein-Maxwell theory. The inclusion of gravity introduces a logarithmic term into the time delay that interferes with the straightforward bounds derivable in pure field theory, a fact consistent with CEMZ and with recent results from dispersion relations. We discuss two ways to extract a physically meaningful quantity from the logarithmic time delay -- by introducing an IR cutoff, or by considering the derivative of the time delay -- and comment on the bounds implied in each case. Finally, we review a number of additional shockwave backgrounds which might be of use in future applications, including spinning shockwaves, those in higher dimensions or with a cosmological constant, and shockwaves from boosted extended objects. |
| title | Electric shocks: bounding Einstein-Maxwell theory with time delays on boosted RN backgrounds |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Theory |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.17328 |