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Main Authors: Herrmann, Enrico, Kologlu, Murat, Moult, Ian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.05384
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author Herrmann, Enrico
Kologlu, Murat
Moult, Ian
author_facet Herrmann, Enrico
Kologlu, Murat
Moult, Ian
contents Despite tremendous progress in our understanding of scattering amplitudes in perturbative (super-) gravity, much less is known about other asymptotic observables, such as correlation functions of detector operators. In this paper, we initiate the study of detector operators and their correlation functions in perturbative quantum gravity. Inspired by recent progress in field theory, we introduce a broad class of new asymptotic observables in gravity. We outline how correlation functions of detector operators can be efficiently computed from squared, state-summed amplitudes, allowing us to harness the wealth of perturbative scattering amplitude data to explore these observables. We then compute the two-point correlator of energy detectors in the annihilation of two scalars into gravitons, in Einstein gravity minimally coupled to a massive scalar field. We study the kinematic limits of this correlator, finding that it is finite in the collinear limit, and exhibits a soft divergence in the back-to-back limit, as expected from the understanding of the factorization of gravitational amplitudes in the soft and collinear limits. Our results offer a first exploration into the structure of detector operators and their correlators in perturbative quantum gravity, and we outline numerous directions for future study.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_05384
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Energy Correlators in Perturbative Quantum Gravity
Herrmann, Enrico
Kologlu, Murat
Moult, Ian
High Energy Physics - Theory
Despite tremendous progress in our understanding of scattering amplitudes in perturbative (super-) gravity, much less is known about other asymptotic observables, such as correlation functions of detector operators. In this paper, we initiate the study of detector operators and their correlation functions in perturbative quantum gravity. Inspired by recent progress in field theory, we introduce a broad class of new asymptotic observables in gravity. We outline how correlation functions of detector operators can be efficiently computed from squared, state-summed amplitudes, allowing us to harness the wealth of perturbative scattering amplitude data to explore these observables. We then compute the two-point correlator of energy detectors in the annihilation of two scalars into gravitons, in Einstein gravity minimally coupled to a massive scalar field. We study the kinematic limits of this correlator, finding that it is finite in the collinear limit, and exhibits a soft divergence in the back-to-back limit, as expected from the understanding of the factorization of gravitational amplitudes in the soft and collinear limits. Our results offer a first exploration into the structure of detector operators and their correlators in perturbative quantum gravity, and we outline numerous directions for future study.
title Energy Correlators in Perturbative Quantum Gravity
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.05384