Massless Field Research Articles

Scale and conformal invariance on (A)dS spacetimes

We examine the question of scale versus conformal invariance on maximally symmetric curved backgrounds and study general two-derivative conformally invariant free theories of vectors and tensors. For spacetime dimension D>4, these conformal theories can be diagonalized into standard massive fields in which unbroken conformal symmetry nontrivially mixes components of different spins. In D=4, the tensor case becomes a conformal theory mixing a partially massless spin-2 field with a massless spin-1 field. For massless linearized gravity in D=4, we confirm through direct calculation that correlation functions of gauge-invariant operators take the conformally invariant form, despite the absence of standard conformal symmetry at the level of the action. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Infrared finite scattering theory: scattering states and representations of the BMS group

Any non-trivial scattering with massless fields in four spacetime dimensions will generically produce an “out” state with memory which gives rise to infrared divergences in the standard S-matrix. To obtain an infrared-finite scattering theory, one must suitably include states with memory. However, except in the case of QED with massive charged particles, asymptotic states with memory that have finite energy and angular momentum have not been constructed for more general theories (e.g. massless QED, Yang-Mills and quantum gravity). To this end, we construct direct-integral representations over the “Lorentz orbit” of a given memory and classify all “orbit space representations” that have well-defined energy and angular momentum. We thereby provide an explicit construction of a large supply of physical states with memory as well as the explicit action of the BMS charges all states. The construction of such states is a key step toward the formulation of an infrared-finite scattering theory. While we primarily focus on the quantum gravitational case, we outline how the methods presented in this paper can be applied to obtain representations of the Poincaré group with memory for more general quantum field theories.

Sl(2,C)×D symmetry and conformal primary basis for massless fields

Alternative to the embedding formalism, we provide a group theoretic approach to the conformal primary basis for the massless field with arbitrary helicity. To this end, we first point out that sl(2,C) isometry gets enhanced to sl(2,C)×D symmetry for the solution space of the massless field with D the bulk dilatation. Then, associated with sl(2,C)×D symmetry, we introduce the novel quadratic Casimirs and relevant tensor/spinor fields to derive two explicit constraints on the bulk dilatation and sl(2,C) Casimirs. With this, we further argue that the candidate conformal primary basis can be constructed out of the infinite tower of the descendants of the left and right highest (lowest) conformal primary wave function of sl(2,C) Lie algebra, and the corresponding celestial conformal weights are determined by the bulk scaling dimension through solving out the exact on-shell conformal primary wave functions, where on top of the two kinds of familiar-looking on-shell conformal primary wave functions, we also obtain another set of independent on-shell conformal primary wave functions for the massless field with helicity |s|≥1. In passing, we also develop the relationship between the four-dimensional Lorentz Lie algebra and two-dimensional conformal Lie algebra from scratch, and present an explicit derivation for the two important properties associated with the conformal primary wave functions. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

CFT reconstruction of local bulk operators in half-Minkowski space

We construct a holographic map that reconstructs massless fields (scalars, Maxwell field, and Fierz-Pauli field) in half-Minkowski spacetime in d+1 dimensions terms of smeared primary operators in a large-N factorizable CFT in Rd−1,1. This map is based on a Weyl (rescaling) transformation from the Poincaré wedge of AdS to the Minkowski half-space and on the Hamilton-Kabat-Lifschytz-Lowe smearing function, which reconstructs local bulk operators in the Poincaré AdS in terms of smeared operators on the conformal boundary of the Poincaré wedge. The massless scalar field is reconstructed up to the level of two-point functions, while the Maxwell field and massless spin-2 fields are reconstructed at the level of the one-point function. We also discuss potential ways the map can be generalized to higher dimensions, and to the full Minkowski space. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Yang-Mills field from fuzzy sphere quantum Kaluza-Klein model

Using the framework of quantum Riemannian geometry, we show that gravity on the product of spacetime and a fuzzy sphere is equivalent under minimal assumptions to gravity on spacetime, an su2-valued Yang-Mills field Aμi and a real-symmetric-matrix valued Liouville-sigma model field hij for gravity on the fuzzy sphere. Moreover, a massless real scalar field on the product appears as a tower of scalar fields on spacetime, with one for each internal integer spin l representation of SU(2), minimally coupled to Aμi and with mass depending on l and the fuzzy sphere size. For discrete values of the deformation parameter, the fuzzy spheres can be reduced to matrix algebras M2j+1(ℂ) for j any non-negative half-integer, and in this case only integer spins 0 ≤ l ≤ 2j appear in the multiplet. Thus, for j = 1 a massless field on the product appears as a massless SU(2) internal spin 0 field, a massive internal spin 1 field and a massive internal spin 2 field, in mass ratio 0, 1,3\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\sqrt{3} $$\\end{document} respectively, which we conjecture could arise in connection with an approximate SU(2) flavour symmetry.

Massless Dirac perturbations of black holes in f(Q) gravity: quasinormal modes and a weak deflection angle

This article considers a static and spherical black hole (BH) in f(Q) gravity. f(Q) gravity is the extension of symmetric teleparallel general relativity, where both curvature and torsion are vanishing and gravity is described by nonmetricity. In this study, we investigate the possible implications of quasinormal mode (QNM) modified Hawking spectra and deflection angles generated by the model. The Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin method is used to solve the equations of motion for massless Dirac perturbation fields and explore the impact of the nonmetricity parameter (Q 0). Based on the QNM computation, we can ensure that the BH is stable against massless Dirac perturbations and as Q 0 increases the oscillatory frequency of the mode decreases. We then discuss the weak deflection angle in the weak field limit approximation. We compute the deflection angle up to the fourth order of approximation and show how the nonmetricity parameter affects it. We find that the Q 0 parameter reduces the deflection angle.

Gravity with spacetime torsion

The duality between a higher-curvature f(R) gravity model and a scalar-tensor theory helps to bring out the role of the additional degree of freedom originating from the higher-derivative terms in the gravity action. Such a degree of freedom which appears as a scalar field has been shown to have multiple implications in the cosmological/astrophysical scenario. The present work proposes a novel generalization to this correspondence between f(R) gravity and a dual scalar-tensor theory when the affine connection is considered to have an antisymmetric part. It turns out that the f(R) action in the presence of spacetime torsion can be recast to a coupled scalar-tensor theory with a 2-rank massless antisymmetric tensor field in the Einstein frame, where the scalar field gets coupled with the antisymmetric field through derivative coupling(s).

Massless spin-2 field solutions with spherical symmetry: Eliminating gauge degrees of freedom

We examine the basic matrix equation for a spin-2 field in spherical coordinates and a tetrad of Minkowski spacetime. The technique of Wigner D-functions is used to separate the variables. The operators of energy, the square and the third projection of the total angular momentum, and the space reflection operators are then diagonalized on the solutions. The separation of the variables is done, the problem reduces to 11 radial second-order differential equations for 11 variables related to the scalar and symmetric tensors. We then consider the case of a massless field. The four gauge solutions for the massless spin-2 field have been found in explicit form. These gauge solutions do not contribute to physically observable quantities such as the energy–momentum tensor. They are derived according to Pauli–Fierz theory from four independent spherical solutions for a spin-1 massless particle. We have also constructed two types of solutions, related to opposite parities, which are not the gauge solutions. These solutions describe physically observable states with spherical symmetry for the spin-2 massless field.

Dualities among massive, partially massless and shift symmetric fields on (A)dS

We catalog all the electromagnetic-like dualities that exist between free dynamical bosonic fields of arbitrary symmetry type and mass on (anti-) de Sitter space in all dimensions, including dualities among the partially massless and shift symmetric fields. This generalizes to all these field types the well known fact that a massless p-form is dual to a massless (D − p − 2)-form in D spacetime dimensions. In the process, we describe the structure of the Weyl modules (the spaces of local operators linear in the fields and their derivative relations) for all the massive, partially massless and shift symmetric fields.

Lessons from discrete light-cone quantization for physics at null infinity: bosons in two dimensions

Motivated by issues in the context of asymptotically flat spacetimes at null infinity, we discuss in the simplest example of a free massless scalar field in two dimensions several subtleties that arise when setting up the canonical formulation on a single or on two intersecting null hyperplanes with a special emphasis on the infinite-dimensional global and conformal symmetries and their canonical generators, the free data, a consistent treatment of zero modes, matching conditions, and implications for quantization of massless versus massive fields.

Percolation transition for random forests in d⩾3\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$d\\geqslant 3$\\end{document}

The arboreal gas is the probability measure on (unrooted spanning) forests of a graph in which each forest is weighted by a factor β>0\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$\\beta >0$\\end{document} per edge. It arises as the q→0\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$q\ o 0$\\end{document} limit of the q\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$q$\\end{document}-state random cluster model with p=βq\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$p=\\beta q$\\end{document}. We prove that in dimensions d⩾3\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$d\\geqslant 3$\\end{document} the arboreal gas undergoes a percolation phase transition. This contrasts with the case of d=2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$d=2$\\end{document} where no percolation transition occurs.The starting point for our analysis is an exact relationship between the arboreal gas and a non-linear sigma model with target space the fermionic hyperbolic plane H0|2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$\\mathbb{H}^{0|2}$\\end{document}. This latter model can be thought of as the 0-state Potts model, with the arboreal gas being its random cluster representation. Unlike the standard Potts models, the H0|2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$\\mathbb{H}^{0|2}$\\end{document} model has continuous symmetries. By combining a renormalisation group analysis with Ward identities we prove that this symmetry is spontaneously broken at low temperatures. In terms of the arboreal gas, this symmetry breaking translates into the existence of infinite trees in the thermodynamic limit. Our analysis also establishes massless free field correlations at low temperatures and the existence of a macroscopic tree on finite tori.

Exact massless spinor quasibound states of Schwarzschild black hole

In this work, we investigate the behavior of massless spin 12 field by working out the Dirac equation in a curved static spherically symmetric Schwarzschild space-time. Detailed derivation of novel exact massive and massless scalar quasibound state in Schwarzschild black hole background is presented in this work. After decoupling the Dirac equation, we successfully solve both of the angular and radial parts, respectively in terms of spin weighted Spherical Harmonics and Confluent Heun functions. With the exact radial wave solution in hand, applying its polynomial condition leads to the discovery of the quantized energy levels expression. We found that the massless spinor field around the Schwarzschild black hole has complex valued energy levels, in contrast to the purely imaginary for a massless boson around the same black hole. In the last section, the Hawking radiation distribution function is derived via Damour-Ruffini method and the Hawking temperature is obtained.

Black holes in degenerate Einstein Gauss-Bonnet gravity: can QNMs distinguish them from GR?

For the first time, we study the quasi-normal modes(QNMs) of massless scale fields propagating in spacetimes with zero metric determinant. In this context, we work with asymptotically flat solutions to degenerate Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet (EGB) theory introduced in [JCAP 02 (2022) 020]. This solution has two distinct branches akin to Einstein Gauss-Bonnet(EBG) gravity. However, unlike the EBG solutions, both the branches of dEGB are well-defined asymptotically. The negative branch solutions from both theories are equivalent under the identification of certain parameters. We provide constraints on the Gauss-Bonnet coupling parameters, which result in black hole spacetimes, and study the behaviour of a propagating scalar field through the computation of QNMs. Finally, we compare the time domain evolution of the scalar field in the background of these black holes with their GR counterparts.

Photon quantization in cosmological spaces

Canonical quantization of the photon—a free massless vector field—is considered in cosmological spacetimes in a two-parameter family of linear gauges that treat all the vector potential components on equal footing. The goal is setting up a framework for computing photon two-point functions appropriate for loop computations in realistic inflationary spacetimes. The quantization is implemented without relying on spacetime symmetries, but rather it is based on the classical canonical structure. Special attention is paid to the quantization of the canonical first-class constraint structure that is implemented as the condition on the physical states. This condition gives rise to subsidiary conditions that the photon two-point functions must satisfy. Some of the de Sitter space photon propagators from the literature are found not to satisfy these subsidiary conditions, bringing into question their consistency. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Mixed boundary conditions and double-trace like deformations in Celestial holography and Wedge-like holography

According to the AdS/CFT dictionary, adding a relevant double-trace deformation f ∫ O2 to a holographic CFT action is dual to imposing mixed Neumann/Dirichlet boundary conditions for the field dual to O in AdS. We observed similar behaviour in codimension-two flat space holographies. We consider deformations of boundary conditions in flat spacetimes under flat space codimension-two holographies, Celestial holography and Wedge-like holography. In the former Celestial-holographic approach, we imposed boundary conditions on initial and final bulk states in the scattering. We find that these non-trivial boundary conditions in the bulk induce “double deformations” on the Celestial CFT side, which can be understood as an analogy of double trace deformations in the usual AdS/CFT. We compute two-point bulk scattering amplitudes under the non-trivial deformed boundary conditions. In the latter Wedge-like holography approach, we consider mixed Neumann/Dirichlet boundary conditions on the null infinity of the light-cone. We find that this mixing induces a renormalization flow in the dual Wedge CFT side under the Wedge holography, as in the usual AdS/CFT. We argue that the discrepancy between the Wedge two-point function and the Celestial two-point function originates from a sensitivity of bulk massless fields to a regularization parameter to use the usual AdS/CFT techniques.

Off-shell fields and conserved currents

We study interactions of higher-spin massless fields φ with conserved currents multilinear in the off-shell matter fields ϕ. Specifically, we focus on the 3d case where a slight modification of the σ−-cohomology technique developed earlier is directly applicable to control nontriviality of the interaction vertices at the convention that the vertices removable by a local field redefinition of a higher-spin field or having schematic form F(φ)G(ϕ), where F(φ) is a gauge invariant field strength of a free higher-spin field, are called deformationally trivial. It is demonstrated how the σ−-cohomology approach can be applied to the analysis of nonlinear vertices. Generally, deformationally trivial vertices are not σ−-closed while the deformationally non-trivial ones must be in H(σ−). It is shown that, at least in the 3d case, the relevant cohomology group H1(σ−)=0 and, hence, no deformationally non-trivial off-shell vertices exist. On the other hand, there exists an infinite class of deformationally trivial vertices, that includes the vertex recently proposed for spin three. Our analysis goes beyond the higher-spin vertices allowing to show that, at least in three dimensions, nonlinear combinations of the off-shell scalar fields and their derivatives cannot obey non-trivial equations.

Ambient-space variational calculus for gauge fields on constant-curvature spacetimes

We propose a systematic generating procedure to construct free Lagrangians for massive, massless and partially massless, totally-symmetric tensor fields on AdSd+1 starting from the Becchi–Rouet–Stora–Tyutin (BRST) Lagrangian description of massless fields in the flat ambient space Rd,2. A novelty is that the Lagrangian is described by a d + 1 form on Rd,2 whose pullback to AdSd+1 gives the genuine Lagrangian defined on anti de Sitter spacetime. Our derivation uses the triplet formulation originating from the first-quantized BRST approach, where the action principle is determined by the BRST operator and the inner product of a first-quantised system. In this way we build, in a manifestly so(2, d)-covariant manner, a unifying action principle for the three types of fields mentioned above. In particular, our derivation justifies the form of some actions proposed earlier for massive and massless fields on (anti)-de Sitter. We also give a general setup for ambient Lagrangians in terms of the respective jet-bundles and variational bi-complexes. In particular we introduce a suitable ambient-space Euler–Lagrange differential which allows one to derive the equations of motion ambiently, i.e., without the need to explicitly derive the respective spacetime Lagrangian.

Entanglement in cosmology

We compute the evolution of the entanglement entropy for a massless field within a spherical region throughout the inflationary period and the subsequent era of radiation domination, starting from the Bunch-Davies vacuum. In order to focus on the entanglement of modes that are directly accessible to observations, we impose an ultraviolet cutoff set by the wavelength of the last mode that exited the horizon at the end of inflation. The transition of each mode towards a squeezed state upon horizon exit during inflation and the additional squeezing when radiation domination sets in enhance the entanglement entropy. Shortly after the transition to the radiation-dominated era, a volume term develops and becomes the leading contribution to the entropy at late times, as is common for systems lying in squeezed states. We estimate the magnitude of the entropy and discuss its interpretation in the light of the quantum to classical transition for modes exiting the horizon during inflation. Our results raise the possibility that the quantum nature of weakly interacting fields, such as gravitational waves resulting from tensor modes during inflation, may be detectable in today's universe. On the other hand, an observer with no knowledge of the degrees of freedom beyond the horizon would interpret the entropy as thermal. From this point of view, the reheating after inflation would be a result of quantum entanglement.

Compact scalars at the cosmological collider

We study the dynamics of scalar fields with compact field spaces, or axions, in de Sitter space. We argue that the field space topology can qualitatively affect the physics of these fields beyond just which terms are allowed in their actions. We argue that the sharpest difference is for massless fields — the free massless noncompact scalar field does not admit a two-point function that is both de Sitter-invariant and well-behaved at long distances, while the massless compact scalar does. As proof that this difference can be observable, we show that the long-distance behavior of a heavy scalar field, and thus its cosmological collider signal, can qualitatively change depending on whether it interacts with a light compact or noncompact scalar field. We find an interesting interplay between the circumference of the field space and the Hubble scale. When the field space is much larger than Hubble, the compact field behaves similarly to a light noncompact field and forces the heavy field to dilute much faster than any free field can. However, depending on how much smaller the field space is compared to Hubble, the compact field can cause the heavy scalar to decay either faster or slower than any free field and so we conclude that there can be qualitative and observable consequences of the field space’s topology in inflationary correlation functions.

EFT matching from analyticity and unitarity

We present a new on-shell method for the matching of ultraviolet models featuring massive states onto their massless effective field theory. We employ a dispersion relation in the space of complex momentum dilations to capture, in a single variable, the relevant analytic structure of scattering amplitudes at any multiplicity. Multivariate complex analysis and crossing considerations are therefore avoided. Remarkably, no knowledge about the infrared effective field theory is required in dimensional regularisation. All matching information is extracted from the residues and iscontinuities of the ultraviolet scattering amplitudes, which unitarity expresses in terms of lower-point and lower-loop results, respectively. This decomposition into simpler building blocks could deliver new insight in the structure of the effective field theories obtained from classes of ultraviolet scenarios and facilitate computations at higher loop orders.