No Arabic abstract
The consistency of the EFT of two interacting spin-2 fields is checked by applying forward limit positivity bounds on the scattering amplitudes to exclude the region of parameter space devoid of a standard UV completion. We focus on two classes of theories that have the highest possible EFT cutoff, namely those theories modelled on ghost-free interacting theories of a single massive spin-2 field. We find that the very existence of interactions between the spin-2 fields implies more stringent bounds on all the parameters of the EFT, even on the spin-2 self-interactions. This arises for two reasons. First, with every new field included in the low-energy EFT, comes the `knowledge of an extra pole to be subtracted, hence strengthening the positivity bounds. Second, while adding new fields increases the number of free parameters from the new interactions, this is rapidly overcome by the increased number of positivity bounds for different possible scattering processes. We also discuss how positivity bounds appear to favour relations between operators that effectively raise the cutoff of the EFT.
We explore the effective field theory for single and multiple interacting pseudo-linear spin-2 fields. By applying forward limit positivity bounds, we show that among the parameters contributing to elastic tree level scattering amplitude, there is no region of compatibility of the leading interactions with a standard local UV completion. Our result generalizes to any number of interacting pseudo-linear spin-2 fields. These results have significant implications for the organization of the effective field theory expansion for pseudo-linear fields.
We consider the effective field theory of multiple interacting massive spin-2 fields. We focus on the case where the interactions are chosen so that the cutoff is the highest possible, and highlight two distinct classes of theories. In the first class, the mass eigenstates only interact through potential operators that carry no derivatives in unitary gauge at leading order. In the second class, a specific kinetic mixing between the mass eigenstates is included non-linearly. Performing a decoupling and ADM analysis, we point out the existence of a ghost present at a low scale for the first class of interactions. For the second class of interactions where kinetic mixing is included, we derive the full $Lambda_3$ decoupling limit and confirm the absence of any ghosts. Nevertheless both formulations can be used to consistently describe an EFT of interacting massive spin-2 fields which, for a suitable technically natural tuning of the EFT, have the same strong coupling scale $Lambda_3$. We identify the generic form of EFT corrections in each case. By using Galileon Duality transformations for the specific case of two massive spin-2 fields with suitable couplings, the decoupling limit theory is shown to be a bi-Galileon.
We derive analyticity constraints on a nonlinear ghost-free effective theory of a massive spin-2 particle known as pseudo-linear massive gravity, and on a generalized theory of a massive spin-1 particle, both of which provide simple IR completions of Galileon theories. For pseudo-linear massive gravity we find that, unlike dRGT massive gravity, there is no window of parameter space which satisfies the analyticity constraints. For massive vectors which reduce to Galileons in the decoupling limit, we find that no two-derivative actions are compatible with positivity, but that higher derivative actions can be made compatible.
The presence of a massless spin-2 field in an effective field theory results in a $t$-channel pole in the scattering amplitudes that precludes the application of standard positivity bounds. Despite this, recent arguments based on compactification to three dimensions have suggested that positivity bounds may be applied to the $t$-channel pole subtracted amplitude. If correct this would have deep implications for UV physics and the Weak Gravity Conjecture. Within the context of a simple renormalizable field theory coupled to gravity we find that applying these arguments would constrain the low-energy coupling constants in a way which is incompatible with their actual values. This contradiction persists on deforming the theory. Further enforcing the $t$-channel pole subtracted positivity bounds on such generic renormalizable effective theories coupled to gravity would imply new physics at a scale parametrically smaller than expected, with far reaching implications. This suggests that generically the standard positivity bounds are inapplicable with gravity and we highlight a number of issues that impinge on the formulation of a three-dimensional amplitude which simultaneously satisfies the required properties of analyticity, positivity and crossing symmetry. We conjecture instead a modified bound that ought to be satisfied independently of the precise details of the high energy completion.
The relation between the trace and R-current anomalies in supersymmetric theories implies that the U$(1)_RF^2$, U$(1)_R$ and U$(1)_R^3$ anomalies which are matched in studies of N=1 Seiberg duality satisfy positivity constraints. Some constraints are rigorous and others conjectured as four-dimensional generalizations of the Zamolodchikov $c$-theorem. These constraints are tested in a large number of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories in the non-Abelian Coulomb phase, and they are satisfied in all renormalizable models with unique anomaly-free R-current, including those with accidental symmetry. Most striking is the fact that the flow of the Euler anomaly coefficient, $a_{UV}-a_{IR}$, is always positive, as conjectured by Cardy.