No Arabic abstract
We propose a method to compute the scattering angle for classical black hole scattering directly from two massive particle irreducible diagrams in a heavy-mass effective field theory approach to general relativity, without the need of subtracting iteration terms. The amplitudes in this effective theory are constructed using a recently proposed novel colour-kinematic/double copy for tree-level two-scalar, multi-graviton amplitudes, where the BCJ numerators are gauge invariant and local with respect to the massless gravitons. These tree amplitudes, together with graviton tree amplitudes, enter the construction of the required $D$-dimensional loop integrands and allow for a direct extraction of contributions relevant for classical physics. In particular the soft/heavy-mass expansions of full integrands is circumvented, and all iterating contributions can be dropped from the get go. We use this method to compute the scattering angle up to third post-Minkowskian order in four dimensions, including radiation reaction contributions, also providing the expression of the corresponding integrand in $D$ dimensions.
We establish a correspondence between perturbative classical gluon and gravitational radiation emitted by spinning sources, to linear order in spin. This is an extension of the non-spinning classical perturbative double copy and uses the same color-to-kinematic replacements. The gravitational theory has a scalar (dilaton) and a 2-form field (the Kalb-Ramon axion) in addition to the graviton. In arXiv:1712.09250, we computed axion radiation in the gravitational theory to show that the correspondence fixes its action. Here, we present complete details of the gravitational computation. In particular, we also calculate the graviton and dilaton amplitudes in this theory and find that they precisely match with the predictions of the double copy. This constitutes a non-trivial check of the classical double copy correspondence, and brings us closer to the goal of simplifying the calculation of gravitational wave observables for astrophysically relevant sources.
We give two double copy prescriptions which construct asymptotically flat solutions in gravity from asymptotically flat gauge fields. The first prescription applies to radiative fields, which are non-linear vacuum solutions determined by characteristic data at null infinity. For any two such radiative gauge fields (linear or non-linear), the characteristic data of a radiative metric, dilaton and axion is constructed by a simple `squaring procedure, giving a classical double copy at the level of radiation fields. We demonstrate the procedure with several examples where the characteristic data can be explicitly integrated; for linear fields this also sheds light on the twistorial description of Weyl double copy. Our second prescription applies to all asymptotically flat fields at the level of their asymptotic equations of motion: we give a map between any solution of the asymptotic Maxwell equations and any solution of the asymptotic Einstein equations at null infinity. This also extends to the asymptotic charges and their duals, preserves the soft and hard sectors between gauge theory and gravity, and is related to the usual notion of double copy in scattering amplitudes.
We extend the perturbative classical double copy to the analysis of bound systems. We first obtain the leading order perturbative gluon radiation field sourced by a system of interacting color charges in arbitrary time dependent orbits, and test its validity by taking relativistic bremsstrahlung and non-relativistic bound state limits. By generalizing the color to kinematic replacement rules recently used in the context of classical bremsstrahlung, we map the gluon emission amplitude to the radiation fields of dilaton gravity sourced by interacting particles in generic (self-consistent) orbits. As an application, we reproduce the leading post-Newtonian radiation fields and energy flux for point masses in non-relativistic orbits from the double copy of gauge theory.
We establish the status of the Weyl double copy relation for radiative solutions of the vacuum Einstein equations. We show that all type N vacuum solutions, which describe the radiation region of isolated gravitational systems with appropriate fall-off for the matter fields, admit a degenerate Maxwell field that squares to give the Weyl tensor. The converse statement also holds, i.e. if there exists a degenerate Maxwell field on a curved background, then the background is type N. This relation defines a scalar that satisfies the wave equation on the background. We show that for non-twisting radiative solutions, the Maxwell field and the scalar also satisfy the Maxwell equation and the wave equation on Minkowski spacetime. Hence, non-twisting solutions have a straightforward double copy interpretation.
We extend Shens recent formulation (arXiv:1806.07388) of the classical double copy, based on explicit color-kinematic duality, to the case of finite-size sources with non-zero spin. For the case of spinning Yang-Mills sources, the most general consistent double copy consists of gravitating objects which carry pairs of spin degrees of freedom. We find that the couplings of such objects to background fields match those of a classical (i.e. heavy) closed bosonic string, suggesting a string theory interpretation of sources related by color-kinematics duality. As a special case, we identify a limit, corresponding to unoriented strings, in which the 2-form Kalb-Ramond axion field decouples from the gravitational side of the double copy. Finally, we apply the classical double copy to extended objects, described by the addition of finite-size operators to the worldline effective theory. We find that consistency of the color-to-kinematics map requires that the Wilson coefficients of tidal operators obey certain relations, indicating that the extended gravitating objects generated by the double copy of Yang-Mills are not completely generic.