Deforming Soft Algebras for Gauge Theory
Abstract
Symmetry algebras deriving from towers of soft theorems can be deformed by a short list of higher-dimension Wilsonian corrections to the effective action. We study the simplest of these deformations in gauge theory arising from a massless complex scalar coupled to . The soft gauge symmetry '-algebra', compactly realized as a higher-spin current algebra acting on the celestial sphere, is deformed and enlarged to an associative algebra containing soft scalar generators. This deformed soft algebra is found to be non-abelian even in abelian gauge theory. A two-parameter family of central extensions of the -subalgebra are generated by shifting and decoupling the scalar generators. It is shown that these central extensions can also be generated by expanding around a certain non-trivial but Lorentz invariant shockwave type background for the scalar field.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2212.08643,
title = {Deforming Soft Algebras for Gauge Theory},
author = {Walker Melton and Sruthi A. Narayanan and Andrew Strominger},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2212.08643},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
13 pages, 1 figure