English

Light-ray Operators and the BMS Algebra

High Energy Physics - Theory 2019-01-02 v1

Abstract

We study light-ray operators constructed from the energy-momentum tensor in dd-dimensional Lorentzian conformal field theory. These include in particular the average null energy operator. The commutators of parallel light-ray operators on a codimension one light-sheet form an infinite-dimensional algebra. We determine this light-ray algebra and find that the dd-dimensional (generalized) BMS algebra, including both the supertranslation and the superrotation, is a subalgebra. We verify this algebra in correlation functions of free scalar field theory. We also determine the infinite-dimensional algebra of light-ray operators built from non-abelian spin-one conserved currents.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1810.05706,
  title  = {Light-ray Operators and the BMS Algebra},
  author = {Clay Cordova and Shu-Heng Shao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.05706},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

25 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T04:38:08.966Z