Logarithmic Soft Photon Theorem and Waveform Tails in Higher Dimensions
Abstract
We derive the leading logarithmic soft-photon theorem in spacetime dimensions and its classical radiative counterpart. A direct one-loop analysis in massive scalar quantum electrodynamics (QED) yields a factorizing soft term of order , although the charged-particle S-matrix is infrared finite. The logarithm is generated by the scale-invariant loop-momentum region , where denotes a characteristic hard-particle energy scale. At leading radiative order, the corresponding logarithmic contribution to the classical electromagnetic waveform arises from the long-range acceleration of the asymptotic charged particles. In even , the straight-line waveform at this radiative order is distributionally supported in retarded time within an interval whose width is set by the characteristic size of the hard-scattering region, whereas the logarithmic acceleration term produces universal early- and late-time radiative tails proportional to . In odd , straight-line motion already gives a late-time tail at the same radiative order proportional to . The acceleration correction adds universal late- and early-time terms proportional, respectively, to and . A comparison of Feynman and retarded boundary conditions separates the classically radiative contribution from the intrinsically quantum part of the logarithmic soft factor.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2608.03747,
title = {Logarithmic Soft Photon Theorem and Waveform Tails in Higher Dimensions},
author = {Biswajit Sahoo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2608.03747},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
13 pages + derivation