English

Soft limits of the wavefunction in exceptional scalar theories

High Energy Physics - Theory 2023-03-29 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We study the structure of the flat space wavefunctional in scalar field theories with nonlinearly realized symmetries. These symmetries imply soft theorems that are satisfied by wavefunction coefficients in the limit where one of the external momenta is scaled to zero. After elucidating the structure of these soft theorems in the nonlinear sigma model, Dirac-Born-Infeld, and galileon scalar theories, we combine them with information about the singularity structure of the wavefunction to bootstrap the wavefunction coefficients of these theories. We further systematize this construction through two types of recursion relations: one that utilizes the flat space scattering amplitude plus minimal information about soft limits, and an alternative that does not require amplitude input, but does require subleading soft information.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2203.05576,
  title  = {Soft limits of the wavefunction in exceptional scalar theories},
  author = {Noah Bittermann and Austin Joyce},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.05576},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

70 pages; V2: minor corrections made

R2 v1 2026-06-24T10:09:10.186Z