English

Soft zero for cylindrical gravitational waves

High Energy Physics - Theory 2024-06-13 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

The graviton S-matrix has a famous soft pole. We show that the S-matrix for cylindrical gravitational waves has a soft zero. The soft pole for ordinary gravitons comes from a Ward identity for supertranslation symmetry at asymptotic infinity. We show that the soft zero for cylindrical gravitational waves comes from a Ward identity for Geroch symmetry at asymptotic infinity. Because it is a zero rather than a pole, there is no memory effect. Overall, this soft zero is a manifestation of Geroch symmetry and of the extraordinary simplicity of cylindrical gravitational waves.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2406.07604,
  title  = {Soft zero for cylindrical gravitational waves},
  author = {Robert Penna},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.07604},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

10 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T17:02:08.919Z