English

The EFT-Hedron

High Energy Physics - Theory 2023-01-11 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We re-examine the constraints imposed by causality and unitarity on the low-energy effective field theory expansion of four-particle scattering amplitudes, exposing a hidden "totally positive" structure strikingly similar to the positive geometries associated with grassmannians and amplituhedra. This forces the infinite tower of higher-dimension operators to lie inside a new geometry we call the "EFThedron". We initiate a systematic investigation of the boundary structure of the EFThedron, giving infinitely many linear and non-linear inequalities that must be satisfied by the EFT expansion in any theory. We illustrate the EFThedron geometry and constraints in a wide variety of examples, including new consistency conditions on the scattering amplitudes of photons and gravitons in the real world.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2012.15849,
  title  = {The EFT-Hedron},
  author = {Nima Arkani-Hamed and Tzu-Chen Huang and Yu-tin Huang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.15849},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

Correction made to spinning EFThedron analysis; minor clarifications added

R2 v1 2026-06-23T21:39:47.330Z