Related papers: Positivity Bounds for Massive Spin-1 and Spin-2 Fi…
Physical principles such as unitarity, causality, and locality can constrain the space of consistent effective field theories (EFTs) by imposing two-sided bounds on the allowed values of Wilson coefficients. In this paper, we consider the…
We derive constraints on two-dimensional conformal field theories with higher spin symmetry due to unitarity, modular invariance, and causality. We focus on CFTs with $\mathcal{W}_N$ symmetry in the "irrational" regime, where $c>N-1$ and…
We study positivity bounds in the presence of gravity. We first review the gravitational positivity bound at the tree-level, where it is known that a certain amount of negativity is allowed for the coefficients of higher-derivative…
Recently, it has been argued that application of the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) to spin-2 fields implies a universal upper bound on the cutoff of the effective theory for a single spin-2 field. We point out here that these arguments are…
We apply positivity bounds directly to a $U(1)$ gauge theory with charged scalars and charged fermions, i.e. QED, minimally coupled to gravity. Assuming that the massless $t$-channel pole may be discarded, we show that the improved…
We employ on-shell methods to construct scattering amplitudes and derive effective theories involving massive spin-3/2 fermions interacting with spin 0, 1 and 2 bosons. The four-point massive amplitudes are constructed using an…
Positivity bounds provide conditions that a consistent UV-completion exists for a quantum field theory. We examine their application to Horndeski gravity models reconstructed from the effective field theory (EFT) of dark energy. This…
We develop a formalism, based on spinor-helicity techniques, to generalize the formulation of partial wave unitarity bounds. We discuss unitarity bounds for $N \to M$ (with $N,M \geq 2$) scattering processes -- relevant for high-energy…
Massive gravity in the weak field limit is described by the Fierz-Pauli theory with 5 degrees of freedom in four dimensions. In this theory, we calculate the gravitomagnetic effects (potential energy) between two point-like, spinning…
We show how minimally-coupled matter fields of arbitrary spin, when coupled to Ricci-Based Gravity theories, develop non-trivial effective interactions that can be treated perturbatively only below a characteristic high-energy scale…
We derive new positivity bounds for scattering amplitudes in theories with a massless graviton in the spectrum in four spacetime dimensions, of relevance for the weak gravity conjecture and modified gravity theories. The bounds imply that…
We construct a massive spin-2 theory in 2+1 dimensions that is immune to the bulk-boundary unitarity conflict in anti-de Sitter space and hence amenable to holography. The theory is an extension of Topologically Massive Gravity, just like…
According to common lore, massive elementary higher spin particles lead to inconsistencies when coupled to gravity. However, this scenario was not completely ruled out by previous arguments. In this paper, we show that in a theory where the…
We discuss the general method for obtaining full positivity bounds on multi-field effective field theories (EFTs). While the leading order forward positivity bounds are commonly derived from the elastic scattering of two (superposed)…
Scalars are widely used in cosmology to model novel phenomena such as the late-time cosmic acceleration. These are effective field theories with highly nonlinear interactions, including Horndeski theory/generalized galileon and beyond. We…
Parameters in an effective field theory can be subject to certain positivity bounds if one requires a UV completion that obeys the fundamental principles of quantum field theory. These bounds are relatively straightforward at the tree…
We consider theories of three dimensional quantum gravity in Anti-de Sitter space which possess massless higher-spin gauge symmetry. The perturbative spectrum of the theory includes higher spin excitations which can be organized into vacuum…
A Schroedinger equation proposed for the GMP gapped spin-2 mode of fractional Quantum Hall states is found from a novel non-relativistic limit, applicable only in 2+1 dimensions, of the massive spin-2 Fierz-Pauli field equations. It is also…
We consider the double copy of massive Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions, whose decoupling limit is a nonlinear sigma model. The latter may be regarded as the leading terms in the low energy effective theory of a heavy Higgs model, in…
We derive constraints on scalar field theories coupled to gravity by using recently developed positivity bounds in the presence of gravity. It is found that a canonically-normalized real scalar cannot have an arbitrarily flat potential…