Related papers: Amplitudes' Positivity, Weak Gravity Conjecture, a…
Superstring field theory gives expressions for heterotic and type II string loop amplitudes that are free from ultraviolet and infrared divergences when the number of non-compact space-time dimensions is five or more. We prove the…
Positivity bounds are powerful tools to constrain effective field theories. Utilizing the partial wave expansion in the dispersion relation and the full crossing symmetry of the scattering amplitude, we derive several sets of generically…
We derive new effective field theory (EFT) positivity bounds on the elastic $2\to2$ scattering amplitudes of massive spinning particles from the standard UV properties of unitarity, causality, locality and Lorentz invariance. By bounding…
We examine the minimal constraints imposed by the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) on the particle spectrum of a quantum gravity theory. Towers of super-extremal states have previously been argued to be required for consistency of the WGC…
General relativity has passed all solar system experiments and neutron star based tests, such as binary pulsar observations, with flying colors. A more exotic arena for testing general relativity is in systems that contain one or more black…
We employ the curvature expansion of the quantum effective action for gravity-matter systems to construct graviton-mediated scattering amplitudes for non-minimally coupled scalar fields in a Minkowski background. By design, the formalism…
A central feature of scattering amplitudes in gravity or gauge theory is the existence of a variety of energetically soft theorems which put constraints on the amplitudes. Celestial amplitudes which are obtained from momentum-space…
In this paper, we investigate the quantum gravitational corrections to the thermodynamical quantities of Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes within the framework of effective field theory. The effective action originates from integrating out…
By a simple modification of Hawking's well-known topology theorems for black hole horizons, we find lower bounds for the areas of smooth apparent horizons and smooth cross-sections of stationary black hole event horizons of genus $g>1$ in…
We take a fresh look at the viability of physically realistic extremal black holes within our (non-supersymmetric) low energy physics. By incorporating prefactors and volume effects, we show that Schwinger discharge in charge neutral…
It has recently been argued that there may be a nontrivial four-dimensional limit of the higher-dimensional Gauss--Bonnet and Lovelock interactions and that this might provide a loophole allowing for new four-dimensional gravitational…
We argue that black holes admit vortex structure. This is based both on a graviton-condensate description of a black hole as well as on a correspondence between black holes and generic objects with maximal entropy compatible with unitarity,…
Assuming the existence of a local, analytic, unitary UV completion in a Poincar\'{e} invariant scalar field theory with a mass gap, we derive an infinite number of positivity requirements using the known properties of the amplitude at and…
We give two new analytical solutions to the low-energy string theory action that violate the weak cosmic censorship conjecture. They are classical charged solutions to the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory in four dimensions that come in two…
The Weak Gravity Conjecture arises from the assertion that all extremal black holes, even those which are "classical" in the sense of being very massive, must decay by quantum-mechanical emission of particles or smaller black holes. This is…
Common features of known quantum gravity theories may hint at the general nature of quantum gravity. The absence of continuous global symmetries is one such feature. This inspired the Weak Gravity Conjecture, which bounds masses of charged…
In the presence of large extra dimensions, the fundamental Planck scale can be much lower than the apparent four-dimensional Planck scale. In this setup, the weak gravity conjecture implies a much more stringent constraint on the UV cutoff…
Continuum spectrum from black hole accretion disc holds enormous information regarding the strong gravity regime around the black hole and hence about the nature of gravitational interaction in extreme situations. Since in such strong…
The Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) demands the existence of superextremal particles in any consistent quantum theory of gravity. The standard lore is that these particles are introduced to ensure that extremal black holes are either unstable…
Approximating light charged point-like particles in terms of (nonextremal) dilatonic black holes is shown to lead to certain pathologies in Planckian scattering in the eikonal approximation, which are traced to the presence of a (naked)…