English

Soft gravitons in three dimensions

High Energy Physics - Theory 2024-11-22 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We consider quantum gravity with zero cosmological constant in three dimensions. First, we show that pure quantum gravity can be written as a magnetic Carrollian theory living on null infinity, described by Schwarzian-like degrees of freedom. Next, we couple quantum gravity to massless matter. Transition amplitudes exhibit several features that resemble soft graviton physics in four dimensions, despite the absence of a propagating graviton. As in four dimensions, we find three equivalent results: a soft graviton theorem, an infinite-dimensional BMS asymptotic symmetry, and a gravitational memory effect. We also resolve some extant puzzles concerning the partition function and Hilbert space of pure 3d gravity with zero cosmological constant.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2411.13633,
  title  = {Soft gravitons in three dimensions},
  author = {Jordan Cotler and Kristan Jensen and Stefan Prohazka and Max Riegler and Jakob Salzer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.13633},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

36+7 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T20:07:01.473Z