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Positive Moments for Scattering Amplitudes

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arxiv 2011.00037 v2 pith:6JVKI2CQ submitted 2020-10-30 hep-th hep-ph

classification hep-thhep-ph
keywords energyeftsfinitescatteringamplitudearcsconditionsmoments
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal

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abstract

We find the complete set of conditions satisfied by the forward $2\to2$ scattering amplitude in unitarity and causal theories. These are based on an infinite set of energy dependent quantities -- the arcs -- which are dispersively expressed as moments of a positive measure defined at (arbitrarily) higher energies. We identify optimal finite subsets of constraints, suitable to bound Effective Field Theories (EFTs), at any finite order in the energy expansion. At tree-level arcs are in one-to-one correspondence with Wilson coefficients. We establish under which conditions this approximation applies, identifying seemingly viable EFTs where it never does. In all cases, we discuss the range of validity in both couplings and energy. We also extend our results to the case of small but finite~$t$. A consequence of our study is that EFTs in which the scattering amplitude in some regime grows in energy faster than $E^6$ cannot be UV-completed.

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Cited by 28 Pith papers

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