Graviton scattering in self-dual radiative space-times

The construction of amplitudes on curved space-times is a major challenge, particularly when the background has non-constant curvature. We give formulae for all tree-level graviton scattering amplitudes in curved self-dual (SD) radiative space-times; these are chiral, source-free, asymptotically fla...

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Main Authors: Adamo, T, Mason, L, Sharma, A
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2023
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author Adamo, T
Mason, L
Sharma, A
author_facet Adamo, T
Mason, L
Sharma, A
author_sort Adamo, T
collection OXFORD
description The construction of amplitudes on curved space-times is a major challenge, particularly when the background has non-constant curvature. We give formulae for all tree-level graviton scattering amplitudes in curved self-dual (SD) radiative space-times; these are chiral, source-free, asymptotically flat spaces determined by free characteristic data at null infinity. Such space-times admit an elegant description in terms of twistor theory, which provides the powerful tools required to exploit their underlying integrability. The tree-level S-matrix is written in terms of an integral over the moduli space of holomorphic maps from the Riemann sphere to twistor space, with the degree of the map corresponding to the helicity configuration of the external gravitons. For the MHV sector, we derive the amplitude directly from the Einstein-Hilbert action of general relativity, while other helicity configurations arise from a natural family of generating functionals and pass several consistency checks. The amplitudes in SD radiative space-times exhibit many novel features that are absent in Minkowski space, including tail effects. There remain residual integrals due to the functional degrees of freedom in the background space-time, but our formulae have many fewer such integrals than would be expected from space-time perturbation theory. In highly symmetric special cases, such as SD plane waves, the number of residual integrals can be further reduced, resulting in much simpler expressions for the scattering amplitudes.
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spelling oxford-uuid:0f885970-d1a5-444c-aafc-415018e8a15e2023-08-18T15:21:24ZGraviton scattering in self-dual radiative space-timesJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:0f885970-d1a5-444c-aafc-415018e8a15eEnglishSymplectic ElementsIOP Publishing2023Adamo, TMason, LSharma, AThe construction of amplitudes on curved space-times is a major challenge, particularly when the background has non-constant curvature. We give formulae for all tree-level graviton scattering amplitudes in curved self-dual (SD) radiative space-times; these are chiral, source-free, asymptotically flat spaces determined by free characteristic data at null infinity. Such space-times admit an elegant description in terms of twistor theory, which provides the powerful tools required to exploit their underlying integrability. The tree-level S-matrix is written in terms of an integral over the moduli space of holomorphic maps from the Riemann sphere to twistor space, with the degree of the map corresponding to the helicity configuration of the external gravitons. For the MHV sector, we derive the amplitude directly from the Einstein-Hilbert action of general relativity, while other helicity configurations arise from a natural family of generating functionals and pass several consistency checks. The amplitudes in SD radiative space-times exhibit many novel features that are absent in Minkowski space, including tail effects. There remain residual integrals due to the functional degrees of freedom in the background space-time, but our formulae have many fewer such integrals than would be expected from space-time perturbation theory. In highly symmetric special cases, such as SD plane waves, the number of residual integrals can be further reduced, resulting in much simpler expressions for the scattering amplitudes.
spellingShingle Adamo, T
Mason, L
Sharma, A
Graviton scattering in self-dual radiative space-times
title Graviton scattering in self-dual radiative space-times
title_full Graviton scattering in self-dual radiative space-times
title_fullStr Graviton scattering in self-dual radiative space-times
title_full_unstemmed Graviton scattering in self-dual radiative space-times
title_short Graviton scattering in self-dual radiative space-times
title_sort graviton scattering in self dual radiative space times
work_keys_str_mv AT adamot gravitonscatteringinselfdualradiativespacetimes
AT masonl gravitonscatteringinselfdualradiativespacetimes
AT sharmaa gravitonscatteringinselfdualradiativespacetimes