On infinite symmetry algebras in Yang-Mills theory

Celestial holography provides a reformulation of scattering amplitudes in four dimensional asymptotically flat spacetimes in terms of conformal correlators of operators on the two dimensional celestial sphere in a basis of boost eigenstates. A basis of massless particle states has been previously identified in terms of conformal primary wavefunctions labeled by a boost weight ∆ = 1+iλ with λ ∈ ℝ. Here we show that a discrete orthogonal and complete basis exists for ∆ ∈ ℤ. This new basis consists of a tower of discrete memory and Goldstone observables, which are conjugate to each other and allow to reconstruct gravitational signals belonging to the Schwartz space. We show how generalized dressed states involving the whole tower of Goldstone operators can be constructed and evaluate the higher spin Goldstone 2-point functions. Finally, we recast the tower of higher spin charges providing a representation of the w1+∞ loop algebra (in the same helicity sector) in terms of the new discrete basis.

A discrete basis for celestial holography

Freidel,

Pranzetti,

Raclariu

2024

Multicollinear singularities in celestial CFT

Ball,

Hu,

Pasterski

2024

The purpose of this paper is to study the holomorphic multicollinear limit of (celestial) amplitudes and use it to further investigate the double residue condition for (hard celestial) amplitudes and the celestial operator product expansion. We first set up the notion of holomorphic multicollinear limits of amplitudes and derive the 3-collinear splitting functions for Yang-Mills theory, Einstein gravity, and massless ϕ3 theory. In particular, we find that in ϕ3 theory the celestial 3-OPE contains a term with a branch cut. This explicit example confirms that branch cuts can obstruct the double residue condition for hard celestial amplitudes, which is the underlying cause of the celestial Jacobi identities not holding for certain theories. This addresses an ongoing debate in the literature about associativity of the celestial OPEs and concretely demonstrates a new (multi-particle) term in the celestial OPE coming from the multi-particle channel in the amplitudes.

Carrollian amplitudes and celestial symmetries

Mason,

Ruzziconi,

Srikant

2024

Carrollian holography aims to express gravity in four-dimensional asymptotically flat spacetime in terms of a dual three-dimensional Carrollian CFT living at null infinity. Carrollian amplitudes are massless scattering amplitudes written in terms of asymptotic or null data at $$ \mathcal{I} $$ I . These position space amplitudes at $$ \mathcal{I} $$ I are to be re-interpreted as correlation functions in the putative dual Carrollian CFT. We derive basic results concerning tree-level Carrollian amplitudes yielding dynamical constraints on the holographic dual. We obtain surprisingly compact expressions for n-point MHV gluon and graviton amplitudes in position space at $$ \mathcal{I} $$ I . We discuss the UV/IR behaviours of Carrollian amplitudes and investigate their collinear limit, which allows us to define a notion of Carrollian OPE. By smearing the OPE along the generators of null infinity, we obtain the action of the celestial symmetries — namely, the S algebra for Yang-Mills theory and Lw1+∞ for gravity — on the Carrollian operators. As a consistency check, we systematically relate our results with celestial amplitudes using the link between the two approaches. Finally, we initiate a direct connection between twistor space and Carrollian amplitudes.