Positive Moments for Scattering Amplitudes

TL;DR

This paper derives comprehensive conditions for forward 2-to-2 scattering amplitudes in unitary, causal theories, linking positivity constraints to EFT parameters and establishing bounds on their UV completability.

Contribution

It introduces a set of energy-dependent positivity conditions based on arcs, connecting them to Wilson coefficients and providing bounds for EFTs at finite energy orders.

Findings

Identifies complete positivity constraints for scattering amplitudes.

Establishes bounds on EFT Wilson coefficients.

Shows EFTs with amplitudes growing faster than E^6 cannot be UV-completed.

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.