Celestial Optical Theorem

TL;DR

This paper derives a nonperturbative celestial optical theorem from S-matrix unitarity, establishing bootstrap equations for conformal partial wave coefficients and revealing their analytic structure and pole behavior in celestial conformal field theory.

Contribution

It introduces a nonperturbative celestial optical theorem and derives new analytic and pole structure results for conformal partial wave coefficients in celestial CFT.

Findings

CPW coefficients of massless particles have simple poles at specific positions

CPW coefficients involving massive particles have double-trace poles

Double-trace operator dimensions do not receive anomalous dimensions in this framework

Abstract

We establish the nonperturbative celestial optical theorem from the unitarity of $S$-matrix. This theorem provides a set of nonperturbative bootstrap equations of the conformal partial wave (CPW) coefficients. The celestial optical theorem implies that the imaginary part of CPW coefficient with appropriate conformal dimensions is non-negative. By making certain assumptions and using the celestial optical theorem, we derive nonperturbative results concerning the analytic structure of CPW coefficients. We discover that the CPW coefficients of four massless particles must and only have simple poles located at specific positions. The CPW coefficients involving massive particles exhibit double-trace poles, indicating the existence of double-trace operators in nonperturbative CCFT. It is worth noting that, in contrast to AdS/CFT, the conformal dimensions of double-trace operators do not receive anomalous dimensions.