Journal of High Energy Physics (Aug 2023)

On unitarity of the Coon amplitude

  • Rishabh Bhardwaj,
  • Shounak De,
  • Marcus Spradlin,
  • Anastasia Volovich

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep08(2023)082
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2023, no. 8
pp. 1 – 33

Abstract

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Abstract The Coon amplitude is a one-parameter deformation of the Veneziano amplitude. We explore the unitarity of the Coon amplitude through its partial wave expansion using tools from q-calculus. Our analysis establishes manifest positivity on the leading and sub-leading Regge trajectories in arbitrary spacetime dimensions D, while revealing a violation of unitarity in a certain region of (q, D) parameter space starting at the sub-sub-leading Regge order. A combination of numerical studies and analytic arguments allows us to argue for the manifest positivity of the partial wave coefficients in fixed spin and Regge asymptotics.

Keywords