Journal of High Energy Physics (Jul 2021)

(2, 2) Scattering and the celestial torus

  • Alexander Atanasov,
  • Adam Ball,
  • Walker Melton,
  • Ana-Maria Raclariu,
  • Andrew Strominger

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2021)083
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2021, no. 7
pp. 1 – 16

Abstract

Read online

Abstract Analytic continuation from Minkowski space to (2, 2) split signature spacetime has proven to be a powerful tool for the study of scattering amplitudes. Here we show that, under this continuation, null infinity becomes the product of a null interval with a celestial torus (replacing the celestial sphere) and has only one connected component. Spacelike and timelike infinity are time-periodic quotients of AdS3. These three components of infinity combine to an S 3 represented as a toric fibration over the interval. Privileged scattering states of scalars organize into SL(2, ℝ) L ×SL(2, ℝ) R conformal primary wave functions and their descendants with real integral or half-integral conformal weights, giving the normally continuous scattering problem a discrete character.

Keywords