Journal of High Energy Physics (Mar 2022)

Soft-collinear gravity beyond the leading power

  • Martin Beneke,
  • Patrick Hager,
  • Robert Szafron

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2022)080
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2022, no. 3
pp. 1 – 72

Abstract

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Abstract We construct “soft-collinear gravity”, the effective field theory which describes the interaction of collinear and soft gravitons with matter (and themselves), to all orders in the soft-collinear power expansion. Despite the absence of collinear divergences in gravity at leading power, the construction exhibits remarkable similarities with soft-collinear effective theory of QCD (gauge fields). It reveals an emergent soft background gauge symmetry, which allows for a manifestly gauge-invariant representation of the interactions in terms of a soft covariant derivative, the soft Riemann tensor, and a covariant generalisation of the collinear light-cone gauge metric field. The gauge symmetries control both the unsuppressed collinear field components and the inherent inhomogeneity in λ of the invariant objects to all orders, resulting in a consistent expansion.

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