Abstract
We consider asymptotic observables in quantum field theories in which the S-matrix makes sense. We argue that in addition to scattering amplitudes, a whole compendium of inclusive observables exists where the time-ordering is relaxed. These include expectation values of electromagnetic or gravitational radiation fields as well as out-of-time-order amplitudes. We explain how to calculate them in two ways: by relating them to amplitudes and products of amplitudes, and by using a generalization of the LSZ reduction formula. As an application, we discuss one-loop master integrals contributing to gravitational radiation in the post-Minkowski expansion, emphasizing the role of classical cut contributions and highlighting the different infrared physics of in-in observables.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Gang Chen, Alessandro Georgoudis, Aidan Herderschee, Harald Ita, Julio Parra-Martinez, Radu Roiban, and Fei Teng for helpful discussions. S.C.H. and M.G.’s work is supported in parts by the National Science and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) and by the Canada Research Chair program, reference number CRC-2022-00421. S.C.H.’s work is additionally supported by a Simons Fellowships in Theoretical Physics and by the Simons Collaboration on the Nonperturbative Bootstrap. H.S.H. gratefully acknowledges support from the Simons Foundation (816048). The work of S.M. is supported by the Sivian Fund and the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics under Award Number DE-SC0009988. S.C.H. thanks the Institute for Advanced Study for hospitality during a sabbatical semester where this work got started.
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Caron-Huot, S., Giroux, M., Hannesdottir, H.S. et al. What can be measured asymptotically?. J. High Energ. Phys. 2024, 139 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2024)139
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2024)139