Mang Hei Gordon Lee

Using unitarity and causality, we derive an infinite tower of two-sided positivity bounds on the effective field theory coefficients which describe the propagation of heavy fields on de Sitter spacetime. We design this effective field theory (EFT) to describe propagators with the in-in boundary conditions that are relevant for cosmological correlators. Our positivity bounds therefore identify EFT correlators that can never emerge from a consistent underlying model of inflation. This implies nontrivial constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity; for instance the cosmological collider oscillations in the squeezed bispectrum from the exchange of a heavy scalar are tied to the shape of its EFT background.

A bstract: In this work we perform a systematic study of the singularity structure of inflationary correlations at 1-loop. We explicitly compute a few diagrams and find a pattern emerging in the singularities produced. Motivated by this, we derive diagrammatic rules to extract the singularities of any two-site 1-loop diagram. Using these rules, the poles and branch cuts produced can be predicted by simply identifying the energies flowing through certain subgraphs, without having to perform complicated integrals. We demonstrate how these rules follow by analyzing the general structure of the time and momentum integrals of the correlators. An interesting feature of de-Sitter correlators at 1-loop is the presence of an off-shell total energy branch point, which is present in dimensional regularization as well as cutoff regularization. We probe the source of this branch cut in detail, while revisiting the cosmological KLN theorem [1] in this context. Finally, we show that the branch cuts produced in a renormalised correlator always repackage themselves in a dilatation invariant form to produce logarithms of ratios of comoving scales.

In this work we perform a systematic study of the singularity structure of inflationary correlations at 1-loop. We explicitly compute a few diagrams and find a pattern emerging in the singularities produced. Motivated by this, we derive diagrammatic rules to extract the singularities of any two-site 1-loop diagram. Using these rules, the poles and branch cuts produced can be predicted by simply identifying the energies flowing through certain subgraphs, without having to perform complicated integrals. We demonstrate how these rules follow by analyzing the general structure of the time and momentum integrals of the correlators. An interesting feature of de-Sitter correlators at 1-loop is the presence of an off-shell total energy branch point, which is present in dimensional regularization as well as cutoff regularization. We probe the source of this branch cut in detail, while revisiting the cosmological KLN theorem (arXiv:2308.00680) in this context. Finally, we show that the branch cuts produced in a renormalised correlator always repackage themselves in a dilatation invariant form to produce logarithms of ratios of comoving scales.

The field-theoretic wavefunction has received renewed attention with the goal of better understanding observables at the boundary of de Sitter spacetime and studying the interior of Minkowski or general FLRW spacetime. Understanding the analytic structure of the wavefunction potentially allows us to establish bounds on physical observables. In this paper we develop an amplitude representation for the flat space wavefunction, which allow us to write the flat space wavefunction as an amplitude-like Feynman integral integrated over an energy-fixing kernel. With this representation it is possible to separate the wavefunction into an amplitude part and a subleading part which is less divergent as the total energy goes to zero. In turn the singularities of the wavefunction can be classified into two sets: amplitude-type singularities, which can be mapped to singularities found in amplitudes (including anomalous thresholds), and wavefunction-type singularities, which are unique to the wavefunction. As an example we study several tree level and one loop diagrams for scalars, and explore their singularities in detail.

The field-theoretic wavefunction has received renewed attention with the goal of better understanding observables at the boundary of de Sitter spacetime and studying the interior of Minkowski or general FLRW spacetime. Understanding the analytic structure of the wavefunction potentially allows us to establish bounds on physical observables. In this paper we develop an “amplitude representation” for the flat space wavefunction, which allow us to write the flat space wavefunction as an amplitude-like Feynman integral integrated over an energy-fixing kernel. With this representation it is possible to separate the wavefunction into an amplitude part and a subleading part which is less divergent as the total energy goes to zero. In turn the singularities of the wavefunction can be classified into two sets: amplitude-type singularities, which can be mapped to singularities found in amplitudes (including anomalous thresholds), and wavefunction-type singularities, which are unique to the wavefunction. As an example we study several tree level and one loop diagrams for scalars, and explore their singularities in detail.

Cosmological correlators from inflation are often generated at tree level and hence loop contributions are bounded to be small corrections by perturbativity. Here we discuss a scenario where this is not the case. Recently, it has been shown that for any number of scalar fields of any mass, the parity-odd trispectrum of a massless scalar must vanish in the limit of exact scale invariance due to unitarity and the choice of initial state. By carefully handling UV-divergences, we show that the one-loop contribution is non-vanishing and hence leading. Surprisingly, the one-loop parity-odd trispectrum is simply a rational function of kinematics, which we compute explicitly in a series of models, including single-clock inflation. Although the loop contribution is the leading term in the parity-odd sector, its signal-to-noise ratio is typically bounded from above by that of a corresponding tree-level parity-even trispectrum, unless instrumental noise and systematics for the two observables differ. Furthermore, we identify a series of loop contributions to the wavefunction that cancel exactly when computing correlators, suggesting a more general phenomenon.

Cosmological correlators from inflation are often generated at tree level and hence loop contributions are bounded to be small corrections by perturbativity. Here we discuss a scenario where this is not the case. Recently, it has been shown that for any number of scalar fields of any mass, the parity-odd trispectrum of a massless scalar must vanish in the limit of exact scale invariance due to unitarity and the choice of initial state. By carefully handling UV-divergences, we show that the one-loop contribution is non-vanishing and hence leading. Surprisingly, the one-loop parity-odd trispectrum is simply a rational function of kinematics, which we compute explicitly in a series of models, including single-clock inflation. Although the loop contribution is the leading term in the parity-odd sector, its signal-to-noise ratio is typically bounded from above by that of a corresponding tree-level parity-even trispectrum, unless instrumental noise and systematics for the two observables differ. Furthermore, we identify a series of loop contributions to the wavefunction that cancel exactly when computing correlators, suggesting a more general phenomenon.

The wavefunction in quantum field theory is an invaluable tool for tackling a variety of problems, including probing the interior of Minkowski spacetime and modelling boundary observables in de Sitter spacetime. Here we study the analytic structure of wavefunction coefficients in Minkowski as a function of their kinematics. We introduce an off-shell wavefunction in terms of amputated time-ordered correlation functions and show that it is analytic in the complex energy plane except for possible singularities on the negative real axis. These singularities are determined to all loop orders by a simple energy-conservation condition. We confirm this picture by developing a Landau analysis of wavefunction loop integrals and corroborate our findings with several explicit calculations in scalar field theories. This analytic structure allows us to derive new UV/IR sum rules for the wavefunction that fix the coefficients in its low-energy expansion in terms of integrals of discontinuities in the corresponding UV-completion. In contrast to the analogous sum rules for scattering amplitudes, the wavefunction sum rules can also constrain total-derivative interactions. We explicitly verify these new relations at one-loop order in simple UV models of a light and a heavy scalar. Our results, which apply to both Lorentz invariant and boost-breaking theories, pave the way towards deriving wavefunction positivity bounds in flat and cosmological spacetimes.

The wavefunction in quantum field theory is an invaluable tool for tackling a variety of problems, including probing the interior of Minkowski spacetime and modelling boundary observables in de Sitter spacetime. Here we study the analytic structure of wavefunction coefficients in Minkowski as a function of their kinematics. We introduce an off-shell wavefunction in terms of amputated time-ordered correlation functions and show that it is analytic in the complex energy plane except for possible singularities on the negative real axis. These singularities are determined to all loop orders by a simple energy-conservation condition. We confirm this picture by developing a Landau analysis of wavefunction loop integrals and corroborate our findings with several explicit calculations in scalar field theories. This analytic structure allows us to derive new UV/IR sum rules for the wavefunction that fix the coefficients in its low-energy expansion in terms of integrals of discontinuities in the corresponding UV-completion. In contrast to the analogous sum rules for scattering amplitudes, the wavefunction sum rules can also constrain total-derivative interactions. We explicitly verify these new relations at one-loop order in simple UV models of a light and a heavy scalar. Our results, which apply to both Lorentz invariant and boost-breaking theories, pave the way towards deriving wavefunction positivity bounds in flat and cosmological spacetimes.