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Horn, Bart

Publications and source records attributed to Horn, Bart.

Double-soft graviton amplitudes and the extended BMS charge algebra

We discuss how scattering amplitudes in 4d Minkowski spacetime which involve multiple soft gravitons realize the algebra of BMS charges on the null boundary. In particular, we show how the commutator of two such charges is realized by the antisymmetrized consecutive soft limit of the double soft amplitude. The commutator is expected to be robust even in the presence of quantum corrections, and the associated Lie algebra has an extension, which breaks the BMS symmetry if the BMS algebra is taken to include the Virasoro algebra of local superrotations. We discuss the implications of this structure for the existence of a 2d CFT dual description for 4d scattering amplitudes.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Lagrangian space consistency relation for large scale structure

Consistency relations, which relate the squeezed limit of an (N+1)-point correlation function to an N-point function, are non-perturbative symmetry statements that hold even if the associated high momentum modes are deep in the nonlinear regime and astrophysically complex. Recently, Kehagias & Riotto and Peloso & Pietroni discovered a consistency relation applicable to large scale structure. We show that this can be recast into a simple physical statement in Lagrangian space: that the squeezed correlation function (suitably normalized) vanishes. This holds regardless of whether the correlation observables are at the same time or not, and regardless of whether multiple-streaming is present. Furthermore, the simplicity of this statement suggests that an analytic understanding of large scale structure in the nonlinear regime may be particularly promising in Lagrangian space.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Soft-Pion theorems for large scale structure

Consistency relations — which relate an N-point function to a squeezed (N+1)-point function — are useful in large scale structure (LSS) because of their non-perturbative nature: they hold even if the N-point function is deep in the nonlinear regime, and even if they involve astrophysically messy galaxy observables. The non-perturbative nature of the consistency relations is guaranteed by the fact that they are symmetry statements, in which the velocity plays the role of the soft pion. In this paper, we address two issues: (1) how to derive the relations systematically using the residual coordinate freedom in the Newtonian gauge, and relate them to known results in ζ-gauge (often used in studies of inflation); (2) under what conditions the consistency relations are violated. In the non-relativistic limit, our derivation reproduces the Newtonian consistency relation discovered by Kehagias and Riotto and Peloso and Pietroni. More generally, there is an infinite set of consistency relations, as is known in ζ-gauge. There is a one-to-one correspondence between symmetries in the two gauges; in particular, the Newtonian consistency relation follows from the dilation and special conformal symmetries in ζ-gauge. We probe the robustness of the consistency relations by studying models of galaxy dynamics and biasing. We give a systematic list of conditions under which the consistency relations are violated; violations occur if the galaxy bias is non-local in an infrared divergent way. We emphasize the relevance of the adiabatic mode condition, as distinct from symmetry considerations. As a by-product of our investigation, we discuss a simple fluid Lagrangian for LSS.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗