Explorations in the Space of S-Matrices

Abstract

S-matrix is one of the fundamental observables of the quantum theory of relativistic particles. There have been attempts to understand the quantum dynamics of relativistic particles abstractly in terms of S-matrix bypassing a Lagrangian formulation of quantum field theory. Equivalently, the space of possible S-matrices defines an abstract theory space. This thesis examines how to constrain the spectrum of physical theories in the theory space using the basic physical requirements of Poincare invariance, quantum unitarity, and causality. The thesis discusses two distinct but related ways of such exploration. The first part of the thesis explores a novel mathematical way of cruising the space of S-matrices using the techniques from geometric function theory (GFT). This analysis leads to rigorous two-sided bounds on Wilson coefficients in the effective field theories (EFT). Using these GFT techniques, we study elastic scattering amplitudes of identical massive scalar Bosons, EFT amplitudes of elastic 2-2 photon, and graviton scattering and try to constrain the space of low energy effective field theories. In the second part of the thesis, we work out a systematic derivation of the Froissart-Martin bound starting with $4-$point Mellin amplitude for a holographic CFT.