Constraints on Regge behavior from IR physics

Abstract

We consider positivity constraints applicable to the effective field theory (EFT) of gravity in arbitrary dimensions. By considering scattering of indefinite initial and final states, we highlight the existence of a gravitational scattering amplitude for which full crossing symmetry is manifest and utilize the recently developed crossing symmetric dispersion relations to derive compact nonlinear bounds. We show that the null constraints built into these dispersion relations lead to a finite energy sum rule for gravity which may be extended to a one-parameter family of continuous moment sum rules. These sum rules enforce a UV-IR relation which imposes constraints on both the Regge trajectory and residue. We also highlight a situation where the Regge trajectory is uniquely determined in terms of the sub-Regge scale amplitude. Generically the Regge behavior may be split into an IR sensitive part calculable within a given EFT, which mainly depends on the lightest fields in nature, and an IR independent part, which is subject to universal positivity constraints following from unitarity and analyticity.