PhD. defense by Andrea Cristofoli

The On-Shell Highway to Waveforms

This thesis explores several dynamical aspects of the classical two-body problem using scattering amplitude methods. We first discuss the conservative two-body dynamics in General Relativity in the post-Minkowskian regime, valid for weak gravitational fields and unbound velocities. In doing so, we present novel relations between on-shell scattering amplitudes and classical quantities such as the post-Minkowskian Hamiltonian and scattering angle. We then focus on modern amplitude methods, presenting the string inspired CHY-formalism.

As an application, we derive covariant expressions for tree-level amplitudes with two massive scalars and an arbitrary number of gravitons, providing the needed input to evaluate classical observables from unitarity methods. We then study classical wave physics,showing how to derive from amplitudes gravitational shock-wave solutions to the Einstein field equations. We conclude by presenting a generalization of a formalism which describes black hole dynamics from on-shell data. With the addition of coherent states in the original framework, we study observables with massless particles as incoming states, such as the bending of light and the Thomson scattering. We also derive waveforms generated in binary scattering, providing an elegant relation between the Newman-Penrose formalism and helicity amplitudes.

Chair: Charlotte Kristjansen

Opponents: Rodolfo Russo (QMUL, UK) and Filippo Vernizzi (Saclay, France)

Link for Zoom meeting