Infrared Divergences and the Eikonal

Authors: Carlo Heissenberg

Preprint number: UUITP-23/21

Abstract: The aim of this note is to explore the interplay between the eikonal resummation in impact-parameter space and the exponentiation of infrared divergences in momentum space for gravity amplitudes describing collisions of massive objects. The eikonal governs the classical dynamics relevant to the two-body problem, and its infrared properties are directly linked to the zero-frequency limit of the gravitational wave emission spectrum and to radiation-reaction effects. Combining eikonal and infrared exponentiations it is possible to derive these properties at a given loop order starting from lower-loop data. This is illustrated explicitly in N = 8 supergravity and in general relativity by deriving the divergent part of the two-loop eikonal from tree-level and one-loop elastic amplitudes.