Positivity properties of scattering amplitudes

We investigate positivity properties in quantum field theory (QFT). We find that planar Feynman integrals in QFT, as well as many related quantities, satisfy an infinite number of positivity conditions: the functions, as well as all their signed derivatives, are non-negative in a specified kinematic region. Such functions are known as completely monotonic (CM) in the mathematics literature. A powerful way to certify complete monotonicity is via integral representations. We thus show that it applies to non-planar integrals possessing a Euclidean region, to cosmological correlators, as well as to certain stringy integrals. Motivated by Positive Geometry, we investigate positivity properties in planar maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We present evidence, based on known analytic multi-loop results, that the CM property extends to several physical quantities in this theory. This includes the (suitably normalized) finite remainder function of the six-particle maximally-helicity violating (MHV) amplitude, four-point scattering amplitudes on the Coulomb branch, four-point correlation functions, as well as the angle-dependent cusp anomalous dimension. Our findings are however not limited to supersymmetric theories. It is shown that the CM property holds for the QCD and QED cusp anomalous dimensions, to three and four loops, respectively. We comment on open questions, and on possible numerical applications of complete monotonicity.
Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures