Positivity properties of scattering amplitudes

A bstract We investigate positivity properties in quantum field theory (QFT). We provide evidence, and in some case proofs, that many building blocks of scattering amplitudes, and in some cases the full amplitudes, 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 planar and non-planar Feynman integrals possessing a Euclidean region, as well as to certain Euler integrals relevant to cosmological correlators and stringy integrals. This implies in particular that many basic building blocks appearing in perturbation theory, such as master integrals, can be chosen to be completely monotone. We also discuss two pathways for showing complete monotonicity for full amplitudes. One is related to properties of the analytic S-matrix. The other one is a close connection between the CM property and Positive Geometry. Motivated by this, 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.