PJC: Emanuele Rosi "Classical two-body gravitational scattering at high energies: an EFT perspective"

Thursday 7 May 2026, 13:30 → 15:30 Europe/Rome

Sala Touschek

I present a short review of the two-body problem in general relativity, focusing on the scattering scenario in the high-energy limit.
After discussing some of the relevant perturbative expansions, I will go into detail on the Post-Minkowskian (PM) approximation, aka the weak-field expansion. In this framework, two classes of Effective Field Theories (EFTs) have been developed: one based on quantum scattering amplitudes in the classical limit, and one based on worldline operators. Both approaches result very simplified in the high-energy regime, where graviton modes factorise, enabling calculations at higher PM orders. On the other hand, theoretical challenges — such as the non-perturbativity in Newton's constant — must be addressed. Finally, I present the "Self-Force EFT", which can be suited to treat the high-energy scattering problem in a strong-field regime.