2025/12/24 by Sangmin Choi, Ameya Kadhe, Choi, Sangmin +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2512.21239
openalex publication_date 2025/12/24 · openalex created_date 2025/12/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The logarithmic soft photon theorem in four spacetime dimensions encodes an infinite-dimensional asymptotic symmetry which acts on massive matter as a divergent superphaserotation. Here we extend this result to massless matter which is both more subtle and surprising. We derive the charge associated to divergent superphaserotations and show that it exactly vanishes to all orders in the electromagnetic coupling. This is in agreement with the vanishing of the classical logarithmic soft photon theorem which is one-loop exact. Special care is required for massless matter due to potential collinear divergences which, as we show, do however not affect the superphaserotation charge. We furthermore compute the infrared corrections to the charge associated to the subleading tree-level soft photon theorem. As a corollary of our result, we find that the tail to the velocity kick memory due to the long-range interactions between soft electromagnetic radiation and massless matter vanishes.