• Accepted Paper

Phases of the scalar S-matrix island

Joan Elias Miró, Andrea Guerrieri, and Mehmet Asim Gümüş

Phys. Rev. Lett. - Accepted 30 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/h98h-5fcr

Abstract

The two-to-two four-dimensional scattering amplitude of identical scalars obeys rigorous two-sided non-perturbative bounds derived via the modern numerical S-matrix bootstrap. These bounds carve out an allowed region with a rich boundary structure, featuring edges and vertices. In this work we further tighten this region and uncover the physics of its boundary by analyzing the asymptotic Regge behavior of the amplitude and the spectrum of resonances and virtual states. We find that the S-matrices along a given edge exhibit universal behavior, sharply contrasting with that on other edges. This reveals a classification of the boundary into distinct phases, corresponding to different UV mechanisms by which a gapped scalar arises.

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