Lorentz-Covariant Spectral Bounds from Thermal Quantum Field Theory: Retarded Green's Functions, Kubo Relations, and Holographic Constraints

Abstract

We extend the recently established framework of Lorentz-covariant relaxation bounds from linearized classical kinetic and rheological theories to the full quantum setting of thermal quantum field theory (QFT). Working directly with retarded two-point functions at finite temperature and density, we show that the analyticity and positivity properties of spectral functions -- combined with Lorentz covariance and the Kubo--Martin--Schwinger (KMS) condition -- impose rigorous frame-dependent constraints on the location of singularities in the complex frequency plane. Specifically, we prove that the non-hydrodynamic quasinormal spectrum in any boosted frame is confined to a strip whose width is determined solely by the rest-frame spectral weight at zero spatial momentum and the maximal group velocity of the theory. We derive covariant sum rules for the spectral density under Lorentz boosts and establish that the convergence radius of the hydrodynamic gradient expansion transforms in a manner dictated by the same rest-frame data. In holographic theories dual to Einstein gravity in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetime, we verify the bounds by an explicit quasinormal-mode computation: the leading boosted pole moves deeper into the complex plane -- the observed relaxation rate increases with boost velocity, in sharp contrast to naive time dilation -- while respecting the bound throughout; we further derive corrections from higher-derivative gravitational terms. Our results provide a first-principles, non-perturbative derivation of Lorentz-covariant spectral constraints applicable to the quark-gluon plasma, superfluid phases of neutron star matter, and strongly correlated electrons near quantum critical points.