All-Order Helicity Selection Rules in Effective Field Theories

Using on-shell methods, we derive an all-order non-renormalization theorem for general four-dimensional effective field theories, relying on Poincaré invariance and unitarity. Each operator $\mathcal O$ is assigned the weights $(w,\bar w)=(\ell-h,\ell+h)$, where $\ell$ and $h$ are the number of particles and total helicity of its minimal configuration. At $L$ loops, the mixing $\mathcal O_j\to\mathcal O_i$ vanishes when $\ell_j-\ell_i=L-1$ and either $w_i<w_j-2(L-1)$ or $\bar w_i<\bar w_j-2(L-1)$, in the absence of non-holomorphic Yukawa couplings. These zeros follow entirely from tree-level data and are scheme independent under finite renormalizations that preserve the operator-length selection rule. For operators of dimensions five through eight, we identify broad classes of previously unknown zeros at higher loop orders, with particular emphasis on two loops, where the theorem provides direct checks on current calculations, as in the Standard Model Effective Field Theory.