6533b7d0fe1ef96bd125b7e8
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Ultraviolet Fixed Point and Generalized Flow Equation of Quantum Gravity
O. LauscherMartin Reutersubject
PhysicsHigh Energy Physics - TheoryNuclear and High Energy PhysicsInfrared fixed pointAsymptotic safety in quantum gravityGravitonFOS: Physical sciencesGeneral Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)Euclidean quantum gravityRenormalization groupGeneral Relativity and Quantum CosmologyHigh Energy Physics::TheoryGeneral Relativity and Quantum CosmologyClassical mechanicsHigh Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)Quantum gravityFunctional renormalization groupUltraviolet fixed pointMathematical physicsdescription
A new exact renormalization group equation for the effective average action of Euclidean quantum gravity is constructed. It is formulated in terms of the component fields appearing in the transverse-traceless decomposition of the metric. It facilitates both the construction of an appropriate infrared cutoff and the projection of the renormalization group flow onto a large class of truncated parameter spaces. The Einstein-Hilbert truncation is investigated in detail and the fixed point structure of the resulting flow is analyzed. Both a Gaussian and a non-Gaussian fixed point are found. If the non-Gaussian fixed point is present in the exact theory, quantum Einstein gravity is likely to be renormalizable at the nonperturbative level. In order to assess the reliability of the truncation a comprehensive analysis of the scheme dependence of universal quantities is performed. We find strong evidence supporting the hypothesis that 4-dimensional Einstein gravity is asymptotically safe, i.e. nonperturbatively renormalizable. The renormalization group improvement of the graviton propagator suggests a kind of dimensional reduction from 4 to 2 dimensions when spacetime is probed at sub-Planckian length scales.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001-08-07 |