Search results for "Asymptotic Safety"
showing 10 items of 37 documents
On selfdual spin-connections and asymptotic safety
2016
We explore Euclidean quantum gravity using the tetrad field together with a selfdual or anti-selfdual spin-connection as the basic field variables. Setting up a functional renormalization group (RG) equation of a new type which is particularly suitable for the corresponding theory space we determine the non-perturbative RG flow within a two-parameter truncation suggested by the Holst action. We find that the (anti-)selfdual theory is likely to be asymptotically safe. The existing evidence for its non-perturbative renormalizability is comparable to that of Einstein-Cartan gravity without the selfduality condition.
Renormalization group flow of the Holst action
2010
The renormalization group (RG) properties of quantum gravity are explored, using the vielbein and the spin connection as the fundamental field variables. The scale dependent effective action is required to be invariant both under space time diffeomorphisms and local frame rotations. The nonperturbative RG equation is solved explicitly on the truncated theory space defined by a three parameter family of Holst-type actions which involve a running Immirzi parameter. We find evidence for the existence of an asymptotically safe fundamental theory, probably inequivalent to metric quantum gravity constructed in the same way.
Scale-dependent metric and causal structures in Quantum Einstein Gravity
2006
Within the asymptotic safety scenario for gravity various conceptual issues related to the scale dependence of the metric are analyzed. The running effective field equations implied by the effective average action of Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) and the resulting families of resolution dependent metrics are discussed. The status of scale dependent vs. scale independent diffeomorphisms is clarified, and the difference between isometries implemented by scale dependent and independent Killing vectors is explained. A concept of scale dependent causality is proposed and illustrated by various simple examples. The possibility of assigning an "intrinsic length" to objects in a QEG spacetime is a…
Fractal Spacetime Structure in Asymptotically Safe Gravity
2005
Four-dimensional Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) is likely to be an asymptotically safe theory which is applicable at arbitrarily small distance scales. On sub-Planckian distances it predicts that spacetime is a fractal with an effective dimensionality of 2. The original argument leading to this result was based upon the anomalous dimension of Newton's constant. In the present paper we demonstrate that also the spectral dimension equals 2 microscopically, while it is equal to 4 on macroscopic scales. This result is an exact consequence of asymptotic safety and does not rely on any truncation. Contact is made with recent Monte Carlo simulations.
Fluid membranes and2dquantum gravity
2011
We study the RG flow of two dimensional (fluid) membranes embedded in Euclidean D-dimensional space using functional RG methods based on the effective average action. By considering a truncation ansatz for the effective average action with both extrinsic and intrinsic curvature terms we derive a system of beta functions for the running surface tension, bending rigidity and Gaussian rigidity. We look for non-trivial fixed points but we find no evidence for a crumpling transition at $T\neq0$. Finally, we propose to identify the $D\rightarrow 0$ limit of the theory with two dimensional quantum gravity. In this limit we derive new beta functions for both cosmological and Newton's constants.
Flow equation of quantum Einstein gravity in a higher-derivative truncation
2002
Motivated by recent evidence indicating that Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) might be nonperturbatively renormalizable, the exact renormalization group equation of QEG is evaluated in a truncation of theory space which generalizes the Einstein-Hilbert truncation by the inclusion of a higher-derivative term $(R^2)$. The beta-functions describing the renormalization group flow of the cosmological constant, Newton's constant, and the $R^2$-coupling are computed explicitly. The fixed point (FP) properties of the 3-dimensional flow are investigated, and they are confronted with those of the 2-dimensional Einstein-Hilbert flow. The non-Gaussian FP predicted by the latter is found to generalize to …
Critical reflections on asymptotically safe gravity
2020
Asymptotic safety is a theoretical proposal for the ultraviolet completion of quantum field theories, in particular for quantum gravity. Significant progress on this program has led to a first characterization of the Reuter fixed point. Further advancement in our understanding of the nature of quantum spacetime requires addressing a number of open questions and challenges. Here, we aim at providing a critical reflection on the state of the art in the asymptotic safety program, specifying and elaborating on open questions of both technical and conceptual nature. We also point out systematic pathways, in various stages of practical implementation, towards answering them. Finally, we also take…
Running Immirzi Parameter and Asymptotic Safety
2011
We explore the renormalization group (RG) properties of quantum gravity, using the vielbein and the spin connection as the fundamental field variables. We require the effective action to be invariant under the semidirect product of spacetime diffeomorphisms and local frame rotations. Starting from the corresponding functional integral we review the construction of an appropriate theory space and an exact funtional RG equation operating on it. We then solve this equation on a truncated space defined by a three parameter family of Holst-type actions which involve a running Immirzi parameter. We find evidence for the existence of an asymptotically safe fundamental theory. It is probably inequi…
Why the Cosmological Constant Seems to Hardly Care About Quantum Vacuum Fluctuations: Surprises From Background Independent Coarse Graining
2020
International audience; Background Independence is a sine qua non for every satisfactory theory of Quantum Gravity. In particular if one tries to establish a corresponding notion of Wilsonian renormalization, or coarse graining, it presents a major conceptual and technical difficulty usually. In this paper we adopt the approach of the gravitational Effective Average Action and demonstrate that generically coarse graining in Quantum Gravity and in standard field theories on a non-dynamical spacetime are profoundly different. By means of a concrete example, which in connection with the cosmological constant problem is also interesting in its own right, we show that the surprising and sometime…
Asymptotic freedom in massive Yang-Mills theory
2007
An effective field theory model of the massive Yang-Mills theory is considered. Assuming that the renormalized coupling constants of 'non-renormalizable' interactions are suppressed by a large scale parameter it is shown that in analogy to the non-abelian gauge invariant theory the dimensionless coupling constant vanishes logarithmically for large values of the renormalization scale parameter.