Search results for "GRAVITATION"
showing 10 items of 743 documents
The unitary conformal field theory behind 2D Asymptotic Safety
2015
Being interested in the compatibility of Asymptotic Safety with Hilbert space positivity (unitarity), we consider a local truncation of the functional RG flow which describes quantum gravity in $d>2$ dimensions and construct its limit of exactly two dimensions. We find that in this limit the flow displays a nontrivial fixed point whose effective average action is a non-local functional of the metric. Its pure gravity sector is shown to correspond to a unitary conformal field theory with positive central charge $c=25$. Representing the fixed point CFT by a Liouville theory in the conformal gauge, we investigate its general properties and their implications for the Asymptotic Safety progra…
Vanishing of quantum gravitational corrections to vacuum solutions of general relativity at second order in curvature
2018
In this note we prove that quantum gravitational corrections to vacuum solutions of Einstein's equations vanish at second order in curvature.
Observable traces of non-metricity: new constraints on metric-affine gravity
2018
Relaxing the Riemannian condition to incorporate geometric quantities such as torsion and non-metricity may allow to explore new physics associated with defects in a hypothetical space-time microstructure. Here we show that non-metricity produces observable effects in quantum fields in the form of 4-fermion contact interactions, thereby allowing us to constrain the scale of non-metricity to be greater than 1 TeV by using results on Bhabha scattering. Our analysis is carried out in the framework of a wide class of theories of gravity in the metric-affine approach. The bound obtained represents an improvement of several orders of magnitude to previous experimental constraints.
Decoherence induced CPT violation and entangled neutral mesons
2006
We discuss two classes of semi-microscopic theoretical models of stochastic space-time foam in quantum gravity and the associated effects on entangled states of neutral mesons, signalling an intrinsic breakdown of CPT invariance. One class of models deals with a specific model of foam, initially constructed in the context of non-critical (Liouville) string theory, but viewed here in the more general context of effective quantum-gravity models. The relevant Hamiltonian perturbation, describing the interaction of the meson with the foam medium, consists of off-diagonal stochastic metric fluctuations, connecting distinct mass eigenstates (or the appropriate generalisation thereof in the case o…
Running Newton Constant, Improved Gravitational Actions, and Galaxy Rotation Curves
2004
A renormalization group (RG) improvement of the Einstein-Hilbert action is performed which promotes Newton's constant and the cosmological constant to scalar functions on spacetime. They arise from solutions of an exact RG equation by means of a ``cutoff identification'' which associates RG scales to the points of spacetime. The resulting modified Einstein equations for spherically symmetric, static spacetimes are derived and analyzed in detail. The modifications of the Newtonian limit due to the RG evolution are obtained for the general case. As an application, the viability of a scenario is investigated where strong quantum effects in the infrared cause Newton's constant to grow at large …
Generalized cosmological term from Maxwell symmetries
2010
By gauging the Maxwell spacetime algebra the standard geometric framework of Einstein gravity with cosmological constant term is extended by adding six fourvector fields A_\mu^{ab}(x) associated with the six abelian tensorial charges in the Maxwell algebra. In the simplest Maxwell extension of Einstein gravity this leads to a generalized cosmological term that includes a contribution from these vector fields. We also consider going beyond the basic gravitational model by means of bilinear actions for the new Abelian gauge fields. Finally, an analogy with the supersymmetric generalization of gravity is indicated. In an Appendix, we propose an equivalent description of the model in terms of a…
Nonsingular electrovacuum solutions with dynamically generated cosmological constant
2013
We consider static spherically symmetric configurations in a Palatini extension of General Relativity including R-2 and Ricci-squared terms, which is known to replace the central singularity by a wormhole in the electrovacuum case. We modify the matter sector of the theory by adding to the usual Maxwell term a nonlinear electromagnetic extension which is known to implement a confinement mechanism in flat space. One feature of the resulting theory is that the nonlinear electric field leads to a dynamically generated cosmological constant. We show that with this matter source the solutions of the model are asymptotically de Sitter and possess a wormhole topology. We discuss in some detail the…
Melvin Universe in Born-Infeld gravity
2015
We consider a magnetic flux pointing in the $z$ direction of an axially symmetric space-time (Melvin Universe) in a Born-Infeld-type extension of General Relativity (GR) formulated in the Palatini approach. Large magnetic fields could have been produced in the early Universe, and given rise to interesting phenomenology regarding wormholes and black hole remnants. We find a formal analytic solution to this problem that recovers the GR result in the appropriate limits. Our results set the basis for further extensions that could allow the embedding of pairs of black hole remnants in geometries with intense magnetic fields.
Geodesic completeness in a wormhole spacetime with horizons
2015
The geometry of a spacetime containing a wormhole generated by a spherically symmetric electric field is investigated in detail. These solutions arise in high-energy extensions of General Relativity formulated within the Palatini approach and coupled to Maxwell electrodynamics. Even though curvature divergences generically arise at the wormhole throat, we find that these spacetimes are geodesically complete. This provides an explicit example where curvature divergences do not imply spacetime singularities.
Mass spectrum and thermodynamics of quasi-conformal gauge theories from gauge/gravity duality
2011
We use gauge/gravity duality to study simultaneously the mass spectrum and the thermodynamics of a generic quasi-conformal gauge theory, specified by its beta function. The beta function of a quasi-conformal theory almost vanishes, and the coupling is almost constant between two widely separated energy scales. Depending on whether the gravity dual has a black hole or not, the mass spectrum is either a spectrum of quasinormal oscillations or a normal T=0 mass spectrum. The mass spectrum is quantitatively correlated with the thermal properties of the system. As the theory approaches conformality, the masses have to vanish. We show that in this limit, the masses calculated via gauge/gravity du…