Search results for "Ultraviolet fixed point"
showing 10 items of 10 documents
Process-independent strong running coupling
2016
We unify two widely different approaches to understanding the infrared behaviour of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), one essentially phenomenological, based on data, and the other computational, realised via quantum field equations in the continuum theory. Using the latter, we explain and calculate a process-independent running-coupling for QCD, a new type of effective charge that is an analogue of the Gell-Mann--Low effective coupling in quantum electrodynamics. The result is almost identical to the process-dependent effective charge defined via the Bjorken sum rule, which provides one of the most basic constraints on our knowledge of nucleon spin structure. This reveals the Bjorken sum to be…
Asymptotically safe Lorentzian gravity.
2011
The gravitational asymptotic safety program strives for a consistent and predictive quantum theory of gravity based on a non-trivial ultraviolet fixed point of the renormalization group (RG) flow. We investigate this scenario by employing a novel functional renormalization group equation which takes the causal structure of space-time into account and connects the RG flows for Euclidean and Lorentzian signature by a Wick-rotation. Within the Einstein-Hilbert approximation, the $\beta$-functions of both signatures exhibit ultraviolet fixed points in agreement with asymptotic safety. Surprisingly, the two fixed points have strikingly similar characteristics, suggesting that Euclidean and Loren…
Conformal sector of quantum Einstein gravity in the local potential approximation: Non-Gaussian fixed point and a phase of unbroken diffeomorphism in…
2008
We explore the nonperturbative renormalization group flow of quantum Einstein gravity (QEG) on an infinite dimensional theory space. We consider ``conformally reduced'' gravity where only fluctuations of the conformal factor are quantized and employ the local potential approximation for its effective average action. The requirement of ``background independence'' in quantum gravity entails a partial differential equation governing the scale dependence of the potential for the conformal factor which differs significantly from that of a scalar matter field. In the infinite dimensional space of potential functions we find a Gaussian as well as a non-Gaussian fixed point which provides further e…
Renormalization group flow of quantum gravity in the Einstein-Hilbert truncation
2002
The exact renormalization group equation for pure quantum gravity is used to derive the non-perturbative $\Fbeta$-functions for the dimensionless Newton constant and cosmological constant on the theory space spanned by the Einstein-Hilbert truncation. The resulting coupled differential equations are evaluated for a sharp cutoff function. The features of these flow equations are compared to those found when using a smooth cutoff. The system of equations with sharp cutoff is then solved numerically, deriving the complete renormalization group flow of the Einstein-Hilbert truncation in $d=4$. The resulting renormalization group trajectories are classified and their physical relevance is discus…
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.
R2phase diagram of quantum Einstein gravity and its spectral dimension
2012
Within the gravitational asymptotic safety program, the renormalization group (RG) flow of the ${R}^{2}$ truncation in three and four spacetime dimensions is analyzed in detail. In particular, we construct RG trajectories which emanate from the non-Gaussian UV fixed point and possess long classical regimes where the effective average action is well approximated by the classical Einstein-Hilbert action. As an application we study the spectral dimension of the effective quantum Einstein gravity spacetimes resulting from these trajectories, establishing that the picture of a multifractal spacetime is robust under the extension of the truncated theory space. We demonstrate that regimes of const…
Ultraviolet Fixed Point and Generalized Flow Equation of Quantum Gravity
2001
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 r…
Evidence against non-asymptotically-free theories of strong interactions
1977
Abstract It is shown that ultraviolet finite fixed point theories of strong interactions are incompatible with the pattern of scaling deviations in deep inelastic lepton-hadron processes.
Focus on quantum Einstein gravity
2012
The gravitational asymptotic safety program summarizes the attempts to construct a consistent and predictive quantum theory of gravity within Wilson's generalized framework of renormalization. Its key ingredient is a non-Gaussian fixed point of the renormalization group flow which controls the behavior of the theory at trans-Planckian energies and renders gravity safe from unphysical divergences. Provided that the fixed point comes with a finite number of ultraviolet-attractive (relevant) directions, this construction gives rise to a consistent quantum field theory which is as predictive as an ordinary, perturbatively renormalizable one. This opens up the exciting possibility of establishin…
Is massless quantum electrodynamics a free-field theory?
1976
It is shown that if the photon wave-function renormalization constant is finite, then in the limit of zero fermion mass, quantum electrodynamics is a free- field theory.