11 pages, Contribution to proceedings of the workshop {\it Cosmology, the Quantum Vacuum and Zeta Functions} in celebration of the 60th birthday of Emilio Elizalde; Barcelona, 8-10 March, 2010. Additional references in v2
We review some features of three-dimensional (3D) massive gravity theories. In particular, we stress the role of the Schouten tensor, explore an analogy with Lovelock gravity and discuss renormalizabilty.
We review some recent work by Carone, Erlich and Vaman on composite gravitons in metric-independent quantum field theories, with the aim of clarifying a number of basic issues. Focusing on a theory of scalar fields presented previously in the literature, we clarify the meaning of the tunings required to obtain a massless graviton. We argue that this formulation can be interpreted as the massless limit of a theory of massive composite gravitons in which the graviton mass term is not of Pauli-Fierz form. We then suggest closely related theories that can be defined without such a limiting procedu…
Theories with massive gravitons have peculiarity called the van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov discontinuity in that the massive theory propagator does not go to the massless graviton propagator in the zero graviton mass limit. This results in large deviation in Newtons law for massive graviton theories even when the graviton mass vanishes. We test the vDVZ in massive graviton theories for single graviton vertex process namely the gravitational radiation from a classical source. We calculate the gravitational radiation from compact binaries using the perturbative Feynman diagram method. We perform this …
We study a novel class of higher derivative theories for interacting massless gravitons in Minkowski spacetime. These theories were first discussed by Wald decades ago, and are characterized by scattering amplitudes essentially different from general relativity and many of its modifications. We discuss various aspects of these higher derivative theories, including the Lagrangian construction, violation of asymptotic causality, scattering amplitudes, non-renormalization, and possible implications on emergent gravitons from condensed matter systems.
In this paper we investigate graviton-photon oscillation in the presence of an external magnetic field in alternative theories of gravity. Whereas the effect of an effective refractive index for the electromagnetic radiation was already considered in the literature, we develop the first approach to take into account the effect of the modification of the predictions for gravitational waves in alternative theories of gravity in the phenomenon of graviton-photon mixing.
We review (and elaborate on) the `dual graviton problem' in the context of duality covariant formulations of M-theory (exceptional field theories). These theories require fields that are interpreted as components of the dual graviton in order to build complete multiplets under the exceptional groups E$_{d(d)}$, $d=2,\ldots, 9$. Circumventing no-go arguments, consistent theories for such fields have been constructed by incorporating additional covariant compensator fields. The latter fields are needed for gauge invariance but also for on-shell equivalence with $D=11$ and type IIB supergravity. …
We give a simple proof of perturbative unitarity in gauge theories and quantum gravity using a special gauge that allows us to separate the physical poles of the free propagators, which are quantized by means of the Feynman prescription, from the poles that belong to the gauge-trivial sector, which are quantized by means of the fakeon prescription. The proof applies to renormalizable theories, including the ultraviolet complete theory of quantum gravity with fakeons formulated recently, as well as low-energy (nonrenormalizable) theories. We clarify a number of subtleties related to the study o…
In this note we determine the graviton-graviton OPE and the null states in any $w_{1+\infty}$ symmetric theory on the celestial sphere. Our analysis shows that there exists a discrete \textit{infinite} family of such theories. The MHV-sector and the quantum self dual gravity are two members of this infinite family. Although the Bulk Lagrangian description of this family of theories is not currently known to us, the graviton scattering amplitudes in these theories are heavily constrained due to the existence of null states. Presumably they are exactly solvable in the same way as the minimal mod…
We revisit the problem of constraining the weak field limit of the gravitational lagrangian from S-matrix properties. From unitarity and Lorentz invariance of the S-matrix of massless gravitons, we derive on-shell gauge invariance to consist on the transverse part of the linearised diffeomorphisms group. Moreover, by looking to the interaction between sources, we conclude that there exist only two possible lagrangians that lead to a well-defined covariant interaction, corresponding to the weak field limits of General Relativity and Unimodular Gravity. Additionally, this result confirms the equ…
The coupling between gravity and matter provides an intriguing length scale in the infrared for theories of gravity within Einstein-Hilbert action and beyond. In particular, we will show that such an infrared length scale is determined by the number of gravitons $N_{g}\gg1$ associated to a given mass in the non-relativistic limit. After tracing out the matter degrees of freedom, the graviton vacuum is found to be in a displaced vacuum with an occupation number of gravitons $N_{g}\gg1$. In the infrared, the length scale appears to be $L=\sqrt{N_{g}}\ell_{p}$, where $L$ is the new infrared lengt…
Gravity is uniquely situated in between classical topological field theories and standard local field theories. This can be seen in the the quasi-local nature of gravitational observables, but is nowhere more apparent than in gravity's holographic formulation. Holography holds promise for simplifying computations in quantum gravity. While holographic descriptions of three-dimensional spacetimes and of spacetimes with a negative cosmological constant are well-developed, a complete boundary description of zero curvature, four-dimensional spacetime is not currently available. Building on previous…
This thesis is dedicated to the study of theories of massive gravity. The formulation of higher spin gauge field theories, along with a Chern-Simons (CS) like term for fields of higher spins is presented. Through this setup, general features of theories describing massless/massive fields of higher spin in arbitrary dimensions is discussed. In 2+1 dimensions, the existence of multiple mass-generating mechanisms i.e. metric-based masses and topological masses, offers the possibility for gauge bosons to acquire mixed masses. This scenario is first introduced in a theory of photons where both Proc…
Some effective field theories exhibit dynamical resonances that, when properly included, mitigate their bad behaviour at high energies. Unitarization of the partial wave amplitudes is the preferred method to unveil such resonances. Interpreting the Einstein-Hilbert theory in the spirit of effective Lagrangians, we implement the Inverse Amplitude Method and unitarize the one-loop level graviton-graviton scattering in pure gravity. Due to the presence of infrared divergences, the analysis requires a careful treatment of the infrared region and the introduction of infrared regulators, carefully s…
The eikonal approximation is an ideal tool to extract classical observables in gauge theory and gravity directly from scattering amplitudes. Here we consider effective theories of gravity where in addition to the Einstein-Hilbert term we include non-minimal couplings of the type $R^3$, $R^4$ and $FFR$. In particular, we study the scattering of gravitons and photons of frequency $ω$ off heavy scalars of mass $m$ in the limit $m\gg ω\gg |\vec{q}\,|$, where $\vec{q}$ is the momentum transfer. The presence of non-minimal couplings induces helicity-flip processes which survive the eikonal limit, th…
We find generating functions for half BPS correlators in $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM theories with gauge groups $Sp(2N)$, $SO(2N+1)$, and $SO(2N)$ by computing the norms of a class of BPS coherent states. These coherent states are built from operators involving Harish-Chandra integrals. Such operators have an interpretation as localized giant gravitons in the bulk of anti-de-Sitter space. This extends the analysis of \cite{Berenstein:2022srd} to $Sp(2N)$, $SO(2N+1)$, and $SO(2N)$ gauge theories. We show that we may use ordinary Schur functions as a basis for the sector of states with no cross-caps in …
Higgs Mechanism for New Massive Gravity and Weyl Invariant Extensions of Higher Derivative Theories
New Massive Gravity为2+1维的引力子提供了Fierz-Pauli质量的非线性扩展。在这里,我们构建一个外尔不变的版本,这个理论。当外尔对称性破缺时,引力子会得到类似于希格斯机制的质量。在(反)-de Sitter背景中,对称性可以自发破缺,而在平坦背景中,辐射修正在双圈水平上,以Coleman-Weinberg机制破缺Weyl对称性。我们还构造了其他一些高阶导数模型的Weyl不变扩张,如Gauss-Bonnet理论(在三维中约化为Maxwell理论)和Born-Infeld型引力。
Spin-two particles appear in the spectra of both open and closed string theories. We studied a graviton and massive symmetric rank-two tensor in string theory, both of which carry spin two. A graviton is a massless spin-two particle in closed string theory while a symmetric rank-two tensor is a massive particle with spin two in open string theory. Using Polyakov's string path integral formulation of string scattering amplitudes, we calculated cubic interactions of both spin-two particles explicitly, including $\ap$-corrections (string corrections). We observed that the cubic interactions of th…
In this paper, we explore Bell inequality violation for $2\rightarrow2$ scattering in Effective Field Theories (EFTs) of photons, gluons, and gravitons. Using the CGLMP Bell parameter ($I_2$), we show that, starting from an appropriate initial non-product state, the Bell inequality can always be violated in the final state (i.e.,$I_2 >2$) at least for some scattering angle. For an initial product state, we demonstrate that abelian gauge theories behave qualitatively differently than non-abelian gauge theories (or Gravity) from the point of view of Bell violation in the final state: in the non-…
We study the imprint of a massive scalar particle on cosmological correlation functions, and suggest the way to determine the mass of the newly introduced particle, which is expected to be around 10^14 GeV. After reviewing the basic theory by Maldacena and the effective field theory (EFT) of inflation by Cheung et al., we apply these two theories to construct new couplings of a massive scalar field with primordial fluctuations including an arbitrary number of gravitons. We compute some correlation functions including these couplings in the soft-graviton limit. We show that when the number of s…
In the holographic picture, the Brout-Englert-Higgs (BEH) mechanism in d-dimensional Yang-Mills theories is conjectured to provide a Higgs-like mechanism for gravity in d+1 dimensions, resulting in massive (or massless) gravitons in IR (or UV) completions. Accordingly, one could imagine dual (magnetic-type) fields of massive gravitons in the IR (low-energy) limit that are coupled to the curl of their own energy-momentum, as well as to the rotation of matter fields on large scales. This hypothesis, which might solve cosmological issues currently ascribed to dark matter and dark energy, needs to…
In theories beyond the Standard Model, in particular in theories with extra spatial dimensions such as superstring theory, there are a large number of scalar fields which appear in the low energy effective action. These moduli fields must be stabilized. Often, moduli stabilization involves a stage during which the moduli fields oscillatte coherently about their ground state value. Here, we study moduli and graviton production during the period during which the background modulus field is oscillating, assuming that this period takes place in the radiation phase. We find a resonant production of…