Cosmological constant and renormalization of gravity
Shin'ichi Nojiri
备注：
to appear in Galaxies Journal, MDPI editorial in the special issue "Cosmology and the Quantum Vacuum" as the proceedings of "IV Cosmology and the Quantum Vacuum", 4th-8th September 2017, Segovia, Spain
In arXiv:1601.02203 and arXiv:1702.07063, we have proposed a topological model with a simple Lagrangian density and have tried to solve one of the cosmological constant problems. The Lagrangian density is the BRS exact and therefore the model can be regarded as a topological theory. In this model, the divergence of the vacuum energy coming from the quantum corrections from matters can be absorbed into the redefinition of the scalar field. In this paper, we consider the extension of the model in order to apply the mechanism to other kinds of divergences coming from the quantum correction and consider the cosmology in an extended model.
We briefly review the need to perform renormalization of inflationary perturbations to properly work out the physical power spectra. We also summarize the basis of (momentum-space) renormalization in curved spacetime and address several misconceptions found in recent literature on this subject.
Using as an example the Einstein gravity with the cosmological constant, we discuss the calculation of renormalization group functions off shell. We found, that gauge dependent terms should be absorbed by the nonlinear renormalization of metric. Nevertheless, some terms can be included in the renormalization of Newton's constant. This ambiguity in the renormalization prescription is discussed.
We give an introductory account to the renormalization of models without metric background. We sketch the application to certain discrete models of quantum gravity such as spin foam models.
In linearized quantum gravity, a shift of the average energy-momentum can be compensated by a shift of the average gravitational field. This allows a renormalization scheme that naturally removes the contribution of quantum vacuum fluctuations to the cosmological constant, solving the old cosmological-constant problem for weak gravitational fields.
Treating the metric as a classical background field, we show that the cosmological constant does not run with the renormalization scale -- contrary to some claims in the literature.
A new way how to calculate the off-shell renormalization functions within the $R^2$-gravity has been proposed. The one-loop renormalization group equations in the approach suggested have been constructed. The behaviour of effective potential for an massless scalar field interacting with the quantum gravitational field has been analyzed in this approach.
We show that an exact, non-critical-string cosmological configuration of dilaton and graviton backgrounds, found in [1], constitutes an infrared stable fixed point of an exact Wilsonian renormalization group equation.
This work explores an alternative solution to the problem of renormalizability in Einstein gravity. In the proposed approach, Einstein gravity is transformed into the renormalizable theory of four-derivative gravity by applying a field redefinition containing an infinite number of higher derivatives. It is also shown that the current-current amplitude is invariant with the field redefinition, and thus the unitarity of Einstein gravity is preserved.
The renormalization group method in $R^2$-gravity without matter fields is discussed. A criterion for the existence of the renormalization constant for the metric has been found, two-loop higher order poles have been calculated, a relation which allows us to find the one-loop renormalization constant of the Newtonian constant has been suggested.
We study the renormalization group flow of higher derivative gravity, utilizing the functional renormalization group equation for the average action. Employing a recently proposed algorithm, termed the universal renormalization group machine, for solving the flow equation, all the universal features of the one-loop beta-functions are recovered. While the universal part of the beta-functions admits two fixed points, we explicitly show that the existence of one of them depends on the choice of regularization scheme, indicating that it is most probably unphysical.
It has been suggested that higher-derivative gravity theories coupled to a scalar field with shift symmetry may be an important candidate for a quantum gravity. We show that this class of gravity theories are renormalizable in D = 3 and 4 dimensions.
We consider the double-scaling limit in matrix models for two-dimensional quantum gravity, and establish the nonperturbative functional Renormalization Group as a novel technique to compute the corresponding interacting fixed point of the Renormalization Group flow. We explicitly evaluate critical exponents and compare to the exact results. The functional Renormalization Group method allows a generalization to tensor models for higher-dimensional quantum gravity and to group field theories. As a simple example how this method works for such models, we compute the leading-order beta function fo…
We study holographic renormalization of 3D minimal massive gravity using the Chern-Simons-like formulation of the model. We explicitly present Gibbons- Hawking term as well as all counterterms needed to make the action finite in terms of dreibein and spin-connection. This can be used to find correlation functions of stress tensor of holographic dual field theory.
The large class of inflationary models known as $α$- and $ξ$-attractors gives identical cosmological predictions at tree level (at leading order in inverse power of the number of efolds). Working with the renormalization group improved action, we show that these predictions are robust under quantum corrections. This means that for all the models considered the inflationary parameters $(n_s,r)$ are (nearly) independent on the Renormalization Group flow. The result follows once the field dependence of the renormalization scale, fixed by demanding the leading log correction to vanish, satisfies a…
We consider a theory of $N$ self-interacting quantum scalar fields with quartic $O(N)$-symmetric potential, with a coupling constant $λ$, in a generic curved spacetime. We analyze the renormalization process of the Semiclassical Einstein Equations at leading order in the $1/N$ expansion for different renormailzation schemes, namely: the traditional one that sets the geometry of the spacetime to be Minkowski at the renormalization point, and new schemes (originally proposed in [1,2]) which set the geometry to be that of a fixed de Sitter spacetime. In particular, we study the quantum backreacti…
We study the running of power spectra in inflationary cosmology as a renormalization-group flow from the de Sitter fixed point. The beta function is provided by the equations of the background metric. The spectra of the scalar and tensor fluctuations obey RG evolution equations with vanishing anomalous dimensions in the superhorizon limit. By organizing the perturbative expansion in terms of leading and subleading logs, we calculate the spectral indices, their runnings, the runnings of the runnings, etc., to the next-to-leading log order in quantum gravity with fakeons (i.e., the theory $R+R^{…
We consider the problem of IR divergences of the action in the covariant formulation of teleparallel gravity in asymptotically Minkowski spacetimes. We show that divergences are caused by inertial effects and can be removed by adding an appropriate surface term, leading to the renormalized action. This process can be viewed as a teleparallel analogue of holographic renormalization. Moreover, we explore the variational problem in teleparallel gravity and explain how the variation with respect to the spin connection should be performed.
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…
Recently we have proposed models of topological field theory including gravity in Mod. Phys. Lett. A 31 (2016) no.37, 1650213 and Phys. Rev. D 96 (2017) no.2, 024009, in order to solve the problem of the cosmological constant. The Lagrangian densities of the models are BRS (Becchi-Rouet-Stora) exact and therefore the models can be regarded as topological theories. In the models, the coupling constants, including the cosmological constant, look as if they run with the scale of the universe and its behavior is very similar to the renormalization group. Motivated by these models, we propose new m…
In this paper we consider the nature of the cosmological constant as due by quantum fluctuations. Quantum fluctuations are generated at Planckian scales by noncommutative effects and watered down at larger scales up to a decoherence scale $L_D$ where classicality is reached. In particular, we formally depict the presence of the scale at $L_D$ by adopting a renormalization group approach. As a result, an analogy arises between the expression for the observed cosmological constant $\overlineΛ$ generated by quantum fluctuations and the one expected by a renormalization group approach, provided th…
Tensor models are more-index generalizations of the so-called matrix models, and provide models of quantum gravity with the idea that spaces and general relativity are emergent phenomena. In this paper, a renormalization procedure for the tensor models whose dynamical variable is a totally symmetric real three-tensor is discussed. It is proven that configurations with certain Gaussian forms are the attractors of the three-tensor under the renormalization procedure. Since these Gaussian configurations are parameterized by a scalar and a symmetric two-tensor, it is argued that, in general situat…
This brief contribution is devoted to phenomenological consequences of deviations from Lorentz invariance in gravity and dark matter. We will discuss main effects on cosmological observables and current constraints derived from astrophysical and cosmological data.
Searching for new non-perturbatively renormalizable quantum gravity theories, functional renormalization group (RG) flows are studied on a theory space of action functionals depending on the metric and the torsion tensor, the latter parameterized by three irreducible component fields. A detailed comparison with Quantum Einstein-Cartan Gravity (QECG), Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG), and "tetrad-only" gravity, all based on different theory spaces, is performed. It is demonstrated that, over a generic theory space, the construction of a functional RG equation (FRGE) for the effective average acti…
Extending the renormalizability proposal of the physical sector of 4D Einstein gravity, we have recently proposed renormalizability of the 3D physical sector of gravity-matter systems. The main goal of the present work is to conduct systematic one-loop renormalization of a gravity-matter system by applying our foliation-based quantization scheme. In this work we explicitly carry out renormalization of a gravity-scalar system with a Higgs-type potential. With the fluctuation part of the scalar field gauged away, the system becomes renormalizable through a metric field redefinition. We use dimen…
We investigate some cosmological models arising from a non-minimal coupling of a fermionic field to gravity in the geometrical setting of Einstein-Cartan-Sciama-Kibble gravity. The role played by the non-minimal coupling together with torsion in facing problems such as cosmological singularity, inflation and dark energy is discussed.
The one-loop effective action for non-minimal scalar modified gravity on de Sitter background with a constant scalar field is found. The corresponding induced cosmological constant is evaluated. It is shown that quantum effects in non-minimal modified gravity may induce an early-time de Sitter universe even in the situation when such solution does not occur on the classical level. Classical reconstruction of the theory is presented in such a way that the resulting theory has a cosmological solution unifying early-time inflation with late-time acceleration.
We discuss motivation and goals of renormalization analyses of group field theory models of simplicial 4d quantum gravity, and review briefly the status of this research area. We present some new computations of perturbative GFT (spin foam) amplitudes, concerning in particular the scaling behaviour of radiative corrections to N-point functions. Finally, we single out key open issues and suggest a number of research directions for further progress in this area.
Recently, a practical approach to holographic renormalization has been developed based on the Hamilton-Jacobi formulation. Using a simple Einstein-scalar theory, we clarify that this approach does not conflict with the Hamiltonian constraint as it seems. Then we apply it to the holographic renormalization of massive gravity. We assume that the shift vector is falling off fast enough asymptotically. We derive the counterterms up to the boundary dimension d=4. Interestingly, we find that the conformal anomaly can even occur in odd dimensions, which is different from the Einstein gravity. We chec…
Microscopic state counting for a black hole in Loop Quantum Gravity yields a result proportional to horizon area, and inversely proportional to Newton's constant and the Immirzi parameter. It is argued here that before this result can be compared to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of a macroscopic black hole, the scale dependence of both Newton's constant and the area must be accounted for. The two entropies could then agree for any value of the Immirzi parameter, if a certain renormalization property holds.
A linear cosmological perturbation theory of an almost homogeneous and isotropic perfect fluid Universe with dynamically evolving Newton constant $G$ and cosmological constant $Λ$ is presented. A gauge-invariant formalism is developed by means of the covariant approach, and the acoustic propagation equations governing the evolution of the comoving fractional spatial gradients of the matter density, $G$, and $Λ$ are thus obtained. Explicit solutions are discussed in cosmologies where both $G$ and $Λ$ vary according to renormalization group equations in the vicinity of a fixed point.
On the basis of the Kerr spinning particle, we show that the mass renormalization is perfectly performed by gravity for an arbitrary distribution of source matter. A smooth regularization of the Kerr-Newman solution is considered, leading to a source in the form of a rotating bag filled by a false vacuum. It is shown that gravity controls the phase transition to an AdS or dS false vacuum state inside the bag, providing the mass balance.
We compute the influence action for a system perturbatively coupled to a linear scalar field acting as the environment. Subtleties related to divergences that appear when summing over all the modes are made explicit and clarified. Being closely connected with models used in the literature, we show how to completely reconcile the results obtained in the context of stochastic semiclassical gravity when using mode decomposition with those obtained by other standard functional techniques.
We construct a gravity dual for scale invariant but non-conformal field theories with a cyclic renormalization group flow. A slight modification of our construction gives a gravity dual of discretely scale invariant field theories. The underlying gravitational theory breaks the null energy condition.
We study cosmological solutions of Einstein gravity with a positive cosmological constant in diverse dimensions. These include big-bang models that re-collapse, big-bang models that approach de Sitter acceleration at late times, and bounce models that are both past and future asymptotically de Sitter. The re-collapsing and the bounce geometries are all tall in the sense that entire spatial slices become visible to a comoving observer before the end of conformal time, while the accelerating big-bang geometries can be either short or tall. We consider the interpretation of these cosmological sol…
We examine the relations between observables in two- and three-dimensional quantum gravity by studying the coupling of topologically massive gravity to matter fields in non-trivial representations of the three-dimensional Lorentz group. We show that the gravitational renormalization of spin up to one-loop order in these theories reproduces the leading orders of the KPZ scaling relations for quantum Liouville theory. We demonstrate that the two-dimensional scaling dimensions can be computed from tree-level Aharonov-Bohm scattering amplitudes between the charged particles in the limit where the …
We employ the techniques of the Functional Renormalization Group in string theory, in order to derive an effective mini-superspace action for cosmological backgrounds to all orders in the string scale $α'$. To this end, T-duality plays a crucial role, classifying all perturbative curvature corrections in terms of a single function of the Hubble parameter. The resulting renormalization group equations admit an exact, albeit non-analytic, solution in any spacetime dimension $D$, which is however incompatible with Einstein gravity at low energies. Within an $ε$-expansion about $D=2$, we also find…
We consider 4D quantum-dilaton gravity with the most general coupling in a homogeneous and isotropic universe, especially an inflationary one, which is essentially characterized by an exponentially expanding scale factor with time. We show that on the inflationary background this theory can be miraculously renormalized, at least at the one-loop level, which must be an effective theory during the inflation of the un-constructed complete quantum theory of gravity.
The one loop UV divergences of Hilbert-Einstein gravity with a cosmological constant and spin 0, 1/2 and 1 matter are computed making use of a covariant derivative expansion and functional methods. For this purpose the transformation that yields the covariant derivative is extended to include a dynamical metric and the expansion in the fields themselves is made covariant which is relevant for the effective action due to the non-linear character of gravity
We study scaling and renormalization in two dimensional quantum gravity in a covariant framework. After reviewing the definition of a proper path integral measure, we use scaling arguments to rederive the KPZ relations, the fractal dimension of the theory and the scaling of the reparametrization-invariant two point function. Then we compute the scaling exponents entering in this relations by means of the functional RG. We show that a key ingredient to obtain the correct results already known from Liouville theory is the use of the exponential parametrization for metric fluctuations. We also sh…
We study the scaling behavior of classical multifield cosmological models with complete scalar manifold $({\cal M},{\cal G})$ and positive smooth scalar potential $Φ$, introducing a dynamical renormalization group action which relates their UV and IR limits. We show that the RG flow of such models interpolates between a modification of the geodesic flow of $({\cal M},{\cal G})$ (obtained in the UV limit) and the gradient flow of $({\cal M},{\cal G},V)$ (obtained in the IR limit), where the classical effective potential $V$ is proportional to $\sqrt{2Φ}$. Using this fact, we show that two-field…
An exact solution is obtained for a massive scalar field conformally coupled with the curvature in a cosmological model with the scale factor $a(t) = a_0 / |t|$, corresponding to background matter with the equation of state $ p = - 5 \varepsilon /3 $. An expression for the number density of created particles is obtained, and its behavior is studies as the model approached the instant of a Big Rip. Renormalization of the energy-momentum tensor is considered, and it is shown that back reaction of the quantum effects of a conformally coupled scalar field on the space-time metric can be neglected …
This is a copy of the 2009 Princeton University thesis which examined various aspects of gauge/gravity duality, including renormalization group flows, phase transitions of the holographic entanglement entropy, and instabilities associated with the breaking of supersymmetry. Chapter 5 contains new unpublished material on various instabilities of the weakly curved non-supersymmetric $AdS_4$ backgrounds of M-theory.
A general model of dialton-Maxwell gravity in two dimensions is investigated. The corresponding one-loop effective action and the generalized $β$-functions are obtained. A set of models that are fixed points of the renormalization group equations are presented.
Casimir energy is calculated for 5D scalar theory in the {\it warped} geometry. A new regularization, called {\it sphere lattice regularization}, is taken. The regularized configuration is {\it closed-string like}. We numerically evaluate $\La$(4D UV-cutoff), $\om$(5D bulk curvature, warp parameter) and $T$(extra space IR parameter) dependence of Casimir energy. 5D Casimir energy is {\it finitely} obtained after the {\it proper renormalization procedure.} The {\it warp parameter} $\om$ suffers from the {\it renormalization effect}. We examine the cosmological constant problem.
We discuss D-dimensional scalar and electromagnetic fields interacting with a quantized metric. The gravitons depend solely on twodimensional coordinates. We consider a conformal field theory model for the metric tensor. We show that an interaction with gravity improves the short distance behaviour. As a result there is no charge renormalization in the fourdimensional Higgs model.
A renormalization group study of a scalar theory coupled to gravity through a general functional dependence on the Ricci scalar in the action is discussed. A set of non-perturbative flow equations governing the evolution of the new interaction terms generated in both local potential and wavefunction renomalization is derived. It is shown for a specific model that these new terms play an important role in determining the scaling behavior of the system above the mass of the inflaton field.
We show that the running of gravitational couplings, together with a suitable identification of the renormalization group scale can give rise to modified dispersion relations for massive particles. This result seems to be compatible with both the frameworks of effective field theory with Lorentz invariance violation and deformed special relativity. The phenomenological consequences depend on which of the frameworks is assumed. We discuss the nature and strength of the available constraints for both cases and show that in the case of Lorentz invariance violation, the theory would be strongly co…
We construct a consistent closure for the beta functions of the cosmological and Newton's constants by evaluating the influence of the fluctuating metric and ghost fields anomalous dimensions on their flow. In this generalized framework we confirm the presence of a UV attractive non-Gaussian fixed-point. Our closure method is general and can be applied systematically to more general truncations of the gravitational effective average action.
We discuss the case of massive gravitons and their relation with the cosmological constant, considered as an eigenvalue of a Sturm-Liouville problem. A variational approach with Gaussian trial wave functionals is used as a method to study such a problem. We approximate the equation to one loop in a Schwarzschild background and a zeta function regularization is involved to handle with divergences. The regularization is closely related to the subtraction procedure appearing in the computation of Casimir energy in a curved background. A renormalization procedure is introduced to remove the infini…
The gravitational asymptotic safety program envisions a high-energy completion of the gravitational interactions by an interacting renormalization group fixed point, the Reuter fixed point. The primary tool for investigating this scenario are functional renormalization group equations, foremost the Wetterich equation. This equation implements the idea of the Wilsonian renormalization group by integrating out quantum fluctuations shell-by-shell in momentum space and gives access to the theory's renormalization group flow beyond the realm of perturbation theory. This chapter gives a pedagogical …
Tensor models provide a way to access the path-integral for discretized quantum gravity in d dimensions. As in the case of matrix models for two-dimensional quantum gravity, the continuum limit can be related to a Renormalization Group fixed point in a setup where the tensor size N serves as the Renormalization Group scale. We develop functional Renormalization Group tools for tensor models with a main focus on a rank-3 model for three-dimensional quantum gravity. We rediscover the double-scaling limit and provide an estimate for the scaling exponent. Moreover, we identify two additional fixed…
The renormalization group (RG) corrected gravitational action in Einstein-Hilbert and other truncations is considered. The running scale of the renormalization group is treated as a scalar field at the level of the action and determined in a scale-setting procedure recently introduced by Koch and Ramirez for the Einstein-Hilbert truncation. The scale-setting procedure is elaborated for other truncations of the gravitational action and applied to several phenomenologically interesting cases. It is shown how the logarithmic dependence of the Newton's coupling on the RG scale leads to exponential…
We propose a new program to quantize and renormalize gravity based on recent progress on the analysis of large random tensors. We compare it briefly with other existing approaches.
We consider the quantization of matter fields in a background described by the teleparallel equivalent to general relativity. The presence of local Lorentz and gauge symmetries gives rise to different coupling prescriptions, which we analyse separately. As expected, quantum matter fields produce divergences that cannot be absorbed by terms in the background action of teleparallel equivalent to general relativity. Nonetheless, the formulation of teleparallel gravity allows one to find out the source of the problem. By imposing local Lorentz invariance after quantization, we show that a modified…
We argue that the torus partition sum in $2d$ (super) gravity, which counts physical states in the theory, is a decreasing function of the renormalization group scale. As an application we chart the space of $(\hat c\leq1)$ $c\leq1$ models coupled to (super) gravity, confirming and extending ideas due to A. Zamolodchikov, and discuss briefly string theory, where our results imply that the number of degrees of freedom decreases with time.
