The Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) transformations and equations of motion of a gravity-two-form-dilaton system are derived from the product of two Yang-Mills theories in a BRST covariant form, to linear approximation. The inclusion of ghost fields facilitates the separation of the graviton and dilaton. The gravitational gauge fixing term is uniquely determined by those of the Yang-Mills factors which can be freely chosen. Moreover, the resulting gravity-two-form-dilaton Lagrangian is anti-BRST invariant and the BRST and anti-BRST charges anti commute as a direct consequence of the formalism.
After having defined a 3-strings midpoint-inserted vertex for the bc system, we analyze the relation between gh=0 states (wedge states) and gh=3 midpoint duals. We find explicit and regular relations connecting the two objects. In the case of wedge states this allows us to write down a spectral decomposition for the gh=0 Neumann matrices, despite the fact that they are not commuting with the matrix representation of K1. We thus trace back the origin of this noncommutativity to be a consequence of the imaginary poles of the wedge eigenvalues in the complex k-plane. With explicit reconstruction …
We construct the ghost number 9 three strings vertex for OSFT in the natural normal ordering. We find two versions, one with a ghost insertion at z=i and a twist-conjugate one with insertion at z=-i. For this reason we call them midpoint vertices. We show that the relevant Neumann matrices commute among themselves and with the matrix $G$ representing the operator K1. We analyze the spectrum of the latter and find that beside a continuous spectrum there is a (so far ignored) discrete one. We are able to write spectral formulas for all the Neumann matrices involved and clarify the important role…
This paper is primarily devoted to the ghost wedge states in string field theory formulated with the oscillator formalism. Our aim is to prove, using such formalism, that the wedge states can be expressed as |n> = exp[{2-n}/2 ({\cal L}_0+{\cal L}_0^\daggert)]|0>, separately in the matter and ghost sector. This relation is crucial for instance in the proof of Schnabl's solution. We start from the exponentials in the rhs and wish to prove that they take precisely the form of wedge states. As a guideline we first re-demonstrate this relation for the matter part. Then we turn to the ghosts. On the…
Theories with curvature squared terms in the action are known to contain ghost modes in general. However, if we regard curvature squared terms as quantum corrections to the original theory, the emergence of ghosts may be simply due to the perturbative truncation of a full non-perturbative theory. If this is the case, there should be a way to live with ghosts. In this paper, we take the Euclidean path integral approach, in which ghost degrees of freedom can be, and are integrated out in the Euclideanized spacetime. We apply this procedure to Einstein gravity with a Weyl curvature squared correc…
We revisit 't Hooft anomalies in (1+1)$d$ non-spin quantum field theory, starting from the consistency and locality conditions, and find that consistent U(1) and gravitational anomalies cannot always be canceled by properly quantized (2+1)$d$ classical Chern-Simons actions. On the one hand, we prove that certain exotic anomalies can only be realized by non-reflection-positive or non-compact theories; on the other hand, without insisting on reflection-positivity, the exotic anomalies present a caveat to the inflow paradigm. For the mixed U(1) gravitational anomaly, we propose an inflow mechanis…
Higher-order curvature corrections involving the conformally-invariant Weyl-squared action have played a role in two recent investigations of four-dimensional gravity; in critical gravity, where it is added to the standard cosmological Einstein-Hilbert action with a coefficient tuned to make the massive ghostlike spin-2 excitations massless, and in a pure Weyl-squared action considered by Maldacena, where the massive spin-2 modes are removed by the imposition of boundary conditions. We exhibit the connections between the two approaches, and we also generalise critical gravity to a wider class …
In this paper we extend the form of interaction term into the non-linear regime in the ghost dark energy model. A general form of non-linear interaction term is presented and cosmic dynamic equations are obtained. Next, the model is detailed for two special choice of the non-linear interaction term. According to this the universe transits at suitable time ($z\sim 0.8$) from deceleration to acceleration phase which alleviate the coincidence problem. Squared sound speed analysis revealed that for one class of non-linear interaction term $v_s^2$ can gets positive. This point is an impact of the n…
We study the Gauss-Bonnet (GB) term as the leading higher-curvature correction to pure Einstein gravity. Assuming a tree-level ultraviolet completion free of ghosts or tachyons, we prove that the GB term has a nonnegative coefficient in dimensions greater than four. Our result follows from unitarity of the spectral representation for a general ultraviolet completion of the GB term.
We consider cosmological models with a dynamical dark energy field, and study the presence of three types of commonly found instabilities, namely ghost (when fields have negative kinetic energy), gradient (negative momentum squared) and tachyon (negative mass squared). In particular, we study the linear scalar perturbations of theories with two interacting scalar fields as a proxy for a dark energy and matter fields, and explicitly show how canonical transformations relate these three types of instabilities with each other. We generically show that low-energy ghosts are equivalent to tachyonic…
We study the New Massive Gravity extended by the curvature cubed invariant and the Cosmological Constant using the tree-level scattering amplitudes on a maximally symmetric space-time. We identify the parameter space, consisting of the ratio between C.C. and graviton mass squared and the relative coupling strength between curvature squared and cubed invariants, for which the massive spin-2 is a ghost. Different phases of this model are also discussed.
The Hessian's determinant for a version of massive gravity given by an infinite expansion of a square root function of the induced metric, vanishes. We show that it allows us to eliminate one of four scalar fields used to generate the graviton mass. This, however, gives rise to the appearance of extra terms in the action with the squared time derivative of the metric, thus signaling that a nonlinear ghost survives.We demonstrate this phenomenon considering a simple system with constraint, which is supposed to reduces the number of physical degrees of freedom, however, we explicitly show how th…
We confirm the recent claims that, in the infrared limit of Hořava-Lifshitz gravity, the scalar graviton becomes a ghost if the sound speed squared is positive on the flat de Sitter and Minkowski background. In order to avoid the ghost and tame the instability, the sound speed squared should be negative and very small, which means that the flow parameter $λ$ should be very close to its General Relativity (GR) value. We calculate the cubic interactions for the scalar graviton which are shown to have a similar structure with those of the curvature perturbation in k-inflation models. The higher o…
Curvature squared terms, when added to the Einstein-Hilbert action and treated non-perturbatively, generically result in the propagation of an extra massive scalar state and an extra massive spin-2 ghost state. Using the Stueckelberg trick, we study the high-energy limit in which the mass of the spin-2 state is taken to zero, with strong- coupling scales held fixed. The Stueckelberg approach makes transparent the interplay between the ghost graviton and the healthy graviton which allows the theory to evade the usual lambda-3 strong coupling scale of massive gravity and become renormalizable, a…
We consider the branch of the projectable Horava-Lifshitz model which exhibits ghost instabilities in the low energy limit. It turns out that, due to the Lorentz violating structure of the model and to the presence of a finite strong coupling scale, the vacuum decay rate into photons is tiny in a wide range of phenomenologically acceptable parameters. The strong coupling scale, understood as a cutoff on ghosts' spatial momenta, can be raised up to $Λ\sim 10$ TeV. At lower momenta, the projectable Horava-Lifshitz gravity is equivalent to General Relativity supplemented by a fluid with a small p…
All Quiet on the Vector Front: Scalar Growth and Perturbative Control in Horndeski--Weyl-squared Gravity
Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University(京都大学汤川理论物理研究所);Institute for Theoretical Physics, Leibniz University Hannover(汉诺威莱布尼茨大学理论物理研究所);Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Albert Einstein Institute(马克斯·普朗克引力物理研究所爱因斯坦研究所);Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “G. Galilei”, Università degli Studi di Padova(帕多瓦大学伽利略物理与天文系);INFN, Sezione di Padova(意大利国家核物理研究所帕多瓦分部)
We derive the predictions of quantum gravity with fakeons on the amplitudes and spectral indices of the scalar and tensor fluctuations in inflationary cosmology. The action is $R+R^{2}$ plus the Weyl-squared term. The ghost is eliminated by turning it into a fakeon, that is to say a purely virtual particle. We work to the next-to-leading order of the expansion around the de Sitter background. The consistency of the approach puts a lower bound ($ m_{χ}>m_{ϕ}/4$) on the mass $m_{χ}$ of the fakeon with respect to the mass $m_{ϕ}$ of the inflaton. The tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ is predicted within…
We show that gauge invariant extensions of the local functional $\cO = \frac12\int d^4x A^2$ have long range non localities which can only be ``renormalised'' with reference to a specific gauge. Consequently, there is no gauge independent way of claiming the perturbative renormalisability of these extensions. In particular, they are not renormalisable in the modern sense of Weinberg and Gomis. Critically, our study does not support the view that ghost fields play an indispensable role in the extension of a local operator into a non-local one as claimed recently in the literature.
Within the Russo-Susskind-Thorlacius (RST) two-dimensional model that includes a scalar (dilaton) field we address the important question of how the classical black hole geometry is modified in a semiclassical gravitational theory. It is the principle goal of this paper to analyze what is the back-reacted geometry that corresponds to a given quantum state. The story is shown to be dramatically different for the Hartle-Hawking state (HH) and for the Boulware state. In the HH case the back-reacted geometry is a modification of the classical black hole metric that still has a smooth horizon with …
We analyze gravitational theories with quadratic curvature terms, including the case of conformally invariant Weyl gravity, motivated by the intention to find a renormalizable theory of gravity in the ultraviolet region, yet yielding general relativity at long distances. In the Hamiltonian formulation of Weyl gravity, the number of local constraints is equal to the number of unstable directions in phase space, which in principle could be sufficient for eliminating the unstable degrees of freedom in the full nonlinear theory. All the other theories of quadratic type are unstable -- a problem ap…
Lovelock gravity is an important extension of General Relativity that provides a promising framework to study curvature corrections to the Einstein action, while avoiding ghosts and keeping second order field equations. This paper derives the greybody factors for D-dimensional black holes arising in a theory with a Gauss-Bonnet curvature-squared term. These factors describe the non-trivial coupling between black holes and quantum fields during the evaporation process: they can be used both from a theoretical viewpoint to investigate the intricate spacetime structure around such a black hole, a…
The exact one-loop beta functions for the four-derivative terms (Weyl tensor squared, Ricci scalar squared and the Gauss-Bonnet) are derived for the minimal six-derivative quantum gravity (QG) theory in four spacetime dimensions. The calculation is performed by means of the Barvinsky and Vilkovisky generalized Schwinger-DeWitt technique. With this result we gain, for the first time, the full set of the relevant beta functions in a super-renormalizable model of QG. The complete set of renormalization group (RG) equations, including also those for the Newton and the cosmological constant, is sol…
On the Renormalization in Conformal Quantum Gravity
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research(俄罗斯联合核研究所);Tomsk State Pedagogical University(托木斯克国立师范学院);Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo(圣埃斯皮里图联邦大学);Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora(儒塞夫联邦大学)
In this paper we study the Generalized Minimal Massive Gravity (GMMG) in asymptotically $AdS_3$ background. The generalized minimal massive gravity theory is realized by adding the CS deformation term, the higher derivative deformation term, and an extra term to pure Einstein gravity with a negative cosmological constant. We study the linearized excitations around the $AdS_3$ background and find that at special point (tricritical) in parameter space the two massive graviton solutions become massless and they are replaced by two solutions with logarithmic and logarithmic-squared boundary behavi…
Analyticity of gluon and Faddeev--Popov ghost propagators and their form factors on the complex momentum-squared plane is exploited to continue analytically the ultraviolet asymptotic form calculable by perturbation theory into the infrared non-perturbative solution. We require the non-perturbative multiplicative renormalizability to write down the renormalization group equation. These requirements enable one to settle the value of the exponent characterizing the infrared asymptotic solution with power behavior which was originally predicted by Gribov and has recently been found as approximate…
We discuss the analytic continuation of the gluon propagator from the Euclidean region to the complex squared-momentum plane towards the Minkowski region from a viewpoint of gluon confinement. For this purpose, we investigate the massive Yang-Mills model with one-loop quantum corrections, which is to be identified with a low-energy effective theory of the Yang-Mills theory in the sense that the confining decoupling solution for the Euclidean gluon and ghost propagators of the Yang-Mills theory in the Landau gauge obtained by numerical simulations on the lattice are reproduced with good accurac…
SL(2N,C) Yang-Mills Theories: Direct Internal Forces and Emerging Gravity
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Ilia State University(伊利娅国立大学理论物理研究所);Andronikashvili Institute of Physics, Tbilisi State University(第比利斯国立大学安德罗尼卡什维利物理研究所)