Unimodular Gauge in Perturbative Gravity and Supergravity
Laurent Baulieu
备注：
A section has been added that computes the the spin connection in the unimodular gauge for a better understanding of gravitational couplings of spinors in this gauge
This paper explains the Unimodular gauge fixing of gravity and supergravity in the framework of a perturbative BRST construction. The unphysical sector contains additional BRST-exact quartets to suppress possible ambiguities and impose both the Unimodular gauge fixing condition on the metric and a gauge condition for the reparametrization symmetry of the unimodular part of the metric. The Unimodular gauge choice of the metric must be completed by a $γ$-Traceless gauge condition for the Rarita--Schwinger field in the case of supergravity. This gives an interesting new class of gauges for gravity and supergravity.
We formulate a unimodular N=1, d=4 supergravity theory off shell. We see that the infinitesimal Grassmann parameters defining the unimodular supergravity transformations are constrained and show that the conmutator of two infinitesinal unimodular supergravity transformations closes on transverse diffeomorphisms, Lorentz transformations and unimodular supergravity transformations. Along the way, we also show that the linearized theory is a supersymmetric theory of gravitons and gravitinos. We see that de Sitter and anti-de Sitter spacetimes are non-supersymmetric vacua of our unimodular supergr…
Recent progress in understanding de Sitter spacetime in supergravity and string theory has led to the development of a four dimensional supergravity with spontaneously broken supersymmetry allowing for de Sitter vacua, also called de Sitter supergravity. One approach makes use of constrained (nilpotent) superfields, while an alternative one couples supergravity to a locally supersymmetric generalization of the Volkov-Akulov goldstino action. These two approaches have been shown to give rise to the same 4D action. A novel approach to de Sitter vacua in supergravity involves the generalisation o…
We put forward a unimodular $N=1, d=4$ anti-de Sitter supergravity theory off shell. This theory, where the Cosmological Constant does not couple to gravity, has a unique maximally supersymmetric classical vacuum which is Anti-de Sitter spacetime with radius given by the equation of motion of the auxiliary scalar field, ie, $S=\frac{3}{κL}$. However, we see that the non-supersymmetric classical vacua of the unimodular theory are Minkowski and de Sitter spacetimes as well as anti-de Sitter spacetime with radius $l\neq L$.
We present the locally supersymmetric formulation of unimodular gravity theory in D (1\le D \le 11) dimensions, namely supergravity theory with the metric tensor whose determinant is constrained to be unity. In such a formulation, the usual fine-tuning of cosmological constant is no longer needed, but its value is understood as an initial condition. Moreover, the zero-ness of the cosmological constant is concluded as the most probable configuration, based on the effective vacuum functional. We also show that the closure of supersymmetry gauge algebra is consistent with the unimodular condition…
With this article, we initiate a systematic study of some of the symmetry properties of unimodular gravity, building on much of the known structure of general relativity, and utilising the powerful technology developed in that context. In particular, we show, up to four-points and tree-level, that the KLT relations of perturbative gravity hold for tracefree or unimodular gravity.
Classically, unimodular gravity is known to be equivalent to General Relativity (GR), except for the fact that the effective cosmological constant $Λ$ has the status of an integration constant. Here, we explore various formulations of unimodular gravity beyond the classical limit. We first consider the non-generally covariant action formulation in which the determinant of the metric is held fixed to unity. We argue that the corresponding quantum theory is also equivalent to General Relativity for localized perturbative processes which take place in generic backgrounds of infinite volume (such …
Some aspects of quantum properties of N=8 supergravity in four dimensions are discussed for non-practitioners. At perturbative level, they include the Weyl trace anomaly as well as composite duality anomalies, the latter being relevant for perturbative finiteness. At non-perturbative level, we briefly review some facts about extremal black holes, their Bekenstein-Hawking entropy and attractor flows for single- and two-centered solutions.
We study extremal black holes, their ADM mass and area of the horizon in N = 8 supergravity. Contrary to intuition gained from N = 2, 4 theories, in N = 8 supergravity BPS states may become massless only at the boundary of moduli space. We show that stringy states described in [1], which have no mass gap and survive in the toroidal compactification in addition to massless states of perturbative N = 8 supergravity, display a null singularity in four-dimensional space-time, when viewed as solutions of N = 8 Einstein equations. We analyze known methods of resolving such singularities and explain …
Utilizing a first-order perturbative superspace approach, we derive the bosonic equations of motion for the 10D, N = 1 supergravity fields. We give the Lagrangian corresponding to these equations derived from superspace geometry. Moreover, the equivalence of this Lagrangian to the first-order perturbative component level Lagrangian of anomaly-free supergravity is proven. Our treatment covers both the two-form and six-form formulations.
We propose a unimodular version of the Brans-Dicke theory designed with a constrained Lagrangian formulation. The resulting field equations are traceless. The vacuum solutions in the cosmological background reproduce the corresponding solutions of the usual Brans-Dicke theory but with a cosmological constant term. A perturbative analysis of the scalar modes is performed and stable and unstable configurations appear in contrast with the Brans-Dicke case for which only stable configurations occur. On the other hand, tensorial modes in this theory remains the same as in the traditional Brans-Dick…
BRST-invariant action of general relativity in the unimodular gauge proposed by Baulieu is studied without using perturbative expansions. The expression for the path integral in the unimodular gauge is reduced to a form in which a functional measure is defined by a norm invariant under Transverse Diffeomorphism. It is shown that general relativity in the unimodular gauge with this action and the quantum unimodular gravity are equivalent. It is also shown that Vacuum Expectation Values (VEVs) of Diff invariant operators in the unimodular gauge and other gauge such as the harmonic gauge take dis…
The non-perturbative canonical quantization of the N=1 supergravity with the non-zero cosmological constant is studied using the Ashtekar formalism. A semi-classical wave function is obtained and it has the form of the exponential of the N=1 supersymmetric extension of the Chern-Simons functional. The N=1 supergravity in the Robertson-Walker universe is also examined and some analytic solutions are obtained. (We omit all graphs in the following LaTex file.)
A review is given of the implications of supersymmetric black holes for the non-perturbative formulation of toroidally compactified superstrings, with particular emphasis on symmetry enhancement at special vacua and S-duality of the heterotic string.
We analyze deformations of $\mathcal{N}=1$ Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) supergravity by adding a gas of defects, equivalent to changing the dilaton potential. We compute the Euclidean partition function in a topological expansion and find that it matches the perturbative expansion of a random matrix model to all orders. The matrix model implements an average over the Hamiltonian of a dual holographic description and provides a stable non-perturbative completion of these theories of $\mathcal{N}=1$ dilaton-supergravity. For some range of deformations, the supergravity spectral density becomes negativ…
Unimodular Gravity is one of the oldest geometric gravity theory alternative to General Relativity. Essentially, it is based on the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian with an additional constraint on the determinant of the metric. It can be explicitly shown that Unimodular Gravity can be recast as General Relativity in presence of a cosmological constant. This fact has led to many discussions on the equivalence of both theories at classical and quantum levels. Here we present an analysis focused on the classical scalar perturbations around a cosmological background. The discussion is extended for the…
We study the perturbative quantisation of N=8 supergravity in a formulation where its E7(7) symmetry is realised off-shell. Relying on the cancellation of SU(8) current anomalies we show that there are no anomalies for the non-linearly realised E7(7) either; this result extends to all orders in perturbation theory. As a consequence, the e7(7) Ward identities can be consistently implemented and imposed at all orders in perturbation theory, and therefore potential divergent counterterms must in particular respect the full non-linear E7(7) symmetry.
We study U(N) SQCD with N_f <= N flavors of quarks and antiquarks by engineering it with a configuration of fractional D3-branes on a C^3 / Z_2 x Z_2 orbifold. In particular we show how the moduli space of the gauge theory naturally emerges from the classical geometry produced by the D3-branes, and how the non-perturbatively generated superpotential is recovered from geometrical data.
According to the recent pure spinor analysis of the UV divergences by Karlsson, there are no divergent 1PI structures beyond 6 loops in D=4 N=8 supergravity. In combination with the common expectation that the UV divergences do not appear at less than 7 loops, this may imply that the 4-point amplitude in D=4 N=8 supergravity is all-loop finite. This differs from the result of the previous studies of pure spinors, which suggested that there is a UV divergence at 7 loops in D=4. Therefore an independent investigation of the pure spinor formalism predictions is desirable, as well as continuation …
Some recently proposed definitions of Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity and supergravities in terms of combinations of minimal string models are explored, with a focus on physics beyond the perturbative expansion in spacetime topology. While this formally involves solving infinite order non-linear differential equations, it is shown that the physics can be extracted to arbitrarily high accuracy in a simple controlled truncation scheme, using a combination of analytical and numerical methods. The non-perturbative spectral densities are explicitly computed and exhibited. The full spectral form factors, …
We note that the non-perturbative quantisation of supergravity as recently investigated using loop quantum gravity techniques provides an opportunity to probe an interesting sector of the AdS/CFT correspondence, which is usually not considered in conventional treatments. In particular, assuming a certain amount of convergence between the quantum supergravity sector of string theory and quantum supergravity constructed via loop quantum gravity techniques, we argue that the large quantum number expansion in loop quantum supergravity corresponds to the $1/N^2_c$ expansion in the corresponding gau…
The coupling of $N=1$ SCFT of type $(4m,2)$ to two-dimensional supergravity can be formulated non-perturbatively in terms of a discrete super-eigenvalue model proposed by Alvarez-Gaumé, et al. We derive the superloop equations that describe, in the double scaling limit, the non-perturbative solution of this model. These equations are equivalent to the double scaled super-Virasoro constraints satisfied by the partition function. They are formulated in terms of a $\widehat c=1$ theory, with a $\IZ_2$-twisted scalar field and a Weyl-Majorana fermion in the Ramond sector. We have solved the superl…
Aspects of the low energy physics of certain Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity and supergravity theories are explored, using their recently presented non-perturbative description in terms of minimal string models. This regime necessarily involves non-perturbative phenomena, and the inclusion of wormhole geometries connecting multiple copies of the nearly AdS$_2$ boundary in the computation of ensemble averages of key quantities. A new "replica-scaling" limit is considered, combining the replica method and double scaling with the low energy limit. Using it, the leading free energy, entropy, and specifi…
We study counterterms (CT's), candidates for UV divergences in the four-dimensional N=8 supergravity. They have been constructed long ago in a Lorentz covariant on shell superspace and recently in the chiral light-cone (LC) superspace. We prove that all of these CT's are ruled out since they are not available in the real LC superspace. This implies the perturbative UV finiteness of d=4 N=8 supergravity under the assumption that supersymmetry and continuous E7 symmetry are anomaly-free. The proof, based on the chiral nature of CT's in the LC superspace, is a generalization of the perturbative F…
The imaginary part of the two point functions of the superconformal anomalous currents are extracted from the cross-sections of semiclassical absorption of dilaton, RR-2 form and gravitino by the wrapped D5 branes. From the central terms of the two point functions anomalous Ward identity is established which relates the exact pre-potential of the ${\cal N}=2$ SUSY Yang-Mills theory with the vacuum expectation value of the anomaly multiplet. From the Ward identity, WDVV (Witten-Dijkgraaf-Verlinde-Verlinde) equation can be derived which is solved for the exact pre-potential.
We characterise the one-loop amplitudes for N=6 and N=4 supergravity in four dimensions. For N=6 we find that the one-loop n-point amplitudes can be expanded in terms of scalar box and triangle functions only. This simplification is consistent with a loop momentum power count of n-3, which we would interpret as being n+4 for gravity with a further -7 from the N=6 superalgebra. For N=4 we find that the amplitude is consistent with a loop momentum power count of n, which we would interpret as being n+4 for gravity with a further -4 from the N=4 superalgebra. Specifically the N=4 amplitudes conta…
We consider the classical solution of the type IIB supergravity spontaneously compactified on S^5, whose metric depends only on the radial coordinate and whose asymptotic geometry is locally that of AdS_5, i.e., R \times S^1 \times T^2. We solve the equations of motion to obtain the general solutions satisfying these conditions, and find that the only naked-singularity-free solutions are the AdS black holes and AdS solitons. The other solutions, that smoothly interpolate these two solutions, are shown to have naked singularities even though their Ricci tensor is proportional to the metric with…
We obtain new constraints on the anomaly coefficients of 6D $\mathcal{N}=(1,0)$ supergravity theories using local and global anomaly cancellation conditions. We show how these constraints can be strengthened if we assume that the theory is well-defined on any spin space-time with an arbitrary gauge bundle. We distinguish the constraints depending on the gauge algebra only from those depending on the global structure of the gauge group. Our main constraint states that the coefficients of the anomaly polynomial for the gauge group $G$ should be an element of $2 H^4(BG;\mathbb{Z}) \otimes Λ_S$ wh…
Non-perturbative effects of instanton-like solutions are studied within the framework of supergravity theories with field-dependent gauge functions. Fermionic zero modes are constructed and some typical correlation functions are evaluated. The effects of instantons are very similar to those in globally supersymmetric theories: they preserve supersymmetry while breaking a chiral $U(1)$ symmetry. Non-perturbative amplitudes receive corrections which are suppressed at large distances.
We study a Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) supergravity theory, defined as an Euclidean path integral over orientable supermanifolds with constant negative curvature, that was argued by Stanford and Witten to be captured by a random matrix model in the $\boldsymbolβ{=}2$ Dyson-Wigner class. We show that the theory is a double-cut matrix model tuned to a critical point where the two cuts coalesce. Our formulation is fully non-perturbative and manifestly stable, providing for explicit unambiguous computation of observables beyond the perturbative recursion relations derivable from loop equations. Our con…
In the present investigation we consider the possibility of having new massive, higher spin W-supergravity theories, which do not exist as four-dimensional perturbative models. These theories are based on a double copy construction of two supersymmetric field theories, where at least one factor is given by a N=3 field theory, which is a non-perturbative S-fold of N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. In this way, we can obtain as S-folds a new N=7 (corresponding to 28 supercharges) W-supergravity and its N=7 W-superstring counterpart, which both do not exist as four-dimensional perturbative models with…
We investigate features of perturbative gravity and supergravity by studying scattering in the ultraplanckian limit, and sharpen arguments that the dynamics is governed by long-distance physics. A simple example capturing aspects of the eikonal resummation suggests why short distance phenomena and in particular divergences or nonrenormalizability do not necessarily play a central role in this regime. A more profound problem is apparently unitarity. These considerations can be illustrated by showing that known gravity and supergravity amplitudes have the same long-distance behavior, despite the…
We consider the conditions necessary for obtaining perturbative maximal supergravity in d dimensions as a decoupling limit of type II superstring theory compactified on a (10 -- d)-torus. For dimensions d = 2 and d = 3 it is possible to define a limit in which the only finite-mass states are the 256 massless states of maximal supergravity. However, in dimensions d > 3 there are infinite towers of additional massless and finite-mass states. These correspond to Kaluza--Klein charges, wound strings, Kaluza--Klein monopoles or branes wrapping around cycles of the toroidal extra dimensions. We conc…
We demonstrate how duality invariance of the low energy expansion of the four-graviton amplitude in type II string theory determines the precise coefficients of multiloop logarithmic ultraviolet divergences of maximal supergravity in various dimensions. This is illustrated by the explicit moduli-dependence of terms of the form D^{2k}R^4, with k<= 3, in the effective action. Furthermore, we show that in the supergravity limit the perturbative contributions are swamped by an accumulation of non-perturbative effects of zero-action instantons.
We define supersymmetric spin networks, which provide a complete set of gauge invariant states for supergravity and supersymmetric gauge theories. The particular case of Osp(1/2) is studied in detail and applied to the non-perturbative quantization of supergravity. The supersymmetric extension of the area operator is defined and partly diagonalized. The spectrum is discrete as in quantum general relativity, and the two cases could be distinguished by measurements of quantum geometry.
We analyze a recent conjecture regarding the perturbative construction of non-linear deformations of all classically duality invariant theories, including N=8 supergravity. Starting with an initial quartic deformation, we engineer a procedure that generates a particular non-linear deformation (Born-Infeld) of the Maxwell theory. This procedure requires the introduction of an infinite number of modifications to a constraint which eliminates degrees of freedom consistent with the duality and field content of the system. We discuss the extension of this procedure to N=1 and N=2 supersymmetric the…
This paper is dedicated to the study of interactions between stationary field sources for the linearized unimodular gravity or WTDIFF theory in a model which exhibits Lorentz symmetry breaking due to the presence of the linearized topological Chern-Simons term in $3 + 1$ dimensions, where the Lorentz symmetry breaking is caused by a single background vector $v^μ$. Since the background vector is very tiny, we treat it perturbatively up to second order and we focus on physical phenomena which have no counterpart in standard WTDIFF theory. We consider effects related to field sources describing p…
The non-perturbative quantum geometry of the Universal Hypermultiplet (UH) is investigated in N=2 supergravity. The UH low-energy effective action is given by the four-dimensional quaternionic non-linear sigma-model having an U(1)xU(1) isometry. The UH metric is governed by the single real pre-potential that is an eigenfunction of the Laplacian in the hyperbolic plane. We calculate the classical pre-potential corresponding to the standard (Ferrara-Sabharwal) metric of the UH arising in the Calabi-Yau compactification of type-II superstrings. The non-perturbative quaternionic metric, describing…
We study a Jordanian deformation of the $AdS_5 \times S^5$ superstring that preserves 12 superisometries. It is an example of homogeneous Yang-Baxter deformations, a class that generalises TsT deformations to the non-abelian case. Many of the attractive features of TsT carry over to this more general class, from the possibility of generating new supergravity solutions to the preservation of worldsheet integrability. In this paper, we exploit the fact that the deformed $σ$-model with periodic boundary conditions can be reformulated as an undeformed one with twisted boundary conditions, to discu…
We revisit the issue of moduli stabilization in a class of N=1 four dimensional supergravity theories which are low energy descriptions of standard perturbative heterotic string vacua compactified on Calabi-Yau spaces. In particular, we show how it is possible to stabilize the universal dilaton and Kahler moduli in a de Sitter/Minkowski vacuum with low energy supersymmetry breaking by means of non-perturbative gauge dynamics, including recent results by Intriligator, Seiberg and Shih. The non-SUSY vacua are meta-stable but sufficiently long-lived.
A D3-brane probe in the context of AdS/CFT correspondence at finite temperature is considered. The supergravity predictions for the physical effective couplings of the world-volume gauge theory of the probe brane are compared to those calculated in one-loop perturbation theory in the thermal gauge theory. It is argued that when the Higgs expectation value is much larger than the temperature, the supergravity result must agree with perturbative thermal Yang-Mills. This provides a perturbative test of the Maldacena conjecture. Predictions for the running electric and magnetic effective couplings…
Anti-D3 branes and non-perturbative effects in flux compactifications spontaneously break supersymmetry and stabilise moduli in a metastable de Sitter vacua. The low energy 4D effective field theory description for such models would be a supergravity theory with non-linearly realised supersymmetry. Guided by string theory modular symmetry, we compute this non-linear supergravity theory, including dependence on all bulk moduli. Using either a constrained chiral superfield or a constrained vector field, the uplifting contribution to the scalar potential from the anti-D3 brane can be parameterise…
We study the perturbative expansion of N=8 supergravity in four dimensions from the viewpoint of the ``no-triangle'' hypothesis, which states that one-loop graviton amplitudes in N=8 supergravity only contain scalar box integral functions. Our computations constitute a direct proof at six-points and support the no-triangle conjecture for seven-point amplitudes and beyond.
We review some applications of tree-level (classical) relations between gravity and gauge theory that follow from string theory. Together with $D$-dimensional unitarity, these relations can be used to perturbatively quantize gravity theories, i.e. they contain the necessary information for obtaining loop contributions. We also review recent applications of these ideas showing that N=1 D=11 supergravity diverges, and review arguments that N=8 D=4 supergravity is less divergent than previously thought, though it does appear to diverge at five loops. Finally, we describe field variables for the E…
We discuss nontrivial examples illustrating that perturbative gravity is in some sense the `square' of gauge theory. This statement can be made precise at tree-level using the Kawai, Lewellen and Tye relations between open and closed string tree amplitudes. These relations, when combined with modern methods for computing amplitudes, allow us to obtain loop-level relations, and thereby new supergravity loop amplitudes. The amplitudes show that N=8 supergravity is less ultraviolet divergent than previously thought. As a different application, we show that the collinear splitting amplitudes of gr…
In this thesis, we examine in detail the notion of black hole entropy in Quantum Field Theories, with a specific focus on supersymmetric black holes and the perturbative and non-perturbative quantum corrections to the classical area-law of Bekenstein-Hawking. To examine such corrections, we employ the formalism of Sen's Quantum Entropy Function where the complete quantum entropy of a supersymmetric black hole in theories of supergravity is defined as a path-integral in the near-horizon region of the black hole. Evaluation of this path-integral can then be conducted exactly using localization c…
We consider supergravity configuration of D5 branes wrapped on supersymmetric 2-cycles and use it to calculate one-point and two-point Green functions of some special operators in N=2 super Yang-Mills theory. We show that Green functions obtained from supergravity include two very different parts. One of them corresponds to perturbative results of quantum field theory, and another is a non-perturbative effect which corresponds to contribution from instantons with fractional charge. Comparing Green functions obtained from supergravity and gauge theory, we obtain radial/energy-scale relation for…
The subject of this thesis is cosmological implications of string compactifications understood in a broad sense. In the first half of the thesis, we will begin by reviewing the four-dimensional description of the tree-level perturbative type IIB action. We will then review a number of open questions in cosmology and their relevance with regards to the remainder of the thesis. We will first explore some of these cosmological questions from the perspective of effective field theories motivated by supergravity. From the naturalness of dark energy and how to obtain a naturally light dark energy fi…
We consider scalar fields which are coupled to Einstein gravity with a negative cosmological constant, and construct periodic solutions perturbatively. In particular, we study tachyonic scalar fields whose mass is at or above the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound in four, five, and seven spacetime dimensions. The critical amplitude of the leading order perturbation, for which the perturbative expansion breaks down, increases as we consider less massive fields. We present various examples including a model with a self-interacting scalar field which is derived from a consistent truncation of IIB supe…
