We propose to slightly generalize the DeWitt-Schwinger adiabatic renormalization subtractions in curved space to include an arbitrary renormalization mass scale $μ$. The new predicted running for the gravitational couplings are fully consistent with decoupling of heavy massive fields. This is a somewhat improvement with respect to the more standard treatment of minimal (DeWitt-Schwinger) subtractions via dimensional regularization. We also show how the vacuum metamorphosis model emerges from the running couplings.
The decoupling of heavy fields as required by the Appelquist-Carazzone theorem plays a fundamental role in the construction of any effective field theory. However, it is not a trivial task to implement a renormalization prescription that produces the expected decoupling of massive fields, and it is even more difficult in curved spacetime. Focused on this idea, we consider the renormalization of the one-loop effective action for the Yukawa interaction with a background scalar field in curved space. We compute the beta functions within a generalized DeWitt-Schwinger subtraction procedure and dis…
We consider the renormalization of the one-loop effective action for the Yukawa interaction. We compute the beta functions in the generalized DeWitt-Schwinger subtraction scheme. For the quantized scalar field we obtain that all the beta functions exhibit decoupling for heavy fields as stated by the Appelquist-Carazzone theorem including also the gravitational couplings. For the quantized Dirac field, decoupling appears for almost all of them. We obtain the atypical result that the mass parameter of the background scalar field does not decouple.
It is well known that the renormalization group equations depend on the scale where they are applied. This phenomenon is especially relevant for the massive fields in curved space, because the decoupling effects may be responsible for important cosmological applications like the graceful exit from the inflation and low-energy quantum dynamics of the cosmological constant. We investigate, using both covariant and non-covariant methods of calculations and mass-dependent renormalization scheme, the vacuum quantum effects of a massive scalar field in curved space-time. In the higher derivative sec…
We continue investigation of the renormalization group and decoupling of the quantized massive fields in curved space. In the present work we analyze a theory, where fields gain their masses due to the Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking (SSB), that is the case providing a remarkable exception from the Appelquist-Carazzone theorem in the matter fields sector. In the vacuum sector, already at the classical level, the theory with SSB includes, in the general case an infinite number of the non-local terms in the induced vacuum action. Despite this surprising property, we show that the theory is renorma…
We continue the study of the renormalization group and decoupling of massive fields in curved space, started in the previous article and analyse the higher derivative sector of the vacuum metric-dependent action of the Standard Model. The QCD sector at low-energies is described in terms of the composite effective fields. For fermions and scalars the massless limit shows perfect correspondence with the conformal anomaly, but similar limit in a massive vector case requires an extra compensating scalar. In all three cases the decoupling goes smoothly and monotonic. A particularly interesting case…
We revisit the decoupling effects associated with heavy particles in the renormalization group running of the vacuum energy in a mass-dependent renormalization scheme. We find the running of the vacuum energy stemming from the Higgs condensate in the entire energy range and show that it behaves as expected from the simple dimensional arguments meaning that it exhibits the quadratic sensitivity to the mass of the heavy particles in the infrared regime. The consequence of such a running to the fine-tuning problem with the measured value of the Cosmological Constant is analyzed and the constraint…
We calculate and analyse non-local gravitational form factors induced by quantum matter fields in curved two-dimensional space. The calculations are performed for scalars, spinors and massive vectors by means of the covariant heat kernel method up to the second order in the curvature and confirmed using Feynman diagrams. The analysis of the ultraviolet (UV) limit reveals a generalized "running" form of the Polyakov action for a nonminimal scalar field and the usual Polyakov action in the conformally invariant cases. In the infrared (IR) we establish the gravitational decoupling theorem, which …
The current vacuum energy density observed as dark energy ${ ρ}_{ \rm dark }\simeq 2.5\times10^{-47}\ {\rm GeV^{4}}$ is unacceptably small compared with any other scales. Therefore, we encounter serious fine-tuning problem and theoretical difficulty to derive the dark energy. However, the theoretically attractive scenario has been proposed and discussed in literature: In terms of the renormalization-group (RG) running of the cosmological constant, the vacuum energy density can be expressed as ${ ρ}_{ \rm vacuum }\simeq m^{2}H^{2}$ where $m$ is the mass of the scalar field and rather dynamical …
The effective action for the interacting massive scalar field in curved space-time is derived using the heat-kernel method. Starting from this effective action, we establish a smooth quadratic form of the low-energy decoupling for the four-scalar coupling constant and for the nonminimal interaction parameter. The evolution of this parameter from the conformal value 1/6 at high energies down to the IR regime is investigated within the two toy models with negative and positive four-scalar coupling constants.
The $Λ$-term in Einstein's equations is a fundamental building block of the `concordance' $Λ$CDM model of cosmology. Even though the model is not free of fundamental problems, they have not been circumvented by any alternative dark energy proposal either. Here we stick to the $Λ$-term, but we contend that it can be a `running quantity' in quantum field theory (QFT) in curved spacetime. A plethora of phenomenological works have shown that this option can be highly competitive with the $Λ$CDM with a rigid cosmological term. The, so-called, `running vacuum models' (RVM's) are characterized by the…
In this work we take a formal approach to the problem of decoupling Proca equations in curved space-times. We use Newman-Penrose (NP) two-spinor formalism to represent the Proca vector by one complex and two real scalars. We show that a decoupled second order differential equation for one of the real scalars can be derived if and only if the background space-time admits a covariantly constant null vector. Thus, the background space-time must be a pp-wave vacuum. We evaluate the separability of Proca, Maxwell and Dirac equations on the resulting pp-wave background.
It has been recently shown that, contrary to an intuitive decoupling argument, the presence of new physics at very large energy scales (say around the Planck scale) can have a strong impact on the electroweak vacuum lifetime. In particular, the vacuum could be totally destabilized. This study was performed in a flat spacetime background, and it is important to extend the analysis to curved spacetime since these are Planckian-physics effects. It is generally expected that under these extreme conditions gravity should totally quench the formation of true vacuum bubbles, thus washing out the dest…
In this work we investigate the renormalization group flow of the cosmological constant $Λ$ induced by the change in space-time curvature in the electroweak vacuum. We calculate the generic magnitude resulting from running in the standard model in a subtraction scheme that respects the Appelquist-Carazzone decoupling theorem. Interestingly, we find in this prescription that for a non-minimal coupling $ξ\lesssim 10^4$ the magnitude of the generated contribution remains below the value consistent with observations.
A scale-dependent cosmological constant $Λ$ and the Newton constant G emerge naturally in quantum field theory in a curved space-time background leading to renormalization group running cosmologies. A scale-setting procedure is discussed in these cosmological models and the interpretation of the scale is emphasized. This setup introduces dark energy without invoking quintessence-like fields and can be applied to a variety of problems. The scale-dependent $Λ$ and G are also naturally incorporated into the generalized holographic dark energy model, and applied to different aspects of cosmology.
In this study, we consider three dark energy models in which $Λ$ is not constant, but has a dynamic nature that depends on the Hubble parameter $H$ and/or its time derivative $\dot{H}$. We analyze the generalized running vacuum model, for which $Λ(H)=A+BH^2+C\dot{H}$, along with the two models obtained by setting $B$ or $C$ equal to zero. A null value for $C$ yields the classical running vacuum model (RVM), while $B=0$ corresponds to what we term the generalized running vacuum sub-case, or GRVS. Our main aim is to investigate whether these models can accommodate non-zero spatial curvature. To …
Starting from generic quantum effects at the Planck scale M_P, we find that the renormalization group running of the cosmological constant (CC) at low energies is possible if there is a smooth decoupling of all massive particles from M_P to the mass of the lightest neutrino. We discuss the theoretical implications of this running for the ``old'' and ``new'' cosmological constant problems. Interestingly enough, the CC running implies a strong relationship between quantum field theory and cosmology, which should be observable in the near future in experiments such as SNAP through the measurement…
In quantum field theory the parameters of the vacuum action are subject to renormalization group running. In particular, the ``cosmological constant'' is not a constant in a quantum field theory context, still less should be zero. In this paper we continue with previous work, and derive the particle contributions to the running of the cosmological and gravitational constants in the framework of the Standard Model in curved space-time. At higher energies the calculation is performed in a sharp cut off approximation. We assess, in two different frameworks, whether the scaling dependences of the …
This article is devoted to the study of high dense charged anisotropic compact structures in the framework of $f(R,\mathcal{T})$ gravity theory. The principal aims of this investigation, regard the extension of the isotropic Durgapal-Fuloria model within the context of charged isotropic $f(R,\mathcal{T})$ solutions. The second main goal of this work is to apply the gravitational decoupling via a minimal geometric deformation (MGD) scheme in $f(R,\mathcal{T})$ gravity. Finally, the third one is to derive an anisotropic version of the charged isotropic model previously obtained by applying gravi…
The cosmological term, $Λ$, in Einstein's equations is an essential ingredient of the `concordance' $Λ$CDM model of cosmology. In this mini-review presentation, we assess the possibility that $Λ$ can be a dynamical quantity, more specifically a `running quantity' in quantum field theory in curved spacetime. A great deal of phenomenological works have shown in the last few years that this option (sometimes accompanied with a running gravitational coupling) may cure some of the tensions afflicting the $Λ$CDM. The `running vacuum models' (RVM's) are characterized by the vacuum energy density, $ρ_…
We investigate the cosmological production of gravitational waves in a nonsingular flat cosmology powered by a "running vacuum" energy density described by $ρ_Λ\equivρ_Λ(H)$, a phenomenological expression potentially linked with the renormalization group approach in quantum field theory in curved spacetimes. The model can be interpreted as a particular case of the class recently discussed by Perico et al. (Phys. Rev. D {\bf 88}, 063531, 2013) which is termed complete in the sense that the cosmic evolution occurs between two extreme de Sitter stages (early and late time de Sitter phases). {The …
Deriving the gravitational effective action directly from exact renormalization group is very complicated, if not impossible. Hence, to study the effects of running gravitational coupling which tends to a non--Gaussian UV fixed point (as it is supposed by the asymptotic safety conjecture), two steps are usually adopted. Cutoff identification and improvement of the gravitational coupling to the running one. As suggested in [1], a function of all independent curvature invariants seems to be the best choice for cutoff identification of gravitational quantum fluctuations in curved spacetime and ma…
