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 less than an order of magnitude ($4/3<N^{2}r<12$ to the leading order in the number of $e$-foldings $N$). Moreover, the relation $r\simeq -8n_{T}$ is not affected by the Weyl-squared term. No vector and no other scalar/tensor degree of freedom is present.
In this paper we derive the most general curvature squared action coupled to an arbitrary number of vector multiplets in four dimensional $N=2$ supergravity using the dilaton Weyl multiplet. The action that we derive is encoded in a single holomorphic prepotential.
School of Physics, Sun Yat-Sen University（中山大学物理学院）；Department of Physics, Babeş-Bolyai University（巴比什-博雅伊大学物理系）；Astronomical Observatory（天文台）；Key Laboratory of Atomic and Subatomic Structure and Quantum Control (Ministry of Education), Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Structure and Fundamental Interactions of Matter, School of Physics, South China Normal University（华南师范大学物理学院原子与亚原子结构及量子控制教育部重点实验室、广东省物质结构与基本相互作用卓越基础研究中心）；Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Engineering and Quantum Materials, Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory of Quantum Matter, South China Normal University（华南师范大学广东省量子工程与量子材料重点实验室、粤港量子物质联合实验室）
We construct supersymmetric completions of various curvature squared terms in five dimensional supergravity with eight supercharges. Adopting the dilaton Weyl multiplet, we obtain the minimal off-shell supersymmetric Ricci scalar squared as well as all vector multiplets coupled curvature squared invariants. Since the minimal off-shell supersymmetric Riemann tensor squared and Gauss-Bonnet combination in the dilaton Weyl multiplet have been obtained before, both the minimal off-shell and the vector multiplets coupled curvature squared invariants in the dilation Weyl multiplet are complete. We a…
We investigate inflationary cosmology by solving the effective action of the M-theory, which consists of the 11 dimensional supergravity and quartic terms of the Weyl tensor. The metric is simply expressed by two scale factors, one for the spatial directions and the other for the internal directions. Since the effective action of the M-theory is constructed perturbatively, we also solve the equations of motion perturbatively. We will show that the classical solution of the 11 dimensional supergravity does not represent the inflationary expansion, but if we include the quantum corrections, the …
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）
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 study the inflationary perturbations in general (classically) scale-invariant theories. Such scenario is motivated by the hierarchy problem and provides natural inflationary potentials and dark matter candidates. We analyse in detail all sectors (the scalar, vector and tensor perturbations) giving general formulae for the potentially observable power spectra, as well as for the curvature spectral index $n_s$ and the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$. We show that the conserved Hamiltonian for all perturbations does not feature negative energies even in the presence of the Weyl-squared term if the …
We study the dynamics of scalar metric fluctuations in a non-perturbative variational formalism recently introduced, by which the dynamics of an geometrical scalar field $θ$, describes the quantum geometrical effects on a Weylian-like manifold with respect to a background Riemannian space-time. In this letter we have examined an example in the framework of inflationary cosmology. The resulting spectral predictions are in very good agreement with observations and other models of inflation.
Gravity can be embedded into a renormalizable theory by means of adding quadratic in curvature terms. However, this at first leads to the presence of the Weyl ghost. It is possible to get rid of this ghost if the locality assumption is weakened and the propagator of the graviton is represented by an entire function of the d'Alembertian operator without new poles and zeros. Models of this type admit a cosmological solution describing the $R^2$, or Starobinsky, inflation. We study graviton production after inflation in this model and show that it is negligible despite the presence of the higher …
As soon as the geometry expands quasi-exponentially the plasma sources are customarily tuned to zero as if the duration of the inflationary phase was immaterial for the gauge field fluctuations at large-scale. The serendipitous disappearance of the plasma (or even the partial neglect of its effects) depends on the symmetries of the system which are, in four space-time dimensions and in the simplest Abelian case, the invariance under Weyl rescaling and the electromagnetic duality symmetry. The quantum, thermal and conducting initial conditions of inflationary magnetogenesis are classified and d…
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 …
We revisit the old (fourth-order or quadratically generated) gravity model of Starobinsky in four space-time dimensions, and derive the (inflaton) scalar potential in the equivalent scalar-tensor gravity model via a Legendre-Weyl transform. The inflaton scalar potential is used to compute the (CMB) observables of inflation associated with curvature perturbations (namely, the scalar and tensor spectral indices, and the tensor-to-scalar ratio), including the new next-to-leading-order terms with respect to the inverse number of e-foldings. The results are compared to the recent (WMAP5) experiment…
We consider a gravitational model in a Weyl-Cartan space-time, in which the Weitzenböck condition of the vanishing of the sum of the curvature and torsion scalar is also imposed. Moreover, a kinetic term for the torsion is also included in the gravitational action. The field equations of the model are obtained from a Hilbert-Einstein type variational principle, and they lead to a complete description of the gravitational field in terms of two fields, the Weyl vector and the torsion, respectively, defined in a curved background. The cosmological applications of the model are investigated for a …
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…
We describe the supersymmetric completion of several curvature-squared invariants for ${\cal N}=(1,0)$ supergravity in six dimensions. The construction of the invariants is based on a close interplay between superconformal tensor calculus and recently developed superspace techniques to study general off-shell supergravity-matter couplings. In the case of minimal off-shell Poincaré supergravity based on the dilaton-Weyl multiplet coupled to a linear multiplet as a conformal compensator, we describe off-shell supersymmetric completions for all the three possible purely gravitational curvature-sq…
We consider quadratic gravity with only Ricci squared and Weyl squared kinetic terms at tree-level, coupled to specific numbers of infinite towers of free scalars, Weyl fermions and gauge bosons in four dimensions. We show that predictable cosmological and Newton constants are induced at 1-loop. This result is cross-checked using both the heat kernel method and Adler's approach.
Energy Momentum Squared Gravity (EMSG) is a cosmological model where the scale factor is non vanishing at all times and hence does not favor big bang cosmology. However, the profile of density in the radiation dominated universe shows that EMSG supports inflationary cosmology. Inflationary cosmological models are successful in providing convincing answers to major cosmological issues like horizon problem, flatness problem and small value of cosmological constant but hitherto no model of inflation has been observationally confirmed. Owing to this, Varying Speed of Light (VSL) were introduced wh…
The present work is the second part of a series of computations for the self-mass-squared of the conformally coupled (CC) scalar interacting with gravitons. This work includes the kinetic-kinetic and kinetic-conformal parts, and thus completes the full scalar self-mass squared at one loop order in de Sitter background when combined with the conformal-conformal part previously evaluated. We use dimensional regularization and renormalize the results by subtracting appropriate counterterms. The self-mass squared is finally ready to quantum-correct the CC scalar field equation so that one can stud…
The idea of gauge theories of gravity predicts that there should exist not only the massless graviton but also massive particles carrying the gravitational force. We study the cosmology in a quadratic gravity with dynamical torsion where gravity may be interpreted as a gauge force associated with the Poincaré group. In addition to the massless spin-2 graviton, the model contains four non-ghost massive particle species: a couple of spin-0, a spin-1 and a spin-2. Supposing the restoration of the local Weyl invariance in the UV limit and the parity invariance, we find the most general minisupersp…
We investigate cosmological inflationary scenarios from a gravitoelectromagnetic theory. Our work is formulated in the light of a recently introduced geometrical Weyl-Invariant scalar-tensor theory of gravity, where the nature of both the electromagnetic potential and the inflaton field is attributed to the space-time geometry. We obtain a Harrison-Zeldovich power spectrum for quantum fluctuations of the inflaton field. In our model the electromagnetic fields have also a nearly scale invariant power spectrum for a power-law inflation. We found that the the seed magnetic fields have a nearly sc…
We consider a simple model of modified gravity interacting with a single scalar field $φ$ with weakly coupled exponential potential within the framework of non-Riemannian spacetime volume-form formalism. The specific form of the action is fixed by the requirement of invariance under global Weyl-scale symmetry. Upon passing to the physical Einstein frame we show how the non-Riemannian volume elements create a second canonical scalar field $u$ and dynamically generate a non-trivial two-scalar-field potential $U_{\rm eff}(u,φ)$ with two remarkable features: (i) it possesses a large flat region fo…
Models of inflation are tightly constrained by the PLANCK satellite data. Among them, Starobinsky's model with an exponential type potential seems to be challenged by the recent BICEP2 results. The model is based on the existence of $\,~ R^2$ terms in the Einstein-Hilbert action, which have their origin in the conformal-anomaly. Conformal (or Weyl) gravitational theories are relevant when matter fields become effectively massless; i.e. their masses are negligible in comparison with the spacetime curvature. These theories may include other, additional scalar fields. We show that their presence …
We consider a non-standard model of gravity coupled to a neutral scalar "inflaton" as well as to SU(2)xU(1) iso-doublet scalar with positive mass squared and without self-interaction, and to SU(2)xU(1) gauge fields. The principal new ingredient is employing two alternative non-Riemannian space-time volume-forms (covariant integration measure densitities) independent of the metric. The latter have a remarkable impact - although not introducing any additional propagating degrees of freedom, their dynamics triggers a series of important features: appearance of infinitely large flat regions of the…
We investigate the evolution of cosmological perturbations during de Sitter inflation in the Einstein-Chern-Simons-Weyl gravity. Primordial massive gravitational waves are composed of one scalar, two vector and four tensor circularly polarized modes. We show that the vector power spectrum decays quickly like a transversely massive vector in the superhorizon limit $z\to 0$. In this limit, the power spectrum coming from massive tensor modes decays quickly, leading to the conventional tensor power spectrum. Also, we find that in the limit of $m^2 \to 0$ (keeping the Weyl-squared term only), the v…
We explore, in the context of AdS/CFT correspondence, the causality constraints on the Noncritical Einstein-Weyl (NEW) gravity model in five dimensions. The scalar and shear channels are considered as small metric perturbations around an AdS black brane background. Our results show that causality analysis on the propagation of these two channels imposes a new bound on the coupling of the Weyl-squared terms in the NEW gravity. This new bound imposes more stringent restrictions than those of the tachyon-free condition, improving predictive power of the theory.
We use the Hartree approximation to the Einstein equation on de Sitter background to solve for the one loop correction to the graviton mode function. This should give a reasonable approximation to how the ensemble of inflationary gravitons affects a single external graviton. At late times we find that the one loop correction to the plane wave mode function $u(η,k)$ goes like $G H^2 \ln(a)/a^2$, where $a$ is the inflationary scale factor. One consequence is that the one loop corrections to the "electric" components of the linearized Weyl tensor grow compared to the tree order result.
We present a new formulation for the canonical approach to conformal (Weyl-squared) gravity and its extension by the Einstein-Hilbert term and a nonminimally coupled scalar field. For this purpose we use a unimodular decomposition of the three-metric and introduce unimodular-conformal canonical variables. The important feature of this choice is that only the scale part of the three-metric and the rescaled trace part of the extrinsic curvature change under a conformal transformation. This significantly simplifies the constraint analysis and manifestly reveals the conformal properties of a theor…
The standard electroweak theory of leptons and the conformal groups of spacetime Weyl's transformations are at the core of a general relativistic, conformally covariant scalar tensor theory aimed at the resolution of the most intriguing enigma of modern Physics: the cosmological constant paradox (hereafter: Lambda paradox. A Higgs mechanism within a spontaneous symmetry breaking process offers formal connections, via an effective potential V(eff), between some relevant properties of the elementary particles and the dark energy content of the Universe. The nonintegrable application of the Weyl'…
Thanks to their interpretation as first order correction of General Relativity at high energies, quadratic theories of gravity gained much attention in recent times. Particular attention has been drawn to the Einstein-Weyl theory, where the addition of the squared Weyl tensor to the action opens the possibility of having non-Schwarzschild black holes in the classical spectrum of the theory. Static and spherically symmetric solutions of this theory have been studied and classified in terms of their small scales behaviour; however, a classification of these solutions in terms of the asymptotic g…
We use the entropy function formalism to study the effect of the Gauss-Bonnet term on the entropy of spherically symmetric extremal black holes in heterotic string theory in four dimensions. Surprisingly the resulting entropy and the near horizon metric, gauge field strengths and the axion-dilaton field are identical to those obtained by Cardoso et. al. for a supersymmetric version of the theory that contains Weyl tensor squared term instead of the Gauss-Bonnet term. We also study the effect of holomorphic anomaly on the entropy using our formalism. Again the resulting attractor equations for …
We present a detailed study of inflationary solutions in M-theory with higher order quantum corrections. We first exhaust all exact and asymptotic solutions of exponential and power-law expansions in this theory with quartic curvature corrections, and then perform a linear perturbation analysis around fixed points for the exact solutions in order to see which solutions are more generic and give interesting cosmological models. We find an interesting solution in which the external space expands exponentially and the internal space is static both in the original and Einstein frames. This may be …
Constraining quantum gravity from observations is a challenge. We expand on the idea that the interplay of quantum gravity with matter could be key to meeting this challenge. Thus, we set out to confront different potential candidates for quantum gravity -- unimodular asymptotic safety, Weyl-squared gravity and asymptotically safe gravity -- with constraints arising from demanding an ultraviolet complete Standard Model. Specifically, we show that within approximations, demanding that quantum gravity solves the Landau-pole problems in Abelian gauge couplings and Yukawa couplings strongly constr…
Considering a model with Coupled Dilaton-Squared Curvature terms and a dilatonic potential which replace the cosmological constant, we present an analytic hyperscaling violating solution which is the generalization of arXiv:1305.3279 for non zero $θ$. We show that a specific coupling between dilaton and the squared curvature terms produces a simple logarithmic behavior for the dilaton. By imposing the null energy condition and stability constraints, we investigate the allowed regions for the parameters of this model. We then study the perturbations around $\mathrm{AdS_4} $ in the UV and $\math…
We develop a non-perturbative formalism for scalar metric fluctuations from a 5D extended version of general relativity in vacuum. In this work we concentrate our efforts on calculations valid on large cosmological scales, which are the dominant during the inflationary phase of the universe. The resulting metric in this limit is obtained after implementing a planar coordinate transformation on a 5D Ricci-flat metric solution. We calculate the spectrum of these fluctuations with an effective 4D Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetime on cosmological scales, which is obtained after we make a static fo…
In this paper we will study $R^2$-like inflation in a non-local modification of gravity which contains quadratic in Ricci scalar and Weyl tensor terms with analytic infinite derivative form-factors in the action. It is known that the inflationary solution of the local $R+R^2$ gravity remains a particular exact solution in this model. It was shown earlier that the power spectrum of scalar perturbations generated during inflation in the non-local setup remains the same as in the local $R+R^2$ inflation, whereas the power spectrum of tensor perturbations gets modified due to the non-local Weyl te…
We derive a Higgs inflationary model in the context of a complex geometrical scalar-tensor theory of gravity. In this model the Higgs inflaton scalar field has geometrical origin playing the role of the Weyl scalar field in the original non-riemannian background geometry. The energy scale enough to generate inflation from the Higgs energy scale is achieved due to the compatibility of the theory with its background complex Weyl-integrable geometry. We found that for a number of e-foldings $N=63$, a nearly scale invariant spectrum for the inflaton is obtained with an spectral index $n_s\simeq 0.…
We present a string-based picture of the cosmological evolution in which (CP-violating) gravitational anomalies acting during the inflationary phase of the universe cause the vacuum energy density to "run" with the effective Hubble parameter squared, $H^2$, thanks to the axion field of the bosonic string multiplet. This leads to baryogenesis through leptogenesis with massive right-handed neutrinos. The generation of chiral matter after inflation helps in cancelling the anomalies in the observable radiation- and matter- dominated eras. The present era inherits the same "running vacuum" structur…
The $R+R^2$, shortly named "$R^2$" ("Starobinsky") inflationary model, represents a fully consistent example of a one-parameter inflationary scenario. This model has a "graceful exit" from inflation and provides a mechanism for subsequent creation and final thermalization of the standard matter. Moreover, it produces a very good fit of the observed spectrum of primordial perturbations. In the present paper we show explicitly that the $R^2$ inflationary spacetime is an exact solution of a range of weakly non-local (quasi-polynomial) gravitational theories, which provide an ultraviolet completio…
The inclusion of the Weyl squared term in the gravitational action is one of the most simple, yet non trivial modifications to General Relativity at high energies. Nevertheless the study of the spherically-symmetric vacuum solutions of this theory has received much attention only in recent times. A new type of asymptotically flat wormhole which does not match symmetrically at a finite radius with another sheet of the spacetime is presented. The outer spacetime is characterized by a newtonian potential with a Yukawa correction, and has gravitational properties that can be arbitrarily close to t…
We study the quantum evolution of the early universe, its semi-classical analogue together with inflationary regime, in view of a generalized modified theory of gravity. The action is built by supplementing the non-minimally coupled scalar-tensor theory of gravity with scalar curvature squared term and a Gauss-Bonnet-dilatonic coupled term. It is generalized, since all the parameters are treated as arbitrary functions of the scalar field. It is interesting to explore the fact that instead of considering additional flow parameters, an effective potential serves the purpose of finding inflationa…
Weyl (scale) invariant theories of scalars and gravity can generate all mass scales spontaneously. In this paper we study a particularly simple version -- scale invariant $R^2$ gravity -- and show that, during an inflationary period, it leads to fluctuations which, for a particular parameter choice, are almost indistinguishable from normal $R^2$ inflation. Current observations place tight constraints on the primary coupling constant of this theory and predict a tensor to scalar ratio, $0.0033 > r > 0.0026$, which is testable with the next generation of cosmic microwave background experiments.
We review the concept of purely virtual particle and its uses in quantum gravity, primordial cosmology and collider physics. The fake particle, or "fakeon", which mediates interactions without appearing among the incoming and outgoing states, can be introduced by means of a new diagrammatics. The renormalization coincides with the one of the parent Euclidean diagrammatics, while unitarity follows from spectral optical identities, which can be derived by means of algebraic operations. The classical limit of a theory of physical particles and fakeons is described by an ordinary Lagrangian plus H…
Possibly, the most general action in the background of isotropic and homogeneous space-time has been considered to study the quantum evolution of the early universe, apart from a cosmological constant. The hermiticity of the effective Hamiltonian operator in the presence of curvature squared terms suggests unitary time evolution of the quantum states, assuring conservation of probability. The oscillatory behaviour of the semi-classical wavefunction around a de-Sitter solution signals that the theory is classically allowed, and the universe enters an inflationary regime just after Planck's era.…
We study higher--derivative supergravity with curvature squared terms in different bases. Performing a Weyl rescaling only on the metric or on all the superfield components does not allow to obtain a normalized kinetic Einstein term from a $\cR+\cR^2$ theory. It is necessary to combine a Legendre transformation and a Weyl rescaling on a $\cR+\cR^2$ theory to arrive at a theory of supergravity coupled to matter. This mechanism is applied to supergravity coupled to a general function $k(R,\BR,Φ,\barΦ)$, where $R$ is one of the supergravity chiral superfields and $Φ$ a chiral matter superfield.
