Chiral vacuum fluctuations in quantum gravity
Abstract
We examine tensor perturbations around a deSitter background within the framework of Ashtekar's variables and cousins parameterized by the Immirzi parameter . At the classical level we recover standard cosmological perturbation theory, with illuminating insights. Quantization leads to real novelties. In the low energy limit we find a second quantized theory of gravitons which displays different vacuum fluctuations for right and left gravitons. Nonetheless right and left gravitons have the same (positive) energies, resolving a number of paradoxes suggested in the literature. The right-left asymmetry of the vacuum fluctuations depends on and the ordering of the Hamiltonian constraint, and it would leave a distinctive imprint in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background, thus opening quantum gravity to observational test.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1010.3552,
title = {Chiral vacuum fluctuations in quantum gravity},
author = {Joao Magueijo and Dionigi M. T. Benincasa},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1010.3552},
year = {2011}
}