English

Infrared limit of quantum gravity

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2018-08-01 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We explore the infrared limit of quantum gravity in presence of a cosmological constant or effective potential for scalar fields. For a positive effective scalar potential, one-loop perturbation theory around flat space is divergent due to an instability of the graviton propagator. Functional renormalization solves this problem by a flow of couplings avoiding instabilities. This leads to a graviton barrier limiting the maximal growth of the effective potential for large values of scalar fields. In the presence of this barrier, variable gravity with a field dependent Planck mass can solve the cosmological constant problem by a cosmological runaway solution. We discuss the naturalness of tiny values of the cosmological constant and cosmon mass due to a strong attraction towards an infrared fixed point.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1802.05947,
  title  = {Infrared limit of quantum gravity},
  author = {C. Wetterich},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.05947},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

new references, 9 pages , 3 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T00:24:34.652Z