English

Is N = 8 Supergravity Ultraviolet Finite?

High Energy Physics - Theory 2008-11-26 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

Conventional wisdom holds that no four-dimensional gravity field theory can be ultraviolet finite. This understanding is based mainly on power counting. Recent studies confirm that one-loop N = 8 supergravity amplitudes satisfy the so-called `no-triangle hypothesis', which states that triangle and bubble integrals cancel from these amplitudes. A consequence of this hypothesis is that for any number of external legs, at one loop N = 8 supergravity and N = 4 super-Yang-Mills have identical superficial degrees of ultraviolet behavior in D dimensions. We describe how the unitarity method allows us to promote these one-loop cancellations to higher loops, suggesting that previous power counts were too conservative. We discuss higher-loop evidence suggesting that N = 8 supergravity has the same degree of divergence as N = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory and is ultraviolet finite in four dimensions. We comment on calculations needed to reinforce this proposal, which are feasible using the unitarity method.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0611086,
  title  = {Is N = 8 Supergravity Ultraviolet Finite?},
  author = {Zvi Bern and Lance J. Dixon and Radu Roiban},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0611086},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

7 pages, 5 figures, revtex

R2 v1 2026-07-22T15:39:12.375Z