English

Minimum length (scale) in Quantum Field Theory, Generalized Uncertainty Principle and the non-renormalisability of gravity

High Energy Physics - Theory 2023-02-15 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

The notions of minimum geometrical length and minimum length scale are discussed with reference to correlation functions obtained from in-in and in-out amplitudes in quantum field theory. Whereas the in-in propagator for metric perturbations does not admit the former, the in-out Feynman propagator shows the emergence of the latter. A connection between the Feynman propagator of quantum field theories of gravity and the deformation parameter δ0\delta_0 of the generalised uncertainty principle (GUP) is then exhibited, which allows to determine an exact expression for δ0\delta_0 in terms of the residues of the causal propagator. A correspondence between the non-renormalisability of (some) theories (of gravity) and the existence of a minimum length scale is then conjectured to support the idea that non-renormalisable theories are self-complete and finite. The role played by the sign of the deformation parameter is further discussed by considering an implementation of the GUP on the lattice.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2210.12801,
  title  = {Minimum length (scale) in Quantum Field Theory, Generalized Uncertainty Principle and the non-renormalisability of gravity},
  author = {Roberto Casadio and Wenbin Feng and Ibere Kuntz and Fabio Scardigli},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.12801},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

LaTeX, 12 pages, no figures, final version to appear in PLB