Related papers: Scaling anomaly in cosmic string background
General Relativity receives quantum corrections relevant at cosmological distance scales from the conformal scalar degrees of freedom required by the trace anomaly of the quantum stress tensor in curved space. In the theory including the…
Not only in physical string theories, but also in some highly simplified situations, background independence has been difficult to understand. It is argued that the ``holomorphic anomaly'' of Bershadsky, Cecotti, Ooguri, and Vafa gives a…
Local cosmic strings solutions are introduced in a model with a pseudo-anomalous U(1) gauge symmetry. Such a symmetry is present in many superstring compactification models. The coupling of those strings with the axion necessary in order to…
The trace anomaly of conformal matter implies the existence of massless scalar poles in physical amplitudes involving the stress-energy tensor. These poles may be described by a local effective action with massless scalar fields, which…
A decade ago, it was shown that a wide class of scalar-tensor theories can pass very restrictive weak field tests of gravity and yet exhibit non-perturbative strong field deviations away from General Relativity. This phenomenon was called…
We construct cosmological spacetimes with null Kasner-like singularities as purely gravitational solutions with no other background fields turned on. These can be recast as anisotropic plane-wave spacetimes by coordinate transformations. We…
The mystery of the cosmological constant is probably the most pressing obstacle to significantly improving the models of elementary particle physics derived from string theory. The problem arises because in the standard framework of low…
Cosmic strings are one-dimensional topological defects which could have been formed in the early stages of our Universe. They triggered a lot of interest, mainly for their cosmological implications: they could offer an alternative to…
It is argued that classical string solutions should not be fine tuned to have a positive cosmological constant (CC) at the observed size, since even the quantum corrections from standard model effects will completely negate any classical…
Quantum fields in compact stars can be amplified due to a semiclassical instability. This generic feature of scalar fields coupled to curvature may affect the birth and the equilibrium structure of relativistic stars. We point out that the…
We generalize the standard model of particle physics such it displays global scale invariance. The gravitational action is also suitably modified such that it respects this symmetry. This model is interesting since the cosmological constant…
Within a class of superstring vacua which have an additional non-anomalous $U(1)'$ gauge factor, we address the scale of the $U(1)'$ symmetry breaking and constraints on the exotic particle content and their masses. We also show that an…
We discuss the threshold anomaly in ultra-high energy cosmic ray physics by assuming that the matter world just be perturbation of a de Sitter universe, which is consistent with the recent astronomical observations: about two thirds of the…
In the inflationary scenarios suggested by string theory, the vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field can be amplified by the time-evolution of the dilaton background, and can grow large enough to explain both the origin of the…
Standard cosmology connects the scale generated at late times by the cosmological constant with that generated in early times by the energy dynamics. Assuming dark energy de-coherence occurs during early times when the scale parameter…
A widespread assumption states that quantum effects of matter in curved spacetimes become relevant only when the inverse curvature radius approaches the Planck mass $m_{\text{P}}$. We challenge this view by showing that, relying solely on…
The relativistic quantum motion of scalar bosons under the influence of a full vector (minimal $A^{\mu}$ and nonminimal $X^{\mu}$) and scalar ($V_{s}$) interactions embedded in the background of a cosmic string is explored in the context of…
There are many theories of quantum gravity, depending on asymptotic boundary conditions, and the amount of supersymmetry. The cosmological constant is one of the fundamental parameters that characterize different theories. If it is…
Quantum inequalities are bounds on negative time-averages of the energy density of a quantum field. They can be used to rule out exotic spacetimes in general relativity. We study quantum inequalities for a scalar field with a background…
We explore phenomenological consequences of coupling a non-conformal scale-invariant theory to the standard model. We point out that, under certain circumstances, non-conformal scale-invariant theories have oscillating correlation functions…