Related papers: Dimensional reduction in the sky
We propose a novel scenario in which scalar perturbations, that seed the large scale structure of the Universe, are generated without relying on a scalar field (the inflaton). In this framework, inflation is driven by a de Sitter space-time…
Fractal decimation reduces the effective dimensionality of a flow by keeping only a (randomly chosen) set of Fourier modes whose number in a ball of radius $k$ is proportional to $k^D$ for large $k$. At the critical dimension D=4/3 there is…
Because of ultraviolet/infrared (UV/IR) mixing, the low energy physics of noncommutative gauge theories in the Moyal-Weyl approach seems to depend crucially on the details of the ultraviolet completion. However, motivated by recent string…
We examine the spectrum of inflaton fluctuations resulting from any given long period of exponential inflation. Infrared and ultraviolet divergences in the inflaton dispersion summed over all modes do not appear in our approach. We show how…
We investigate the relation between dilatation and conformal symmetries in the statistical mechanics of flexible crystalline membranes. We analyze, in particular, a well-known model which describes the fluctuations of a continuum elastic…
I review the field-theoretic renomalization group approach to quantum gravity, built around the existence of a non-trivial ultraviolet fixed point in four dimensions. I discuss the implications of such a fixed point, found in three largely…
We consider a bouncing Universe model which explains the flatness of the primordial scalar spectrum via complex scalar field that rolls down its negative quartic potential and dominates in the Universe. We show that in this model, there…
A Schroedinger picture analysis of time dependent quantum oscillators, in a manner of Guth and Pi, clearly identifies two physical mechanisms for possible decoherence of vacuum fluctuations in early universe: turning of quantum oscillators…
We show how quantum fields can be used to measure the curvature of spacetime. In particular, we find that knowledge of the imprint that spacetime curvature leaves in the correlators of quantum fields suffices, in principle, to reconstruct…
The phenomenon of scale dependent spectral dimension has attracted special interest in the quantum gravity community over the last eight years. It was first observed in computer simulations of the causal dynamical triangulation (CDT)…
We consider the decay of a false vacuum in circumstances where the methods suggested by Coleman run into difficulties. We find that in these cases quantum fluctuations play a crucial role. Namely, they naturally induce both an ultraviolet…
Maxwell equations and the equations of General Relativity are scale invariant in empty space. The presence of charge or currents in electromagnetism or the presence of matter in cosmology are preventing scale invariance. The question arises…
We tackle the problem of the accelerating universe by reconsidering the most general form of the metric when the speed of light is allowed to evolve with time in a homogeneous and isotropic universe. A new varying speed of light (VSL) model…
We generalize dark matter production to a two-metric framework whereby the physical metric, which couples to the Standard Model (SM), is conformally and/or disformally related to the metric governing the gravitational dynamics. We show that…
In recent work we analyzed the evolution of primordial perturbations satisfying Planck-scale-modified dispersion relations and showed that there is no cosmological "squeezing" in the critical model that produces perturbations with a scale…
Atmospheric flows exhibit fluctuations of all scales (space -time) ranging from turbulence (millimeters-seconds) to climate (thousands of kilometers-years). The apparently random fluctuations however exhibit long-range spatio-temporal…
The scaling properties of quantum gravity are discussed by employing a class of proper-time regulators in the functional flow equation for the conformal factor within the formalism of the background field method. Renormalization group…
We propose a proper definition of the vacuum expectation value of the stress energy tensor $\langle 0 | T_{\mu\nu} |0 \rangle$ for integrable quantum field theories in two spacetime dimensions, which is the analog of the cosmological…
We construct a family of measures for random fields based on the iterated subdivision of simple geometric shapes (triangles, squares, tetrahedrons) into a finite number of similar shapes. The intent is to construct continuum limits of scale…
An approximately scale invariant spectrum generating the seeds of structure formation is derived from a bimetric gravity theory. By requiring that the amplitude of the CMB fluctuations from the model matches the observed value, we determine…