Related papers: The local potential approximation in the backgroun…
Using the background field method and the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism, we prove a key theorem on the cohomology of perturbatively local functionals of arbitrary ghost numbers, in renormalizable and nonrenormalizable quantum field theories…
Within the context of the functional renormalization group flow of gravity, we suggest that a generic f(R) ansatz (i.e. not truncated to any specific form, polynomial or not) for the effective action plays a role analogous to the local…
In this thesis we investigate various fundamental aspects of asymptotically safe quantum gravity, in particular the compatibility of Asymptotic Safety with the requirements for background independence and unitarity. The first part contains…
One of the many conceptual difficulties in the development of quantum gravity is the role of a background geometry for the structure of quantum field theory. To some extent the problem can be solved by the principle of local covariance. The…
In this paper we consider 1-D non-local field theories with a particular $1/r^2$ interaction, a constant gauge field and an arbitrary scalar potential. We show that any such theory that is at a renormalization group fixed point also…
Large-scale eigenvalue problems arise in various fields of science and engineering and demand computationally efficient solutions. In this study, we investigate the subspace approximation for parametric linear eigenvalue problems, aiming to…
We study non-linear sigma models on target manifolds with constant (positive or negative) curvature using the functional renormalization group and the background field method. We pay particular attention to the splitting Ward identities…
We introduce a new background field method for N=2 superspace. (We treat projective hyperspace, but similar remarks apply for the harmonic case.) In analogy to N=1, background gauge fields are in the real representation, so the…
We consider a nonlocal theory of a scalar massive field in a flat spacetime background in the presence of an external potential and construct WKB solutions for this theory. We use a model in which the kinetic part of the scalar field action…
We study an $f(R)$ approximation to asymptotic safety, using a family of non-adaptive cutoffs, kept general to test for universality. Matching solutions on the four-dimensional sphere and hyperboloid, we prove properties of any such global…
We analyze the Hamilton-Jacobi action of gravity and matter in the limit where gravity is treated at the background field approximation. The motivation is to clarify when and how the solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation lead to the…
In single-metric approximations to the exact renormalization group (RG) for quantum gravity, it has been not been clear how to treat the large curvature domain beyond the point where the effective cutoff scale $k$ is less than the lowest…
The $\mathcal{O}(\partial^2)$ background independent flow equations for conformally reduced gravity are shown to be equivalent to flow equations naturally adapted to scalar field theory with a wrong sign kinetic term. This sign change is…
Application of the background-field method yields a gauge-invariant effective action for the electroweak Standard Model, from which simple QED-like Ward identities are derived. As a consequence of these Ward identities, the background-field…
We study the application of the background field method in the framework of the exact renormalization group (ERG). By considering the case of a scalar field theory, we provide a detailed discussion of the properties satisfied by a…
Finite dimensional truncations and the single field approximation have thus far played dominant roles in investigations of asymptotic safety for quantum gravity. This thesis is devoted to exploring asymptotic safety in infinite dimensional,…
This thesis is devoted to exploring various fundamental issues within asymptotic safety. Firstly, we study the reconstruction problem and present two ways in which to solve it within the context of scalar field theory, by utilising a…
We consider the quantization of matter fields in a background described by the teleparallel equivalent to general relativity. The presence of local Lorentz and gauge symmetries gives rise to different coupling prescriptions, which we…
Relativistic scalar fields are ubiquitous in modified theories of gravity. An important tool in understanding their impact on structure formation, especially in the context of N-body simulations, is the quasi-static approximation in which…
The auxiliary field method is a technique to obtain approximate closed formulae for the solutions of both nonrelativistic and semirelativistic eigenequations in quantum mechanics. For a many-body Hamiltonian describing identical particles,…