Related papers: Torsional instanton effects in quantum gravity
We compute, from first principles, the quantum fluctuations about instanton saddle points of the Euclidean path integral for Einstein gravity coupled to a scalar field. The Euclidean two-point correlator is analytically continued into the…
Non-abelian gauge theories can be cast into abelian gauge theories with monopoles. We ask what becomes of the instantons after abelian projection. Instantons are found to consist of closed dyon loops. It is shown that the electric charge of…
We discuss quantum gravitational effects in Einstein theory coupled to periodic axion scalars to analyze the viability of several proposals to achieve superplanckian axion periods (aka decay constants) and their possible application to…
It is widely believed and in part established that exact global symmetries are inconsistent with quantum gravity. One then expects that approximate global symmetries can be quantitatively constrained by quantum gravity or swampland…
I develop a formalism for solving topological field theories explicitly, in the case when the explicit expression of the instantons is known. I solve topological Yang-Mills theory with the $k=1$ Belavin {\sl et al.} instanton and…
The Nieh-Yan modified teleparallel gravity is a model which modifies the general relativity equivalent teleparallel gravity by a coupling between the Nieh-Yan density and an axion-like field. This model predicts parity violations in the…
Non-perturbative effects of instanton-like solutions are studied within the framework of supergravity theories with field-dependent gauge functions. Fermionic zero modes are constructed and some typical correlation functions are evaluated.…
In a spacetime with nonvanishing torsion there can occur topologically stable configurations associated with the frame bundle which are independent of the curvature. The relevant topological invariants are integrals of local scalar…
We investigate physical implications of a gravitational analog of axion electrodynamics with a parity-violating gravitoelectromagnetic theta term. This is related to the Nieh-Yan topological invariant in gravity with torsion, in contrast to…
We perform a first principles computation of the spectrum of gravity waves produced in open inflationary universes. The background spacetime is taken to be the continuation of an instanton saddle point of the Euclidean no boundary path…
We classify finite energy harmonic 2-forms on the asymptotically flat gravitational instanton constructed by Chen and Teo. We prove that every $U(1)$-bundle admits a unique anti-self-dual Yang-Mills instanton (up to gauge equivalence) which…
I review several aspects of torsion in string-inspired cosmologies. In particular, I discuss its connection with fundamental, string-model independent, axion fields associated with the massless gravitational multiplet of the string. I argue…
It is known that Yang-Mills theories, especially in the large-$N$ limit, exhibit a $\theta$-vacuum structure with a multi-branched vacuum energy. In this work, we demonstrate that this multi-branch structure can play a crucial role in axion…
The results obtained by Seiberg and Witten for the low-energy Wilsonian effective actions of N=2 supersymmetric theories with gauge group SU(2) are in agreement with instanton computations carried out for winding numbers one and two. This…
We extend the notion of the Nieh-Yan invariant to generic metric-affine geometries, where both torsion and nonmetricity are taken into account. Notably, we show that the properties of projective invariance and topologicity can be…
Gravity can arise in a conventional non-Abelian gauge theory in which a specific phenomenon takes place. Suppose there is a condensation of polarized instantons and antiinstantons in the vacuum state. Then the excitations of the gauge field…
A broad class of higher dimensional instanton solutions are found for a theory which contains gravity, a scalar field and antisymmetric tensor fields of arbitrary rank. The metric used, a warp product of an arbitrary number of any compact…
Nontrivial topological structures of non-Abelian gauge fields were discovered in the 1970's. Instanton solutions, describing vacuum tunneling through topological barriers, have fermionic zero modes which are at the origin of $^\prime$t…
We investigate the role of gauge and gravitational instantons in the context of the Swampland program. Our focus is on the global symmetry breaking they induce, especially in the presence of fermions. We first recall and make more precise…
In this work, we critically reanalyze the explicit breaking of the Peccei-Quinn global symmetry -- and the corresponding corrections to the QCD axion potential -- induced by gravity. Specifically, we examine the role of gravitational…