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We extensively study the ultraviolet quantum properties of a nonlocal action for gravity nonminimally coupled to matter. The theory unifies matter and gravity in an action principle such that all the classical solutions of Einstein's theory…
Weyl invariant theories of scalars and gravity can generate all mass scales spontaneously, initiated by a dynamical process of "inertial spontaneous symmetry breaking" that does not involve a potential. This is dictated by the structure of…
The renormalization-group improved effective potential ---to leading-log and in the linear curvature approximation--- is constructed for ``finite'' theories in curved spacetime. It is not trivial and displays a quite interesting,…
When a globally supersymmetric theory is scale invariant, it must possess a Virial supercurrent supermultiplet. The multiplet structure is analogous to the R-current supermultiplet in globally R-symmetric theories but we put extra "$i$"s in…
We investigate some classical and quantum aspects of a general class of higher derivative theories of gravity. We propose a generalized version of the so-called Teyssandier gauge condition and we investigative its implications on the…
We revisit the holographic renormalization group (RG) setting in which a 4-dimensional ($4d$) quantum field theory at a finite cutoff corresponds to/is described by the Einstein gravity on a part of AdS$_{5}$ space, cutoff at a finite…
Principles are central to physical reasoning, particularly in the search for a theory of quantum gravity (QG), where novel empirical data is lacking. One principle widely adopted in the search for QG is UV completion: the idea that a theory…
It is a well known result that any formulation of unimodular gravity is classically equivalent to General Relativity (GR), however a debate exists in the literature about this equivalence at the quantum level. In this work, we investigate…
We propose a class of multidimensional higher derivative theories of gravity without extra real degrees of freedom besides the graviton field. The propagator shows up the usual real graviton pole and extra complex conjugates poles that do…
The Wilsonian renormalization group (RG) properties of the conformal factor of the metric are profoundly altered by the fact that it has a wrong-sign kinetic term. The result is a novel perturbative continuum limit for quantum gravity,…
We discuss the conditions under which classically conformally invariant models in four dimensions can arise out of non-conformal (Einstein) gravity. As an `existence proof' that this is indeed possible we show how to derive N=4 super Yang…
We study an $O(N)$ scalar multiplet nonminimally coupled to gravity and follow its renormalization-group (RG) flow in the vicinity of an interacting, nonperturbatively UV-complete scaling regime of scalar-tensor theory. In the broken phase,…
We propose a novel theory of gravity that by construction is renormalizable, evades Ostragadsky's no-go theorem, is locally scale-invariant in the high-energy limit, and equivalent to general relativity in the low-energy limit. The theory…
We derive the scalar potential of the effective theory of type IIB orientifold with 3-form fluxes turned on in presence of non abelian brane coordinates. N=4 supergravity predicts a positive semidefinite potential with vanishing…
We generalize the scale invariant gravity by allowing a negative kinetic energy term for the classical scalar field. This gives birth to a new scalar-tensor theory of gravity, in which the scalar field is in fact an auxiliary field. For a…
We propose fundamental scale invariance as a new theoretical principle beyond renormalizability. Quantum field theories with fundamental scale invariance admit a scale-free formulation of the functional integral and effective action in…
Work by the Zurich school of causal (Epstein-Glaser) renormalization has shown that renormalizability in the presence of massless or massive gauge fields (as primary entities) explains gauge invariance and, in some instances, the presence…
We construct a duality manifest gravitational theory for the special linear group, ${\mathbf{SL}(N)}$ with $N{\neq 4}$. The spacetime is formally extended, to have the dimension $\textstyle{\frac{1}{2}} N(N-1)$, yet is `gauged'.…
In this paper we study perturbatively an extension of the Stelle higher derivative gravity involving an infinite number of derivative terms. We know that the usual quadratic action is renormalizable but suffers of the unitarity problem…
In this paper, we prove a new non-renormalization theorem which arises from UV/IR mixing. This theorem and its corollaries are relevant for all four-dimensional tachyon-free closed string theories which can be realized from…