Related papers: Unitarity issues in higher derivative field theori…
We study the particle content of higher derivative theories of gravity built with contractions of the Riemann tensor and its covariant derivatives. In the absence of the latter, there is a family of theories exhibiting an Einsteinian…
Conformal symmetry always played an important role in field theory (both quantum and classical) and in gravity. We present construction of quantum conformal gravity and discuss its features regarding scattering amplitudes and quantum…
A pedagogical introduction to some of the main ideas and results of field theories on quantized spacetimes is presented, with emphasis on what such field theories may teach us about the problem of quantizing gravity. We examine to what…
The formation of singularities in certain situations, such as the collapse of massive stars, is one of the unresolved issues in classical general relativity. Although no complete theory of quantum gravity exists it is often suggested that…
An overview is given of the way in which the unification program of particle physics has evolved into the proposal of superstring theory as a prime candidate for unifying quantum gravity with the other forces and particles of nature. A key…
Quantum gravity is likely the deepest problem facing current physics. While traditionally associated with short distance nonrenormalizability, it is evident that the long distance problem of unitarity, arising at high energies with black…
Quantum field theory in curved space-times is a well developed area in mathematical physics which has had important phenomenological applications to the very early universe. However, it is not commonly appreciated that on time dependent…
It is rather well-known that spacetime singularities are not covariant under field redefinitions. A manifestly covariant approach to singularities in classical gravity was proposed in arXiv:2008.09387. In this paper, we start to extend this…
The objective of this thesis is to present a viable extension of general relativity free from cosmological singularities. A viable cosmology, in this sense, is one that is free from ghosts, tachyons or exotic matter, while staying true to…
The unitarity of a Lorentz-invariance violating QED model with higher-order Myers and Pospelov photons coupled to standard fermions is studied. As expected, we find ghost states associated to the higher-order terms that may lead to the loss…
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 is not unitary because of the…
Theories which contain ghost fields are considered to be invalid. It is assumed that for such theories the energy is unbounded from below, and the theory will be unstable, allowing the creation of particle pairs with arbitrarily large…
The fact that quantum theory is non-differentiable, while general relativity is built on the assumption of differentiability sources an incompatibility between quantum theory and gravity. Higher order geometry addresses this issue directly…
Typically higher-derivative theories are unstable. Instabilities manifest themselves from extra propagating degrees of freedom, which are unphysical. In this paper, we will investigate an infinite derivative field theory and study its true…
The cosmological constant problem and the compatibility of gravity with quantum mechanics are the two most pressing problems in all of gravitational theory. While string theory nicely addresses the latter, it has so far failed to provide…
Ghost fields in quantum field theory have been a long-standing problem. Specifically, theories with higher derivatives involve ghosts that appear in the Hamiltonian in the form of linear momenta term, which is commonly known as the…
The unitarity condition for scattering amplitudes in a non-anticommutative quantum field theory is investigated. The Cutkosky rules are shown to hold for Feynman diagrams in Euclidean momentum space and unitarity of amplitudes can be…
Present day physics rests on two main pillars: General relativity and quantum field theory. We discuss the deep and at the same time problematic interplay between these two theories. Based on an argument by Doplicher, Fredenhagen, and…
We define a three-dimensional quantum theory of gravity as the holographic dual of the Liouville conformal field theory. The theory is consistent and unitary by definition. The corresponding theory of gravity with negative cosmological…
Unimodular gravity is classically equivalent to standard Einstein gravity, but differs when it comes to the quantum theory: The conformal factor is non-dynamical, and the gauge symmetry consists of transverse diffeomorphisms only.…