Related papers: Gravity, Superselection Rules and Axions
Quantum General Relativity (QGR), sometimes called Loop Quantum Gravity, has matured over the past fifteen years to a mathematically rigorous candidate quantum field theory of the gravitational field. The features that distinguish it from…
We construct and study a fundamental field theory of the QCD axion: all couplings flow to zero in the infinite-energy limit realizing the totally asymptotically free (TAF) scenario. Some observable quantities (such as the masses of new…
We present in detail a four-dimensional unified quantum theory. In this theory, we identify three class of parameters, coordinate-momentum, spin and gauge, as all and as the only fundamental parameters to describe quantum fields. The…
Quantum gravity places important consistency conditions on low-energy effective field theory, such as the absence of global symmetries. These may have important consequences in the search for particle physics beyond the Standard Model. We…
Fully covariant wave equations predict the existence of a class of inertial-gravitational effects that can be tested experimentally. In these equations inertia and gravity appear as external classical fields, but, by conforming to general…
In this short note we clarify some aspects of the impact that the Weak Gravity Conjecture has on models of (generalized) natural inflation. We address in particular certain technical and conceptual concerns recently raised regarding the…
The topological aspects of Einstein gravity suggest that topological invariance could be a more profound principle in understanding quantum gravity. In this work, we explore a topological supergravity action that initially describes a…
Complex scalar fields charged under approximate $U(1)$ symmetries appear in well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model. One example is the field that contains the QCD axion field associated with the Peccei-Quinn symmetry; others…
Global symmetries are expected to be violated by gravity, which may cause a serious problem to models based on these symmetries. A famous example is the Peccei-Quinn solution to the strong CP problem in QCD axion models; it requires a…
We consider three dimensional gravity with a positive cosmological constant and non- zero gravitational Chern-Simons term. This theory has inflating de Sitter solutions and local metric degrees of freedom. The Euclidean signature partition…
It is shown that the classical field equations pertaining to gravity coupled to other bosonic fields are equivalent to a single geodesic equation, describing the free fall of a point particle in superspace. Some implications for quantum…
Recent studies have claimed that the strong $CP$ problem does not occur in QCD, proposing a new order of limits in volume and topological sectors when studying observables on the lattice. In order to shed light on this issue, we study the…
We propose quantum gravitational constraints on effective four-dimensional theories with N=1 supersymmetry. These Swampland constraints arise by demanding consistency of the worldsheet theory of a class of axionic, or EFT, strings whose…
We demonstrate that the observed cosmological excess of matter over antimatter may originate from a heavy QCD axion that solves the strong CP problem but has a mass much larger than that given by the Standard Model QCD strong dynamics. We…
We show that charged Eguchi-Hanson instantons provide a concrete and calculable new source of intrinsic Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking by quantum gravity. The size of this breaking is shown to depend sensitively on the short distance…
It is argued that quantum gravity has an interpretation as a topological field theory provided a certain constraint from the path intergral measure is respected. The constraint forces us to couple gauge and matter fields to gravity for…
It is an old speculation in physics that, once the gravitational field is successfully quantized, it should serve as the natural regulator of infrared and ultraviolet singularities that plague quantum field theories in a background metric.…
We describe paths in the configuration space of (3+1) dimensional QED whose relative quantum phase (or relative phase in the functional integral) depends on the value of the theta angle. The final configurations on the two paths are related…
Loop quantum gravity, a non-perturbative and manifestly background free, quantum theory of gravity implies that at the kinematical level the spatial geometry is discrete in a specific sense. The spirit of background independence also…
We study field theoretical models for cosmic strings with flat directions in curved space-time. More precisely, we consider minimal models with semilocal, axionic and tachyonic strings, respectively. In flat space-time, the string solutions…