Related papers: Secularly growing loop corrections in scalar wave …
We work in the locally de Sitter background of an inflating universe and consider a massless, minimally coupled scalar with a quartic self-interaction. We use dimensional regularization to compute the fully renormalized scalar…
We investigate the phase-space of a flat FRW universe including both a scalar field, $\phi,$ coupled to matter, and radiation. The model is inspired in scalar-tensor theories of gravity, and thus, related with $F(R)$ theories through…
Reflection of an obliquely incident solitary wave onto a vertical wall is studied analytically and experimentally. We use the Kadomtsev-Petviashivili (KP) equation to analyze the evolution and its asymptotic state. Laboratory experiments…
False vacuum decay in field theory may be formulated as a boundary value problem in Euclidean space. In a previous work, we studied its solution in single scalar field theories with quadratic gravity and used it to find obstructions to…
Free massless scalars have a shift symmetry. This is usually broken by gauge and Yukawa interactions, such that quantum corrections induce a quadratically divergent mass term. In the Standard Model this leads to the hierarchy problem of the…
We consider a scalar charge travelling in a curved background spacetime. We calculate the quasi-local contribution to the scalar self-force experienced by such a particle following a geodesic in a general spacetime. We also show that if we…
We study a rapidly-oscillating scalar field with potential $V(\phi) = k|\phi|^n$ nonminally coupled to the Ricci scalar $R$ via a term of the form $(1- 8 \pi G_0 \xi \phi^2) R$ in the action. In the weak coupling limit, we calculate the…
Recently it was shown that the scaling dimension of the operator $\phi^n$ in $\lambda(\bar\phi\phi)^2$ theory may be computed semiclassically at the Wilson-Fisher fixed point in $d=4-\epsilon$, for generic values of $\lambda n$, and this…
The behaviour of a massive, non-interacting and non-minimally coupled quantised scalar field in an expanding de Sitter background is investigated by solving the field evolution for an arbitrary initial state. In this approach there is no…
Discontinuities in non linear field theories propagate through null geodesics in an effective metric that depends on its dynamics and on the background geometry. Once information of the geometry of the universe comes mostly from photons,…
We study late-time acceleration scenarios using a quintessence field initially trapped in a metastable false vacuum state. The false vacuum has non-zero vacuum energy and could drive exponential expansion if not coupled with gravity. Upon…
The DeWitt-Schwinger proper time point-splitting procedure is applied to a massive complex scalar field with arbitrary curvature coupling interacting with a classical electromagnetic field in a general curved spacetime. The scalar field…
We show the equivalence between Fujikawa's method for calculating the scale anomaly and the diagrammatic approach to calculating the effective potential via the background field method, for an $O(N)$ symmetric scalar field theory.…
Kucha{\v{r}} showed that the quantum dynamics of (1 polarization) cylindrical wave solutions to vacuum general relativity is determined by that of a free axially-symmetric scalar field along arbitrary axially-symmetric foliations of a fixed…
We analyse warping corrections to the scalar potential in flux compactifications of Type IIB string theory, focusing on their effect on $F$-term de Sitter uplifting in Calabi-Yau orientifold models. A systematic inverse-volume expansion…
The Coleman-Weinberg mechanism provides a procedure by which a scalar field, which initially has no mass parameters, acquires a mass due to the anomalous nature of scale symmetry. Loop corrections trigger a spontaneous symmetry breaking and…
The classical gravitational theory of a scalar field with a gradient coupling to the Ricci tensor is examined. This is a scalar-vector-tensor gravitational theory, but in the case that the coupling is weak and the scalar evolves like a…
The limitations of three-dimensional semi-classical gravity are explored in the context of a conformally invariant theory for a self-interacting scalar field. The analysis of the theory's scaling behaviour reveals that scalar-loop effects…
To establish metastable de Sitter vacua or even just scale-separated AdS, control over perturbative corrections to the string-derived leading-order 4d lagrangian is crucial. Such corrections can be classified in three types: First, there…
Small-scale scalar perturbations amplified during inflation can induce primordial gravitational waves through tensor-scalar interactions. A long-standing controversial issue is whether the one-loop corrections to tensor perturbations exist…