Related papers: Quantum fields and the cosmological constant
Quantum creation of Universes with compact spacelike sections that have curvature $k$ either closed, flat or open, i.e. $k=\pm1,0$ are studied. In the flat and open cases, the superpotential of the Wheeler De Witt equation is significantly…
It is assumed that, for weak spacetime curvature, the main gravitational effect of the quantum vacuum stress-energy corresponds to adding two terms to the Einstein-Hilbert action, proportional to the square of the curvature scalar and to…
We prove the existence of a spectral resolution of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation when the matter field is provided by a Yang-Mills field, with or without mass term, if the spatial geometry of the underlying spacetime is homothetic to $\R[3]$.…
Some long standing issues concerning the quantum nature of the big bang are resolved in the context of homogeneous isotropic models with a scalar field. Specifically, the known results on the resolution of the big bang singularity in loop…
The cosmological evolution of free massless vector or tensor (but not gauge) fields minimally coupled to gravity is analyzed. It is shown that there are some unstable solutions for these fields in De Sitter background. The back reaction of…
In many cases a massive nonlinear scalar field can lead to accelerated expansion in cosmological models. This paper contains mathematical results on this subject for flat Robertson-Walker space-time. Global existence to the coupled…
We argue that, when a theory of gravity and matter is endowed with (classical) conformal symmetry, the fine tuning required to obtain the cosmological constant at its observed value can be significantly reduced. Once tuned, the cosmological…
We consider an effective field theory description of gravity coupled to a scalar field with volume-preserving diffeomorphism and Weyl invariances. The smallness of the cosmological constant is achieved when the potential of the scalar is…
We discuss the hypothesis of a fixed point for quantum gravity coupled to a scalar, in the limit where the scalar field goes to infinity, accompanied by a suitable scaling of the metric. We propose that no scalar potential is present for…
It is shown that flat spacetime can be dressed with a real scalar field that satisfies the nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation without curving spacetime. Surprisingly, this possibility arises from the nonminimal coupling of the scalar field…
A fundamental length is introduced into physics in a way which respects the principles of relativity and quantum field theory. This improves the properties of quantum field theory: divergences are removed. How to quantize gravity is also…
Trace-free Einstein gravity, in the absence of matter fields and using the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) metric, is solvable both classically and quantum mechanically. This is achieved by using the conformal time as the time variable and…
The Cosmological Constant Problem is re-examined from an effective field theory perspective. While the connection between gravity and particle physics has not been experimentally probed in the quantum regime, it is severely constrained by…
A quantum field theory formalism is reviewed that leads to a self-consistent, finite quantum gravity, Yang-Mills and Higgs theory, which is unitary and gauge invariant to all orders of perturbation theory. The gauge hierarchy problem is…
We revisit the classical and quantum cosmology of a universe in which a self interacting scalar field is coupled to gravity with a flat FRW type metric undergoing continuous signature transition. We arrange for quantum cosmologically…
We apply a novel background independent regularization scheme, the $N$-cutoffs, to self-consistently quantize scalar and metric fluctuations on the maximally symmetric but non-compact hyperbolic space. For quantum matter fields on a…
By adding generalizations involving translations, the machinery of the quantum theory of free fields leads to the semiclassical equations of motion for a charged massive particle in electromagnetic and gravitational fields. With the…
The subject of this thesis is the coupling of quantum fields to a classical gravitational background in a semiclassical fashion. It contains a thorough introduction into quantum field theory on curved spacetime with a focus on the…
The $q$-theory approach to the cosmological constant problem is reconsidered. The new observation is that the effective classical $q$-theory gets modified due to the backreaction of quantum-mechanical particle production by spacetime…
If the gravitational field is quantized, then a solution of Einstein's field equations is a valid cosmological model only if it corresponds to a classical limit of a quantum cosmology. To determine which solutions are valid requires looking…