Related papers: Toward Quantum Gravity II: Quantum Tests
An open issue in loop quantum gravity (LQG) is the introduction of a non-vanishing cosmological constant $\Lambda$. In 3d, Chern-Simons theory provides some guiding lines: $\Lambda$ appears in the quantum deformation of the gauge group. The…
In these lectures I review the status of gravity from the point of view of the gauge principle and renormalization, the main tools in the toolbox of theoretical particle physics. In the first lecture I start from the old question "in what…
The principles of quantum field theory in flat spacetime suggest that gravity is mediated by a massless particle with helicity $\pm2$, the so-called graviton. It is regarded as textbook knowledge that, when the self-coupling of a particle…
In a toy model of gauge and gravitational interactions in $D \ge 4$ dimensions, endowed with an invariant UV cut-off $\Lambda$, and containing a large number $N$ of non-self-interacting matter species, the physical gauge and gravitational…
The AdS/CFT correspondence allows us to map a dynamical cosmology to a dual quantum field theory living on the boundary of spacetime. Specifically, we study a five-dimensional model cosmology in type IIB supergravity, where the dual theory…
We consider a Weyl-invariant formulation of gravity with a cosmological constant in d-dimensional spacetime and show that near two dimensions the classical action reduces to the timelike Liouville action. We show that the renormalized…
A new kind of gauge theory is introduced, where the minimal coupling and corresponding covariant derivatives are defined in the space of functions pertaining to the functional Schroedinger picture of a given field theory. While, for…
The worldvolume actions of 3+1 dimensional bosonic branes embedded in a five-dimensional bulk space can lead to important effective field theories, such as the DBI conformal Galileons, and may, when the Null Energy Condition is violated,…
By treating the vacuum as a medium, H. Euler and W. Heisenberg estimated the non-linear interactions between photons well before the advent of Quantum Electrodynamics. In a modern language, their result is often presented as the archetype…
We propose a solution to the longstanding cosmological constant (CC) problem which is based on the fusion of two existing concepts. The first is the suggestion that the proper description of classical gravitational effects is the gauge…
General relativity can be cast as a gauge theory by introducing a tetrad field and a spin-connection. This formalism was extended by replacing the tetrad field with a mixed tensor field independent of the metric tensor in order to develop a…
The non-abelian Einstein-Born-Infeld-Dilaton theory, which rules the dynamics of tensor-scalar gravitation coupled to a $su(2)$-valued gauge field ruled by Born-Infeld lagrangian, is studied in a cosmological framework. The microscopic…
This essay elucidates recent achievements of the "nongravitating vacuum energy" (NGVE) theory" which has the feature that a shift of the Lagrangian density by a constant does not affect dynamics. In the first order formalism, a constraint…
Poincar\'e gauge theory of gravity offers opportunities to solve some principal problems of general relativity theory and modern cosmology. In the frame of this theory the gravitational interaction can have the repulsion character in the…
Theories of gravity for which gravitons can be treated as massive particles have presently been studied as realistic modifications of General Relativity, and can be tested with cosmological observations. In this work, we study the ability…
Einstein gravity coupled to a massive skew symmetric field F_{\mu\nu\lambda} leads to an acceleration law that modifies the Newtonian law of attraction between particles. We use a framework of non-perturbative renormalization group…
The problem of time and the quantization of three dimensional gravity in the strong coupling regime is studied following path integral methods. The time is identified with the volume of spacetime. We show that the effective action describes…
The discovery of a Higgs boson at the electroweak scale appears to point toward supersymmetry, as the most likely mechanism for protecting a scalar boson mass from enormous radiative corrections. The earlier discovery of neutrino masses…
Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) is an attempt to describe the quantum gravity regime. Introducing a non-zero cosmological constant $\Lambda$ in this context has been a withstanding problem. Other approaches, such as Chern-Simons gravity, suggest…
In previous work it has been shown that the electromagnetic quantum vacuum, or electromagnetic zero-point field, makes a contribution to the inertial reaction force on an accelerated object. We show that the result for inertial mass can be…