scholarly journals Graviton-mediated scattering amplitudes from the quantum effective action

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Draper ◽  
Benjamin Knorr ◽  
Chris Ripken ◽  
Frank Saueressig

Abstract We employ the curvature expansion of the quantum effective action for gravity-matter systems to construct graviton-mediated scattering amplitudes for non-minimally coupled scalar fields in a Minkowski background. By design, the formalism parameterises all quantum corrections to these processes and is manifestly gauge-invariant. The conditions resulting from UV-finiteness, unitarity, and causality are analysed in detail and it is shown by explicit construction that the quantum effective action provides sufficient room to meet these structural requirements without introducing non-localities or higher-spin degrees of freedom. Our framework provides a bottom-up approach to all quantum gravity programs seeking for the quantisation of gravity within the framework of quantum field theory. Its scope is illustrated by specific examples, including effective field theory, Stelle gravity, infinite derivative gravity, and Asymptotic Safety.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Alonso-Álvarez ◽  
Fatih Ertas ◽  
Joerg Jaeckel ◽  
Felix Kahlhoefer ◽  
Lennert J. Thormaehlen

Abstract The axion is much lighter than all other degrees of freedom introduced by the Peccei-Quinn mechanism to solve the strong CP problem. It is therefore natural to use an effective field theory (EFT) to describe its interactions. Loop processes calculated in the EFT may however explicitly depend on the ultraviolet cutoff. In general, the UV cutoff is not uniquely defined, but the dimensionful couplings suggest to identify it with the Peccei-Quinn symmetry-breaking scale. An example are K+ → π+ + a decays that will soon be tested to improved precision in NA62 and KOTO and whose amplitude is dominated by the term logarithmically dependent on the cutoff. In this paper, we critically examine the adequacy of using such a naive EFT approach to study loop processes by comparing EFT calculations with ones performed in complete QCD axion models. In DFSZ models, for example, the cutoff is found to be set by additional Higgs degrees of freedom and to therefore be much closer to the electroweak scale than to the Peccei-Quinn scale. In fact, there are non-trivial requirements on axion models where the cutoff scale of loop processes is close to the Peccei-Quinn scale, such that the naive EFT result is reproduced. This suggests that the existence of a suitable UV embedding may impose restrictions on axion EFTs. We provide an explicit construction of a model with suitable fermion couplings and find promising prospects for NA62 and IAXO.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Liao ◽  
Xiao-Dong Ma

Abstract We investigate systematically dimension-9 operators in the standard model effective field theory which contains only standard model fields and respects its gauge symmetry. With the help of the Hilbert series approach to classifying operators according to their lepton and baryon numbers and their field contents, we construct the basis of operators explicitly. We remove redundant operators by employing various kinematic and algebraic relations including integration by parts, equations of motion, Schouten identities, Dirac matrix and Fierz identities, and Bianchi identities. We confirm counting of independent operators by analyzing their flavor symmetry relations. All operators violate lepton or baryon number or both, and are thus non-Hermitian. Including Hermitian conjugated operators there are $$ {\left.384\right|}_{\Delta B=0}^{\Delta L=\pm 2}+{\left.10\right|}_{\Delta B=\pm 2}^{\Delta L=0}+{\left.4\right|}_{\Delta B=\pm 1}^{\Delta L=\pm 3}+{\left.236\right|}_{\Delta B=\pm 1}^{\Delta L=\mp 1} $$ 384 Δ B = 0 Δ L = ± 2 + 10 Δ B = ± 2 Δ L = 0 + 4 Δ B = ± 1 Δ L = ± 3 + 236 Δ B = ± 1 Δ L = ∓ 1 operators without referring to fermion generations, and $$ {\left.44874\right|}_{\Delta B=0}^{\Delta L=\pm 2}+{\left.2862\right|}_{\Delta B=\pm 2}^{\Delta L=0}+{\left.486\right|}_{\Delta B=\pm 1}^{\Delta L=\pm 3}+{\left.42234\right|}_{\Delta B=\mp 1}^{\Delta L=\pm 1} $$ 44874 Δ B = 0 Δ L = ± 2 + 2862 Δ B = ± 2 Δ L = 0 + 486 Δ B = ± 1 Δ L = ± 3 + 42234 Δ B = ∓ 1 Δ L = ± 1 operators when three generations of fermions are referred to, where ∆L, ∆B denote the net lepton and baryon numbers of the operators. Our result provides a starting point for consistent phenomenological studies associated with dimension-9 operators.


Universe ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (11) ◽  
pp. 125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesław Rachwał

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 effective action. First, the long and complicated story of UV-divergences is recalled. With the development of UV-finite higher derivative (or non-local) gravitational theory, all problems with infinities and spacetime singularities might be completely solved. Moreover, the non-local quantum conformal theory reveals itself to be ghost-free, so the unitarity of the theory should be safe. After the construction of UV-finite theory, we focused on making it manifestly conformally invariant using the dilaton trick. We also argue that in this class of theories conformal anomaly can be taken to vanish by fine-tuning the couplings. As applications of this theory, the constraints of the conformal symmetry on the form of the effective action and on the scattering amplitudes are shown. We also remark about the preservation of the unitarity bound for scattering. Finally, the old model of conformal supergravity by Fradkin and Tseytlin is briefly presented.


Author(s):  
Jean Zinn-Justin

Chapter 7 is devoted to a discussion of the renormalization group (RG) flow when the effective field theory that describes universal properties of critical phenomena depends on several coupling constants. The universal properties of a large class of macroscopic phase transitions with short range interactions can be described by statistical field theories involving scalar fields with quartic interactions. The simplest critical systems have an O(N) orthogonal symmetry and, therefore, the corresponding field theory has only one quartic interaction. However, in more general physical systems, the flow of quartic interactions is more complicated. This chapter examines these systems from the RG viewpoint. RG beta functions are shown to generate a gradient flow. Some examples illustrate the notion of emergent symmetry. The local stability of fixed points is related to the value of the scaling field dimension.


2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (11n13) ◽  
pp. 921-930
Author(s):  
HERMANN KREBS

Using chiral effective field theory (EFT) with explicit Δ degrees of freedom we calculated nuclear forces up to next-to-next-to-leading order (N2LO). We find a much improved convergence of the chiral expansion in all peripheral partial waves. We also present a novel lattice EFT method developed for systems with larger number of nucleons. Combining Monte Carlo lattice simulations with EFT allows one to calculate the properties of light nuclei, neutron and nuclear matter. Accurate description of two-nucleon phase-shifts and ground state energy ratio of dilute neutron matter up to corrections of higher orders show that lattice EFT is a promising tool for quantitative studies of low-energy few- and many-body systems.


1993 ◽  
Vol 08 (02) ◽  
pp. 277-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. LUTZ ◽  
J. PRASCHIFKA

We consider a general (nonlocal) four-fermion quantum field theory and show how the Cornwall-Jackiw-Tomboulis effective action can be systematically expanded in the number, η, of composite, bose loops. This is achieved by the introduction of auxiliary, bilocal fields which describe fermion-fermion and fermion-antifermion correlations. The η expansion can be understood as a generalization of the [Formula: see text] expansion and is of particular interest in quark models, for example, where the bilocal fields can be identified with meson and diquark degrees of freedom. Comparison with the usual loop (ħ) expansion reveals some unusual characteristics of the η expansion and throws light on recent studies of diquark degrees of freedom in which the auxiliary field approach is used.


2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo de la Cruz ◽  
Andres Luna ◽  
Trevor Scheopner

Abstract We obtain a conservative Hamiltonian describing the interactions of two charged bodies in Yang-Mills through $$ \mathcal{O}\left({\alpha}^2\right) $$ O α 2 and to all orders in velocity. Our calculation extends a recently-introduced framework based on scattering amplitudes and effective field theory (EFT) to consider color-charged objects. These results are checked against the direct integration of the observables in the Kosower-Maybee-O’Connell (KMOC) formalism. At the order we consider we find that the linear and color impulses in a scattering event can be concisely described in terms of the eikonal phase, thus extending the domain of applicability of a formula originally proposed in the context of spinning particles.


Author(s):  
Nicolás Valdés-Meller

We argue that quantum gravity is nonlocal, first by recalling well-known arguments that support this idea and then by focusing on a point not usually emphasized: that making a conventional effective field theory (EFT) for quantum gravity is particularly difficult, and perhaps impossible in principle. This inability to realize an EFT comes down to the fact that gravity itself sets length scales for a problem: when integrating out degrees of freedom above some cutoff, the effective metric one uses will be different, which will itself re-define the cutoff. We also point out that even if the previous problem is fixed, naïvely applying EFT in gravity can lead to problems — we give a particular example in the case of black holes.


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