Course

19S1 D. Anselmi
Theories of gravitation

Program

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Book

D. Anselmi
From Physics To Life

A journey to the infinitesimally small and back

In English and Italian

Available on Amazon:
US: book | ebook  (in EN)
IT: book | ebook  (in IT)




Recent Papers




Recent papers and theorems

24A1 Damiano Anselmi
Cosmological inhomogeneities, primordial black holes, and a hypothesis on the death of the universe

We study the impact of the expansion of the universe on a broad class of objects, including black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, and others. Using metrics that incorporate primordial inhomogeneities, the effects of a hypothetical "center of the universe" on inflation are calculated. Dynamic coordinates for black holes that ... [more]

23A3 Damiano Anselmi
Gauge theories and quantum gravity in a finite interval of time, on a compact space manifold

We study gauge theories and quantum gravity in a finite interval of time $ \tau $, on a compact space manifold $\Omega $. The initial, final and boundary conditions are formulated in gauge invariant and general covariant ways by means of purely virtual extensions of the theories, which allow us ... [more]

23A2 Damiano Anselmi
Propagators and widths of physical and purely virtual particles in a finite interval of time

We study the free and dressed propagators of physical and purely virtual particles in a finite interval of time $τ$ and on a compact space manifold $Ω$, using coherent states. In the free-field limit, the propagators are described by the entire function $(e^{z}-1-z)/z^{2}$, whose shape on the real axis is ... [more]

23A1 Damiano Anselmi
Quantum field theory of physical and purely virtual particles in a finite interval of time on a compact space manifold: diagrams, amplitudes and unitarity

We provide a diagrammatic formulation of perturbative quantum field theory in a finite interval of time $τ$, on a compact space manifold $Ω$. We explain how to compute the evolution operator $U(t_{\text{f}},t_{\text{i}})$ between the initial time $t_{\text{i}}$ and the final time $t_{\text{f}}=t_{\text{i}}+τ$, study unitarity and renormalizability, and show how to ... [more]

22A5 Damiano Anselmi
A new quantization principle from a minimally non time-ordered product

We formulate a new quantization principle for perturbative quantum field theory, based on a minimally non time-ordered product, and show that it gives the theories of physical particles and purely virtual particles. Given a classical Lagrangian, the quantization proceeds as usual, guided by the time-ordered product, up to the common ... [more]

22A4 Damiano Anselmi
Purely virtual extension of quantum field theory for gauge invariant fields: quantum gravity

Quantum gravity is extended to include purely virtual "cloud sectors", which allow us to define a complete set of point-dependent observables, including a gauge invariant metric and gauge invariant matter fields, and calculate their off-shell correlation functions perturbatively. The ordinary on-shell correlation functions and the $S$ matrix elements are unaffected. ... [more]

22A3 Damiano Anselmi
Purely virtual extension of quantum field theory for gauge invariant fields: Yang-Mills theory

We extend quantum field theory by including purely virtual "cloud" sectors, to define physical off-shell correlation functions of gauge invariant quark and gluon fields, without affecting the $S$ matrix amplitudes. The extension is made of certain cloud bosons, plus their anticommuting partners. Both are quantized as purely virtual, to ensure ... [more]

22R2 Damiano Anselmi
A hope for particle physics – ERC Advanced Grant application (VIRTUAL)

The physics of fundamental interactions is going through a concerning, prolonged period of stagnation. The incredible success of the standard model of particle physics and the lack of new experimental data have frustrated our hopes in the future. On top of that, the scientific community shattered into a large number ... [more]

22R1 Damiano Anselmi
Purely virtual particles in quantum gravity, inflationary cosmology and collider physics

We review the concept of purely virtual particle and its uses in quantum gravity, primordial cosmology and collider physics. The fake particle, or “fakeon”, which mediates interactions without appearing among the incoming and outgoing states, can be introduced by means of a new diagrammatics. The renormalization coincides with one of ... [more]

22A2 Damiano Anselmi
Purely virtual particles versus Lee-Wick ghosts: physical Pauli-Villars fields, finite QED and quantum gravity

We reconsider the Lee-Wick (LW) models and compare their properties to the properties of the models that contain purely virtual particles. We argue against the LW premise that unstable particles can be removed from the sets of incoming and outgoing states in scattering processes. The removal leads to a non-Hermitian ... [more]

22A1 Damiano Anselmi
Dressed propagators, fakeon self-energy and peak uncertainty

We study the resummation of self-energy diagrams into dressed propagators in the case of purely virtual particles and compare the results with those obtained for physical particles and ghosts. The three geometric series differ by infinitely many contact terms, which do not admit well-defined sums. The peak region, which is ... [more]

21A5 Damiano Anselmi
Diagrammar of physical and fake particles and spectral optical theorem

We prove spectral optical identities in quantum field theories of physical particles (defined by the Feynman $i\epsilon $ prescription) and purely virtual particles (defined by the fakeon prescription). The identities are derived by means of purely algebraic operations and hold for every (multi)threshold separately and for arbitrary frequencies. Their major ... [more]

21A4 Damiano Anselmi, Kristjan Kannike, Carlo Marzo, Luca Marzola, Aurora Melis, Kristjan Müürsepp, Marco Piva and Martti Raidal
A fake doublet solution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment

Extensions to the Standard Model that use strictly off-shell degrees of freedom - the fakeons - allow for new measurable interactions at energy scales usually precluded by the constraints that target the on-shell propagation of new particles. Here we employ the interactions between a new fake scalar doublet and the ... [more]

21A3 Damiano Anselmi, Kristjan Kannike, Carlo Marzo, Luca Marzola, Aurora Melis, Kristjan Müürsepp, Marco Piva, Martti Raidal
Phenomenology of a Fake Inert Doublet Model

We introduce a new way of modeling the physics beyond the Standard Model by considering fake, strictly off-shell degrees of freedom: the fakeons. To demonstrate the approach and exemplify its reach, we re-analyze the phenomenology of the Inert Doublet Model under the assumption that the second doublet is a fakeon. ... [more]

21A2 Damiano Anselmi
Perturbation spectra and renormalization-group techniques in double-field inflation and quantum gravity cosmology

We study primordial cosmology with two scalar fields that participate in inflation at the same time, by coupling quantum gravity (i.e., the theory $R+R^2+C^2$ with the fakeon prescription/projection for $C^2$) to a scalar field with a quadratic potential. We show that there exists a perturbative regime that can be described by ... [more]

We study the impact of the expansion of the universe on a broad class of objects, including black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, and others. Using metrics that incorporate primordial inhomogeneities, the effects of a hypothetical “center of the universe” on inflation are calculated. Dynamic coordinates for black holes that account for expansions or contractions with arbitrary rates are provided. We consider the possibility that the universe may be bound to evolve into an ultimate state of “total dilution”, wherein stable particles are so widely separated that physical communication among them will be impossible for eternity. This is also a scenario of “cosmic virtuality”, as no wave-function collapse would occur again. We provide classical models evolving this way, based on the Majumdar-Papapetrou geometries. More realistic configurations, instead, indicate that gravitational forces locally counteract expansion, except in the universe’s early stages. We comment on whether quantum phenomena may dictate that total dilution is indeed the cosmos’ ultimate destiny.

PDF

arXiv: 2405.12050 [gr-qc]

hal-04580536

We study gauge theories and quantum gravity in a finite interval of time $ \tau $, on a compact space manifold $\Omega $. The initial, final and boundary conditions are formulated in gauge invariant and general covariant ways by means of purely virtual extensions of the theories, which allow us to “trivialize” the local symmetries and switch to invariant fields (the invariant metric tensor, invariant quark and gluon fields, etc.). The evolution operator $U(t_{\text{f}},t_{\text{i}})$ is worked out diagrammatically for arbitrary initial and final states, as well as boundary conditions on $\partial \Omega $, and shown to be well defined and unitary for arbitrary $\tau =t_{\text{f}}-t_{\text{i}}<\infty $. We illustrate the basic properties in Yang-Mills theory on the cylinder.

PDF

Phys. Rev. D 109 (2024) 025003 | DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.109.025003

arXiv: 2306.07333 [hep-th]

We study the free and dressed propagators of physical and purely virtual particles in a finite interval of time $τ$ and on a compact space manifold $Ω$, using coherent states. In the free-field limit, the propagators are described by the entire function $(e^{z}-1-z)/z^{2}$, whose shape on the real axis is similar to the one of a Breit-Wigner function, with an effective width around $1/τ$. The real part is positive, in agreement with unitarity, and remains so after including the radiative corrections, which shift the function into the physical half plane. We investigate the effects of the restriction to finite $τ$ on the problem of unstable particles vs resonances, and show that the muon observation emerges from the right physical process, differently from what happens at $τ=\infty $. We also study the case of purely virtual particles, and show that, if $τ$ is small enough, there exists a situation where the geometric series of the self-energies is always convergent. The plots of the dressed propagators show testable differences: while physical particles are characterized by the usual, single peak, purely virtual particles are characterized by twin peaks.

PDF

J. High Energ. Phys. 07 (2023) 99 | DOI: 10.1007/JHEP07(2023)099

arXiv: 2304.07643 [hep-ph]

We provide a diagrammatic formulation of perturbative quantum field theory in a finite interval of time $τ$, on a compact space manifold $Ω$. We explain how to compute the evolution operator $U(t_{\text{f}},t_{\text{i}})$ between the initial time $t_{\text{i}}$ and the final time $t_{\text{f}}=t_{\text{i}}+τ$, study unitarity and renormalizability, and show how to include purely virtual particles, by rendering some physical particles (and all the ghosts, if present) purely virtual. The details about the restriction to finite $τ$ and compact $Ω$ are moved away from the internal sectors of the diagrams (apart from the discretization of the three-momenta), and coded into external sources. So doing, the diagrams are as similar as possible to the usual $S$ matrix diagrams, and most known theorems extend straightforwardly. Unitarity is studied by means of the spectral optical identities, and the diagrammatic version of the identity $U^†(t_{\text{f}},t_{\text{i}})U(t_{\text{f}},t_{\text{i}})=1$. The dimensional regularization is extended to finite $τ$ and compact $Ω$, and used to prove, under general assumptions, that renormalizability holds whenever it holds at $τ=\infty $, $Ω=\mathbb{R}^{3}$. Purely virtual particles are introduced by removing the on-shell contributions of some physical particles, and the ghosts, from the core diagrams, and trivializing their initial and final conditions. The resulting evolution operator $U_{\text{ph}}(t_{\text{f}},t_{\text{i}})$ is unitary, but does not satisfy the more general identity $U_{\text{ph}}(t_{3},t_{2})U_{\text{ph}}(t_{2},t_{1})$ $=U_{\text{ph}}(t_{3},t_{1})$. As a consequence, $U_{\text{ph}}(t_{\text{f}},t_{\text{i}})$ cannot be derived from a Hamiltonian in a standard way, in the presence of purely virtual particles.

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J. High Energ. Phys. 07 (2023) 209 | DOI: 10.1007/JHEP07(2023)209

arXiv: 2304.07642 [hep-th]

We formulate a new quantization principle for perturbative quantum field theory, based on a minimally non time-ordered product, and show that it gives the theories of physical particles and purely virtual particles. Given a classical Lagrangian, the quantization proceeds as usual, guided by the time-ordered product, up to the common scattering matrix $S$, which satisfies a unitarity or a pseudounitarity equation. The physical scattering matrix $S_{\text{ph}}$ is built from $S$, by gluing $S$ diagrams together into new diagrams, through non time-ordered propagators. We classify the most general way to gain unitarity by means of such operations, and point out that a special solution “minimizes” the time-ordering violation. We show that the scattering matrix $S_{\text{ph}}$ given by this solution coincides with the one obtained by turning the would-be ghosts (and possibly some would-be physical particles) into purely virtual particles (fakeons). We study tricks to descend and ascend in a unique way among diagrams, and illustrate them in several examples: the ascending chain from the bubble to the hexagon, at one loop; the box with diagonal, at two loops; other diagrams, with more loops.

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J. High Energy Phys. 12 (2022) 088 | DOI: 10.1007/JHEP12(2022)088

arXiv: 2210.14240 [hep-th]

Quantum gravity is extended to include purely virtual “cloud sectors”, which allow us to define a complete set of point-dependent observables, including a gauge invariant metric and gauge invariant matter fields, and calculate their off-shell correlation functions perturbatively. The ordinary on-shell correlation functions and the $S$ matrix elements are unaffected. Each extra sector is made of a cloud field, its anticommuting partner, a “cloud-fixing” function and a cloud Faddeev-Popov determinant. The additional fields are purely virtual, to ensure that no ghosts propagate. The extension is unitary. In particular, the off-shell, diagrammatic version of the optical theorem holds. The one-loop two-point functions of dressed scalars, vectors and gravitons are calculated. Their absorptive parts are positive, cloud independent and gauge independent, while they are unphysical if non purely virtual clouds are used. We illustrate the differences between our approach to the problem of finding a complete set of observables in quantum gravity and other approaches available in the literature.

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Eur. Phys. J. C 83 (2023) 1066 | DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-023-12220-4

arXiv: 2207.12401 [hep-th]

We extend quantum field theory by including purely virtual “cloud” sectors, to define physical off-shell correlation functions of gauge invariant quark and gluon fields, without affecting the $S$ matrix amplitudes. The extension is made of certain cloud bosons, plus their anticommuting partners. Both are quantized as purely virtual, to ensure that they do not propagate ghosts. The extended theory is renormalizable and unitary. In particular, the off-shell, diagrammatic version of the optical theorem holds. We calculate the one-loop two-point functions of dressed quarks and gluons, and show that their absorptive parts are gauge independent, cloud independent and positive (while they are generically unphysical if the cloud sectors are not purely virtual). A gauge/cloud duality simplifies the computations and shows that the gauge choice is just a particular cloud. It is possible to dress every field insertion with a different cloud. We compare the purely virtual extension to previous approaches to similar problems.

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Eur. Phys. J. C 83 (2023) 544 | DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-023-11717-2

arXiv: 2207.11271 [hep-ph]

The physics of fundamental interactions is going through a concerning, prolonged period of stagnation. The incredible success of the standard model of particle physics and the lack of new experimental data have frustrated our hopes in the future. On top of that, the scientific community shattered into a large number of isolated groups. Many mainstreams have consolidated, leaving not much room for the advancement of bright, original proposals. In frontier domains, like quantum gravity, most mainstreams have disavowed the inheritance of the glowing past and embarked on uncertain routes (string theory, loop quantum gravity and many others). It is time to make room for approaches that are really out of the box and can truly trigger a renaissance of particle physics. Yet, they can only be believable if they are solidly rooted in the successes of the past. This ERC project pursues a research line that does stem from the achievements of the past, but is radically new and has the potential to take us out of this dark period. It is based on the notion of purely virtual particle, which upgrades in a crucial way our understanding of fundamental interactions through quantum field theory. One of its key predictions in primordial cosmology could be confirmed experimentally within a decade. Nevertheless, the scientific community cannot afford another decade like the past ones, so it is imperative to act now. The new idea opens the door to unthinkable scenarios and has a huge amount of ramifications and applications to all areas of fundamental physics, with the potential to build bridges between quantum gravity, primordial cosmology and the phenomenology of particle physics beyond the standard model. More key predictions are expected to follow, together with crucial ideas for future colliders. Hopefully, they will trigger the breakthroughs that we need to make a U turn, activate a virtuous circle, reunite the scientific community and lead to the renaissance of particle physics.

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The techical part of the application can be viewed here

We review the concept of purely virtual particle and its uses in quantum gravity, primordial cosmology and collider physics. The fake particle, or “fakeon”, which mediates interactions without appearing among the incoming and outgoing states, can be introduced by means of a new diagrammatics. The renormalization coincides with one of the parent Euclidean diagrammatics, while unitarity follows from spectral optical identities, which can be derived by means of algebraic operations. The classical limit of a theory of physical particles and fakeons is described by an ordinary Lagrangian plus Hermitian, micro acausal and micro nonlocal self-interactions. Quantum gravity propagates the graviton, a massive scalar field (the inflaton) and a massive spin-2 fakeon, and leads to a constrained primordial cosmology, which predicts the tensor-to-scalar ratio r in the window 0.4≲1000r≲3.5. The interpretation of inflation as a cosmic RG flow allows us to calculate the perturbation spectra to high orders in the presence of the Weyl squared term. In models of new physics beyond the standard model, fakeons evade various phenomenological bounds, because they are less constrained than normal particles. The resummation of self-energies reveals that it is impossible to get too close to the fakeon peak. The related peak uncertainty, equal to the fakeon width divided by 2, is expected to be observable.

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Symmetry 2022, 14(3), 521 | DOI: 10.3390/sym14030521

arXiv: 2203.02516 [hep-th]

We reconsider the Lee-Wick (LW) models and compare their properties to the properties of the models that contain purely virtual particles. We argue against the LW premise that unstable particles can be removed from the sets of incoming and outgoing states in scattering processes. The removal leads to a non-Hermitian classical limit, besides clashing with the observation of the muon. If, on the other hand, all the states are included, the LW models have a Hamiltonian unbounded from below or negative norms. Purely virtual particles, on the contrary, lead to a Hermitian classical limit and are absent from the sets of incoming and outgoing states without implications on the observation of long-lived unstable particles. We give a vademecum to summarize the properties of most options to treat abnormal particles. We study a method to remove the LW ghosts only partially, by saving the physical particles they contain. Specifically, we replace a LW ghost with a certain superposition of a purely virtual particle and an ordinary particle, and drop only the former from the sets of the external states. The trick can be used to make the Pauli-Villars fields consistent and observable, without sending their masses to infinity, or to build a finite QED, by tweaking the original Lee-Wick construction. However, it has issues with general covariance, so it cannot be applied as is to quantum gravity, where a manifestly covariant decomposition requires the introduction of a massive spin-2 multiplet.

PDF

Phys. Rev. D 105 (2022) 125017 | DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.105.125017

arXiv: 2202.10483 [hep-th]

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Book

14B1 D. Anselmi
Renormalization

Course on renormalization, taught in 2015.

Last update: September 15th 2023, 242 pages

The final (2023) edition is vaibable on Amazon:

US  IT  DE  FR  ES  UK  JP  CA


Contents:
Preface
1. Functional integral
2. Renormalization
3. Renormalization group
4. Gauge symmetry
5. Canonical formalism
6. Quantum electrodynamics
7. Non-Abelian gauge field theories
Notation and useful formulas
References


The pdf file of the 2015 Edition is available here: PDF