Archive for May 2006
Consider an action $S$ depending on fields $\phi_{i}$, where the index $i$ labels both the field type, the component and the spacetime point. Add a term quadratically proportional to the field equations $S_{i}\equiv \delta S/\delta \phi _{i}$ and define the modified action
\begin{equation}
\phantom{(1)}\qquad\qquad\qquad S^{\prime }(\phi _{i})=S(\phi _{i})+S_{i}F_{ij}S_{j}, \qquad\qquad\qquad (1)
\end{equation}
where $F_{ij}$ is symmetric and can contain derivatives acting to its left and to its right. Summation over repeated indices (including the integrationover spacetime points) is understood. Then there exists a field redefinition
\begin{equation}
\phantom{(1)}\qquad\qquad\qquad\phi _{i}^{\prime }=\phi _{i}+\Delta _{ij}S_{j}, \qquad\qquad\qquad (2)
\end{equation}
with $\Delta _{ij}$ symmetric, such that, perturbatively in $F$ and to all orders in powers of $F$,
\begin{equation}
\phantom{(1)}\qquad\qquad\qquad S^{\prime }(\phi _{i})=S(\phi _{i}^{\prime }). \qquad\qquad\qquad (3)
\end{equation}
I prove that classical gravity coupled with quantized matter can be renormalized with a finite number of independent couplings, plus field redefinitions, without introducing higher-derivative kinetic terms in the gravitational sector, but adding vertices that couple the matter stress-tensor with the Ricci tensor. The theory is called “acausal gravity”, because it predicts the violation of causality at high energies. Renormalizability is proved by means of a map M that relates acausal gravity with higher-derivative gravity. The causality violations are governed by two parameters, a and b, that are mapped by M into higher-derivative couplings. At the tree level causal prescriptions exist, but they are spoiled by the one-loop corrections. Some ideas are inspired by the usual treatments of the Abraham-Lorentz force in classical electrodynamics.
JHEP 0701 (2007) 062 | DOI: 10.1088/1126-6708/2007/01/062
arXiv:hep-th/0605205