### Course

19S1 D. Anselmi
Theories of gravitation

Program

PDF

### 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 and theorems

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
Fakeons 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]

21A1 Damiano Anselmi, Filippo Fruzza and Marco Piva
Renormalization-group techniques for single-field inflation in primordial cosmology and quantum gravity

We study inflation as a "cosmic" renormalization-group flow. The flow, which encodes the dependence on the background metric, is described by a running coupling $\alpha$, which parametrizes the slow roll, a de Sitter free, analytic beta function and perturbation spectra that are RG invariant in the superhorizon limit. Using ... [more]

20S5 Damiano Anselmi
Primordial cosmology from quantum gravity with purely virtual particles

Online talk for the Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge Abstract: I introduce the concept of purely virtual particle, or fakeon, and show how to use to make sense of quantum gravity as a quantum field theory. Then I discuss novel features of the classical limit and ... [more]

20S4 Damiano Anselmi
Quantum gravity with purely virtual particles: from quantum field theory to primordial cosmology

Online talk for the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, (MPIK), Heidelberg, Germany Abstract: I introduce the concept of purely virtual particle, or fakeon, and show how to use to make sense of quantum gravity as a quantum field theory. Then I discuss novel features of the classical limit and derive predictions in inflationary cosmology ... [more]

20S3 Damiano Anselmi
Quantum gravity with purely virtual particles: from quantum field theory to primordial cosmology

Talk at NICPB, Tallinn, Estonia, Oct 14th, 2020 Abstract: I introduce the concept of purely virtual particle, or fakeon, and show how to use to make sense of quantum gravity as a quantum field theory. Then I discuss novel features of the classical limit and derive predictions in inflationary cosmology that ... [more]

20A5 Damiano Anselmi
High-order corrections to inflationary perturbation spectra in quantum gravity

We compute the inflationary perturbation spectra and the quantity $r+8n_{T}$ to the next-to-next-to-leading log order in quantum gravity with purely virtual particles (which means the theory $R+R^{2}+C^{2}$ with the fakeon prescription/projection for $C^{2}$). The spectra are functions of the inflationary running coupling $\alpha (1/k)$ and satisfy the cosmic renormalization-group flow ... [more]

20A4 Damiano Anselmi
Cosmic inflation as a renormalization-group flow: the running of power spectra in quantum gravity

We study the running of power spectra in inflationary cosmology as a renormalization-group flow from the de Sitter fixed point. The beta function is provided by the equations of the background metric. The spectra of the scalar and tensor fluctuations obey RG evolution equations with vanishing anomalous dimensions in the ... [more]

20S2 Marco Piva
Predictions in inflationary cosmology from quantum gravity with purely virtual quanta

Testable predictions of quantum gravity with fakeons on the spectra of the CMB radiation Based on the paper 20A3 Renorm (arXiv: 2006.01163 [hep-th]) Talk given online by M. Piva for the Tokyo Institute of Technology, on Jun 16th, 2020 Talk given online by Marco Piva for the University of Sussex, on July 20th, ... [more]

Online talk for the Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge

Abstract: I introduce the concept of purely virtual particle, or fakeon, and show how to use to make sense of quantum gravity as a quantum field theory. Then I discuss novel features of the classical limit and derive predictions in inflationary cosmology that could be tested in the forthcoming years, paying special attention to the effects of fakeons on perturbation spectra

PDF

Online talk for the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, (MPIK), Heidelberg, Germany

Abstract: I introduce the concept of purely virtual particle, or fakeon, and show how to use to make sense of quantum gravity as a quantum field theory. Then I discuss novel features of the classical limit and derive predictions in inflationary cosmology that could be tested in the forthcoming years, paying special attention to the effects of fakeons on perturbation spectra

PDF

Talk at NICPB, Tallinn, Estonia, Oct 14th, 2020

Abstract: I introduce the concept of purely virtual particle, or fakeon, and show how to use to make sense of quantum gravity as a quantum field theory. Then I discuss novel features of the classical limit and derive predictions in inflationary cosmology that could be tested in the forthcoming years, paying special attention to the effects of fakeons on perturbation spectra

PDF

We compute the inflationary perturbation spectra and the quantity $r+8n_{T}$ to the next-to-next-to-leading log order in quantum gravity with purely virtual particles (which means the theory $R+R^{2}+C^{2}$ with the fakeon prescription/projection for $C^{2}$). The spectra are functions of the inflationary running coupling $\alpha (1/k)$ and satisfy the cosmic renormalization-group flow equations, which determine the tilts and the running coefficients. The tensor fluctuations receive contributions from the spin-2 fakeon $\chi _{\mu \nu }$ at every order of the expansion in powers of $\alpha \sim 1/115$. The dependence of the scalar spectrum on the $\chi _{\mu \nu }$ mass $m_{\chi }$, on the other hand, starts from the $\alpha^{2}$ corrections, which are handled perturbatively in the ratio $m_{\phi}/m_{\chi }$, where $m_{\phi }$ is the inflaton mass. The predictions have theoretical errors ranging from $\alpha ^{4}\sim 10^{-8}$ to $\alpha^{3}\sim 10^{-6}$. Nontrivial issues concerning the fakeon projection at higher orders are addressed.

PDF

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 02 (2021) 029 | DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2021/02/029

arXiv: 2010.04739 [hep-th]

We study the running of power spectra in inflationary cosmology as a renormalization-group flow from the de Sitter fixed point. The beta function is provided by the equations of the background metric. The spectra of the scalar and tensor fluctuations obey RG evolution equations with vanishing anomalous dimensions in the superhorizon limit. By organizing the perturbative expansion in terms of leading and subleading logs, we calculate the spectral indices, their runnings, the runnings of the runnings, etc., to the next-to-leading log order in quantum gravity with fakeons (i.e., the theory $R+R^2+C^2$ with the fakeon prescription/projection for $C^2$). We show that these quantities are related to the spectra in a universal way. We also compute the first correction to the relation $r=−8n_T$ and provide a number of quantum gravity predictions that can be hopefully tested in the forthcoming future.

PDF

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 01 (2021) 048 | DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2021/01/048

arXiv: 2007.15023 [hep-th]

Testable predictions of quantum gravity with fakeons on the spectra of the CMB radiation

Based on the paper 20A3 Renorm (arXiv: 2006.01163 [hep-th])

Talk given online by M. Piva for the Tokyo Institute of Technology, on Jun 16th, 2020

Talk given online by Marco Piva for the University of Sussex, on July 20th, 2020

PDF

Testable predictions of quantum gravity with fakeons on the spectra of the CMB radiation

Talk given by M. Piva at the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, Tallinn, Estonia, on Jun 9th, 2020

Based on the paper 20A3 Renorm (arXiv: 2006.01163 [hep-th])

PDF

We formulate quantum field theories of massive fields of arbitrary spins. The presence of both physical and fake particles, organized into multiplets, makes it possible to fulfill the requirements of locality, unitarity and renormalizability at the same time. The theories admit cubic and quartic self-interactions and can be coupled to quantum gravity and gauge fields. The simplest irreducible bosonic and fermionic multiplets are made of towers of alternating physical and fake particles. Their mass spectrum is constrained by RG invariant relations and depends on just one or two masses. The fixed points of the renormalization-group flow are scale invariant, but not necessarily conformal invariant. The Palatini version of quantum gravity with fakeons is equivalent to the non-Palatini one coupled to a peculiar multiplet of order 3. As a consequence, it is equally renormalizable and unitary.

PDF

J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2020) 176 | DOI: 10.1007/JHEP07(2020)176

arXiv: 2006.01163 [hep-th]

hal-03059929

We derive the predictions of quantum gravity with fakeons on the amplitudes and spectral indices of the scalar and tensor fluctuations in inflationary cosmology. The action is $R+R^{2}$ plus the Weyl-squared term. The ghost is eliminated by turning it into a fakeon, that is to say a purely virtual particle. We work to the next-to-leading order of the expansion around the de Sitter background. The consistency of the approach puts a lower bound ($m_{\chi }>m_{\phi }/4$) on the mass $m_{\chi }$ of the fakeon with respect to the mass $m_{\phi }$ of the inflaton. The tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ is predicted within less than an order of magnitude ($4/3 < N^{2}r<12$ to the leading order in the number of $e$-foldings $N$). Moreover, the relation $r\simeq -8n_{T}$ is not affected by the Weyl-squared term. No vector and no other scalar/tensor degree of freedom is present.

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J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2020) 211 | DOI: 10.1007/JHEP07(2020)211

arXiv: 2005.10293 [hep-th]

hal-03059912

The search for purely virtual quanta has attracted interest in the past. We consider various proposals and compare them to the concept of fake particle, or “fakeon”. In particular, the Feynman-Wheeler propagator, which amounts to using the Cauchy principal value inside Feynman diagrams, violates renormalizability, unitarity and stability, due to the coexistence of the prescriptions $\pm i\epsilon$. We contrast the Feynman, fakeon and Feynman-Wheeler prescriptions in ordinary as well as cut diagrams. The fakeon does not have the problems of the Feynman-Wheeler propagator and emerges as the correct concept of purely virtual quantum. It allows us to make sense of quantum gravity at the fundamental level, and places it on an equal footing with the standard model. The resulting theory of quantum gravity is perturbative up to an incredibly high energy.

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J. High Energ. Phys. 03 (2020) 142 | DOI: 10.1007/JHEP03(2020)142

arXiv: 2001.01942 [hep-th]

Quantum Gravity

### Book

14B1 D. Anselmi
Renormalization

Course on renormalization, taught in Pisa in 2015. (More chapters will be added later.)

Last update: May 9th 2015, 230 pages

Avaibable on Amazon:

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

PDF