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 outside the convergence domain, can only be reached in the case of physical particles, thanks to analyticity. In the other cases, nonperturbative effects become important. To clarify the matter, we introduce the energy resolution $\Delta E$ around the peak and argue that a “peak uncertainty” $\Delta E\gtrsim \Delta E_{\text{min}}\simeq \Gamma _{\text{f}}/2$ around energies $E\simeq m_{\text{f}}$ expresses the impossibility to approach the fakeon too closely, $m_{\text{f}}$ being the fakeon mass and $\Gamma _{\text{f}}$ being the fakeon width. The introduction of $\Delta E$ is also crucial to explain the observation of unstable long-lived particles, like the muon. Indeed, by the common energy-time uncertainty relation, such particles are also affected by ill-defined sums at $\Delta E=0$, whenever we separate their observation from the observation of their decay products. We study the regime of large $\Gamma _{\text{f}}$, which applies to collider physics (and situations like the one of the $Z$ boson), and the regime of small $\Gamma _{\text{f}}$, which applies to quantum gravity (and situations like the one of the muon).
J. High Energy Phys. 06 (2022) 058 | DOI: 10.1007/JHEP06(2022)058
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 significance is that they offer a deeper understanding on the problem of unitarity in quantum field theory. In particular, they apply to “skeleton” diagrams, before integrating on the space components of the loop momenta and the phase spaces. In turn, the skeleton diagrams obey a spectral optical theorem, which gives the usual optical theorem for amplitudes, once the integrals on the space components of the loop momenta and the phase spaces are restored. The fakeon
prescription/projection is implemented by dropping the thresholds that involve fakeon frequencies. We give examples at one loop (bubble, triangle, box, pentagon and hexagon), two loops (triangle with “diagonal”, box with diagonal) and arbitrarily many loops. We also derive formulas for the loop integrals with fakeons and relate them to the known formulas for the loop integrals with physical particles.
J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2021) 030 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2021)030
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 muon to explain the recent Fermilab measurement of its anomalous magnetic moment. Remarkably, unlike in the case of usual particles, the experimental result can be matched for fakeon masses below the electroweak scale without contradicting the stringent precision data and collider bounds on new light degrees of freedom. Our analysis, therefore, demonstrates that the fakeon approach offers unexpected viable possibilities to model new physics naturally at low scales.
Phys. Rev. D 104 (2021) 035009 | DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.104.035009
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. Remarkably, the fake doublet avoids the most stringent $Z$-pole constraints regardless of the chosen mass scale, thereby allowing for the presence of new effects well below the electroweak scale. Furthermore, the absence of on-shell propagation prevents fakeons from inducing missing energy signatures in collider experiments. The distinguishing features of the model appear at the loop level, where fakeons modify the Higgs boson $h\rightarrow\gamma\gamma$ decay width and the Higgs trilinear coupling. The running of Standard Model parameters proceeds as in the usual Inert Doublet Model case. Therefore, the fake doublet can also ensure the stability of the Standard Model vacuum. Our work shows that fakeons are a valid alternative to the usual tools of particle physics model building, with the potential to shape a new paradigm, where the significance of the existing experimental constraints towards new physics must necessarily be reconsidered.
J. High Energy Phys. 10 (2021) 132 | DOI: 10.1007/JHEP10(2021)132
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 an asymptotically de Sitter, cosmic RG flow in two couplings. Since the two scalar degrees of freedom mix in nontrivial ways, the adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations are not RG invariant on superhorizon scales. It is possible to identify the correct perturbations by using RG invariance as a guiding principle. We work out the resulting power spectra of the tensor and scalar perturbations to the NNLL and NLL orders, respectively. An unexpected consequence of RG invariance is that the theory remains predictive. Indeed, the scalar mixing affects only the subleading corrections, so the predictions of quantum gravity with single-field inflation are confirmed to the leading order.
J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 07 (2021) 037 | DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2021/07/037
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 RG invariance as a guiding principle, we classify the main types of flows according to the properties of their spectra, without referring to their origins from specific actions or models. Novel features include spectra with essential singularities in $\alpha $ and violations of the relation $r+8n_{\text{t}}=0$ to the leading order. Various classes of potentials studied in the literature can be described by means of the RG approach, even when the action includes a Weyl-squared term, while others are left out. In known cases, the classification helps identify the models that are ruled out by data. The RG approach is also able to generate spectra that cannot be derived from standard Lagrangian formulations.
Class. Quantum Grav. 38 (2021) 225011 | DOI: 10.1088/1361-6382/ac2b07
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Last update: Sept 16, 2021
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
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
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
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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:
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
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