Inflation
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.
Symmetry 2022, 14(3), 521 | DOI: 10.3390/sym14030521
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
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.
J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 02 (2021) 029 | DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2021/02/029
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.
J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 01 (2021) 048 | DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2021/01/048
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
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])
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.
J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2020) 211 | DOI: 10.1007/JHEP07(2020)211
Search this site
YouTube Channel
Quantum Gravity 
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:
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
Logo
Cite papers of this site as follows:
Auths, Title, 'year'A'num' Renorm
For example:
D. Anselmi, Master functional and proper formalism for quantum gauge field theory, 12A3 Renorm
Cite books as
Auths, Title, 'year'B'num' Renorm
Cite reviews as
Auths, Title, 'year'R'num' Renorm
Cite proceedings as
Auths, Title, 'year'P'num' Renorm
Cite theorems as
Auths, Title, Theorem 'year'T'num' Renorm
Cite exercises as
Auths, Title, Exercise 'year'E'num' Renorm
You may also want to add links as shown
