Nonrenormalizable theories
We reconsider perturbative unitarity in quantum field theory and upgrade several arguments and results. The minimum assumptions that lead to the largest time equation, the cutting equations and the unitarity equation are identified. Using this knowledge and a special gauge, we give a new, simpler proof of perturbative unitarity in gauge theories and generalize it to quantum gravity, in four and higher dimensions. The special gauge interpolates between the Feynman gauge and the Coulomb gauge without double poles. When the Coulomb limit is approached, the unphysical particles drop out of the cuts and the cutting equations are consistently projected onto the physical subspace. The proof does not extend to nonlocal quantum field theories of gauge fields and gravity, whose unitarity remains uncertain.
Phys. Rev. D 94 (2016) 025028 | DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.94.025028
The properties of quantum gravity are reviewed from the point of view of renormalization. Various attempts to overcome the problem of nonrenormalizability are presented, and the reasons why most of them fail for quantum gravity are discussed. Interesting possibilities come from relaxing the locality assumption, which can inspire the investigation of a largely unexplored sector of quantum field theory. Another possibility is to work with infinitely many independent couplings, and search for physical quantities that only depend on a finite subset of them. In this spirit, it is useful to organize the classical action of quantum gravity, determined by renormalization, in a convenient way. Taking advantage of perturbative local field redefinitions, we write the action as the sum of the Hilbert term, the cosmological term, a peculiar scalar that is important only in higher dimensions, plus invariants constructed with at least three Weyl tensors. We show that the FRLW configurations, and many other locally conformally flat metrics, are exact solutions of the field equations in arbitrary dimensions $d>3$. If the metric is expanded around such configurations the quadratic part of the action is free of higher-time derivatives. Other well-known metrics, such as those of black holes, are instead affected in nontrivial ways by the classical corrections of quantum origin.
Mod. Phys. Lett. A 30 (2015) 1540004 | DOI: 10.1142/S0217732315400040
We investigate the background field method with the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism, to generalize known results, study parametric completeness and achieve a better understanding of several properties. In particular, we study renormalization and gauge dependence to all orders. Switching between the background field approach and the usual approach by means of canonical transformations, we prove parametric completeness without making use of cohomological theorems, namely show that if the starting classical action is sufficiently general all divergences can be subtracted by means of parameter redefinitions and canonical transformations. Our approach applies to renormalizable and non-renormalizable theories that are manifestly free of gauge anomalies and satisfy the following assumptions: the gauge algebra is irreducible and closes off shell, the gauge transformations are linear functions of the fields, and closure is field-independent. Yang-Mills theories and quantum gravity in arbitrary dimensions are included, as well as effective and higher-derivative versions of them, but several other theories, such as supergravity, are left out.
Phys. Rev. D 89 (2014) 045004 | DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.89.045004
We prove the renormalizability of various theories of classical gravity coupled with interacting quantum fields. The models contain vertices with dimensionality greater than four, a finite number of matter operators and a finite or reduced number of independent couplings. An interesting class of models is obtained from ordinary power-counting renormalizable theories, letting the couplings depend on the scalar curvature R of spacetime. The divergences are removed without introducing higher-derivative kinetic terms in the gravitational sector. The metric tensor has a non-trivial running, even if it is not quantized. The results are proved applying a certain map that converts classical instabilities, due to higher derivatives, into classical violations of causality, whose effects become observable at sufficiently high energies. We study acausal Einstein-Yang-Mills theory with an R-dependent gauge coupling in detail. We derive all-order formulas for the beta functions of the dimensionality-six gravitational vertices induced by renormalization. Such beta functions are related to the trace-anomaly coefficients of the matter subsector.
Class. Quant. Grav. 24 (2007) 1927 | DOI: 10.1088/0264-9381/24/8/003
arXiv: hep-th/0611131
The infinite reduction of couplings is a tool to consistently renormalize a wide class of non-renormalizable theories with a reduced, eventually finite, set of independent couplings, and classify the non-renormalizable interactions. Several properties of the reduction of couplings, both in renormalizable and non-renormalizable theories, can be better appreciated working at the regularized level, using the dimensional-regularization technique. We show that, when suitable invertibility conditions are fulfilled, the reduction follows uniquely from the requirement that both the bare and renormalized reduction relations be analytic in $\varepsilon=D-d$, where $D$ and $d$ are the physical and continued spacetime dimensions, respectively. In practice, physically independent interactions are distinguished by relatively non-integer powers of epsilon. We discuss the main physical and mathematical properties of this criterion for the reduction and compare it with other equivalent criteria. The leading-log approximation is solved explicitly and contains sufficient information for the existence and uniqueness of the reduction to all orders.
J.High Energy Phys. 01 (2006) 077 | DOI: 10.1088/1126-6708/2006/01/077
arXiv: hep-th/0509196
I study the problem of renormalizing a non-renormalizable theory with a reduced, eventually finite, set of independent couplings. The idea is to look for special relations that express the coefficients of the irrelevant terms as unique functions of a reduced set of independent couplings $\lambda$, such that the divergences are removed by means of field redefinitions plus renormalization constants for the $\lambda$s. I consider non-renormalizable theories whose renormalizable subsector $R$ is interacting and does not contain relevant parameters. The “infinite” reduction is determined by $i$) perturbative meromorphy around the free-field limit of $R$, or $ii$) analyticity around the interacting fixed point of $R$. In general, prescriptions $i$) and $ii$) mutually exclude each other. When the reduction is formulated using $i$), the number of independent couplings remains finite or slowly grows together with the order of the expansion. The growth is slow in the sense that a reasonably small set of parameters is sufficient to make predictions up to very high orders. Instead, in case $ii$) the number of couplings generically remains finite. The infinite reduction is a tool to classify the irrelevant interactions and address the problem of their physical selection.
JHEP 0508 (2005) 029 | DOI: 10.1088/1126-6708/2005/08/029
arXiv:hep-th/0503131
Certain power-counting non-renormalizable theories, including the most general self-interacting scalar fields in four and three dimensions and fermions in two dimensions, have a simplified renormalization structure. For example, in four-dimensional scalar theories, $2n$ derivatives of the fields, $n>1$, do not appear before the nth loop. A new kind of expansion can be defined to treat functions of the fields (but not of their derivatives) non-perturbatively. I study the conditions under which these theories can be consistently renormalized with a reduced, eventually finite, set of independent couplings. I find that in common models the number of couplings sporadically grows together with the order of the expansion, but the growth is slow and a reasonably small number of couplings is sufficient to make predictions up to very high orders. Various examples are solved explicitly at one and two loops.
JHEP 0507 (2005) 077 | DOI: 10.1088/1126-6708/2005/07/077
arXiv:hep-th/0502237
I show that under certain conditions it is possible to define consistent irrelevant deformations of interacting conformal field theories. The deformations are finite or have a unique running scale (“quasi-finite”). They are made of an infinite number of lagrangian terms and a finite number of independent parameters that renormalize coherently. The coefficients of the irrelevant terms are determined imposing that the beta functions of the dimensionless combinations of couplings vanish (“quasi-finiteness equations”). The expansion in powers of the energy is meaningful for energies much smaller than an effective Planck mass. Multiple deformations can be considered also. I study the general conditions to have non-trivial solutions. As an example, I construct the Pauli deformation of the IR fixed point of massless non-Abelian Yang-Mills theory with $N_c$ colors and $N_f \lesssim 11N_c/2$ flavors and compute the couplings of the term $F^3$ and the four-fermion vertices. Another interesting application is the construction of finite chiral irrelevant deformations of $N=2$ and $N=4$ superconformal field theories. The results of this paper suggest that power-counting non-renormalizable theories might play a role in the description of fundamental physics.
JHEP 0310 (2003) 045 | DOI: 10.1088/1126-6708/2003/10/045
arXiv:hep-th/0309251
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Quantum Gravity 
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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
The pdf file of the 2015 Edition is available here: PDF
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