No Arabic abstract
The causal set approach to quantum gravity models spacetime as a discrete structure - a causal set. Recent research has led to causal set models for the retarded propagator for the Klein-Gordon equation and the dAlembertian operator. These models can be compared to their continuum counterparts via a sprinkling process. It has been shown that the models agree exactly with the continuum quantities in the limit of an infinite sprinkling density - the continuum limit. This paper obtains the correction terms for these models for sprinkled causal sets with a finite sprinkling density. These correction terms are an important step towards testable differences between the continuum and discrete models that could provide evidence of spacetime discreteness.
We identify a fundamental obstruction to any theory of the beginning of the universe, formulated as a semiclassical path integral. Hartle and Hawkings no boundary proposal and Vilenkins tunneling proposal are examples of such theories. Each may be formulated as the quantum amplitude for obtaining a final 3-geometry by integrating over 4-geometries. We introduce a new mathematical tool - Picard-Lefschetz theory - for defining the semiclassical path integral for gravity. The Lorentzian path integral for quantum cosmology with a positive cosmological constant is meaningful in this approach, but the Euclidean version is not. Framed in this way, the resulting framework and predictions are unique. Unfortunately, the outcome is that primordial tensor (gravitational wave) fluctuations are unsuppressed. We prove a general theorem to this effect, in a wide class of theories.
We investigate a new class of scalar multi-galileon models, which is not included in the commonly admitted general formulation of generalized multi-galileons. The Lagrangians of this class of models, some of them having already been introduced in previous works, are specific to multi-galileon theories, and vanish in the single galileon case. We examine them in details, discussing in particular some hidden symmetry properties which can be made explicit by adding total derivatives to these Lagrangians. These properties allow us to describe the possible dynamics for these new Lagrangians in the case of multi-galileons in the fundamental representation of a SO(N) and SU(N) global symmetry group, as well as in the adjoint representation of a SU(N) global symmetry group. We perform in parallel an exhaustive examination of some of these models, finding a complete agreement with the dynamics obtained using the symmetry properties. Finally, we conclude by discussing what could be the most general multi-galileon theory, as well as the link between scalar and vector multi-galileon models.
We extend the study of the non-linear perturbative theory of weakly turbulent energy cascades in AdS$_{d+1}$ to include solutions of driven systems, i.e. those with time-dependent sources on the AdS boundary. This necessitates the activation of non-normalizable modes in the linear solution for the massive bulk scalar field, which couple to the metric and normalizable scalar modes. We determine analytic expressions for secular terms in the renormalization flow equations for any mass, and for various driving functions. Finally, we numerically evaluate these sources for $d = 4$ and discuss what role these driven solutions play in the perturbative stability of AdS.
The method of topological renormalization in anti-de Sitter (AdS) gravity consists in adding to the action a topological term which renders it finite, defining at the same time a well-posed variational problem. Here, we use this prescription to work out the thermodynamics of asymptotically locally anti-de Sitter (AlAdS) spacetimes, focusing on the physical properties of the Misner strings of both the Taub-NUT-AdS and Taub-Bolt-AdS solutions. We compute the contribution of the Misner string to the entropy by treating on the same footing the AdS and AlAdS sectors. As topological renormalization is found to correctly account for the physical quantities in the parity preserving sector of the theory, we then investigate the holographic consequences of adding also the Chern-Pontryagin topological invariant to the bulk action; in particular, we discuss the emergence of the parity-odd contribution in the boundary stress tensor.
Concerning the gravitational corrections to the running of gauge couplings two different results were reported. Some authors claim that gravitational correction at the one-loop level indicates an interesting effect of universal gravitational decreasing of gauge couplings, that is, gravitational correction works universally in the direction of asymptotic freedom no matter how the gauge coupling behaves without gravity, while others reject the presence of gravitational correction at the one-loop level at all. Being these calculations done in the framework of an effective field theory approach to general relativity, we wanted to draw attention to a recently discovered profound quantum-gravitational effect of space-time dimension running that inevitably affects the running of gauge couplings. The running of space-time dimension indicating gradual reduction of dimension as one gets into smaller scales acts on the coupling constants in the direction of asymptotic freedom and therefore in any case manifests the plausibility of this quantum-gravitational effect. Curiously enough, the results are also in perfect quantitative agreement with those of Robinson and Wilczek.