We employ a recent, general gauge computation of the one loop graviton contribution to the vacuum polarization on de Sitter to solve for one loop corrections to the photon mode function. The vacuum polarization takes the form of a gauge independent, spin 2 contribution and a gauge dependent, spin 0 contribution. We show that the leading secular corrections derive entirely from the spin 2 contribution.
We evaluate the one-graviton loop contribution to the vacuum polarization on de Sitter background in a 1-parameter family of exact, de Sitter invariant gauges. Our result is computed using dimensional regularization and fully renormalized with BPHZ counterterms, which must include a noninvariant owing to the time-ordered interactions. Because the graviton propagator engenders a physical breaking of de Sitter invariance two structure functions are needed to express the result. In addition to its relevance for the gauge issue this is the first time a covariant gauge graviton propagator has been used to compute a noncoincident loop. A number of identities are derived which should facilitate further graviton loop computations.
We exploit a recent computation of one graviton loop corrections to the self-mass [1] to quantum-correct the field equation for a massless, conformally coupled scalar on a de Sitter background. With the obvious choice for the finite part of the $R^2 phi^2$ counterterm, we find that neither plane wave mode functions nor the response to a point source acquires large infrared logarithms. However, we do find a decaying logarithmic correction to the mode function and a short distance logarithmic running of the potential in addition to the power-law effect inherited from flat space.
We derive a noncovariant but simple representation for the self-energy of a conformally transformed graviton field on the cosmological patch of de Sitter. Our representation involves four structure functions, as opposed to the two that would be necessary for a manifestly de Sitter invariant representation. We work out what the four structure functions are for the one loop correction due to a massless, minimally coupled scalar. And we employ the result to work out what happens to dynamical gravitons.
We study quantum corrections to an inflationary model, which has the attractive feature of being classically scale-invariant. In this model, quadratic gravity plays along a scalar field in such a way that inflation begins near the unstable point of the effective potential and it ends at a stable fixed point, where the scale symmetry is broken and a fundamental mass scale naturally emerges. We compute the one loop corrections to the classical action on the curved background of the model and we report their effects on the classical dynamics with both analytical and numerical methods.
We employ the graviton self-energy induced by a massless, minimally coupled (MMC) scalar on de Sitter background to compute the quantum corrections to the gravitational potentials of a static point particle with a mass $M$. The Schwinger-Keldysh formalism is used to derive real and causal effective field equations. When evaluated at the one-loop order, the gravitational potentials exhibit a secular decrease in the observed gravitational coupling $G$. This can also be interpreted as a (time dependent) anti-screening of the mass $M$.