No Arabic abstract
The Pauli--Villars regularization procedure confirms and sharpens the conclusions reached previously by covariant point splitting. The divergences in the stress tensor of a quantized scalar field interacting with a static scalar potential are isolated into a three-parameter local, covariant functional of the background potential. These divergences can be naturally absorbed into coupling constants of the potential, regarded as a dynamical object in its own right; here this is demonstrated in detail for two different models of the field-potential coupling. here is a residual dependence on the logarithm of the potential, reminiscent of the renormalization group in fully interacting quantum field theories; these terms are finite but numerically dependent on an arbitrary mass or length parameter, which is purely a matter of convention. This work is one step in a program to elucidate boundary divergences by replacing a sharp boundary by a steeply rising smooth potential.
The effect of gravitational fluctuations on the quantum effective potential for scalar fields is a key ingredient for predictions of the mass of the Higgs boson, understanding the gauge hierarchy problem and a possible explanation of an---asymptotically---vanishing cosmological constant. We find that the quartic self-interaction of the Higgs scalar field is an irrelevant coupling at the asymptotically safe ultraviolet fixed point of quantum gravity. This renders the ratio between the masses of the Higgs boson and top quark predictable. If the flow of couplings below the Planck scale is approximated by the Standard Model, this prediction is consistent with the observed value. The quadratic term in the Higgs potential is irrelevant if the strength of gravity at short distances exceeds a bound that is determined here as a function of the particle content. In this event, a tiny value of the ratio between the Fermi scale and the Planck scale is predicted.
A new systematic approach extending the notion of frames to the Palatini scalar-tensor theories of gravity in various dimensions n>2 is proposed. We impose frame transformation induced by the group action which includes almost-geodesic and conformal transformations. We characterize theories invariant with respect to these transformations dividing them up into solution-equivalent subclasses (group orbits). To this end, invariant characteristics have been introduced. Unlike in the metric case, it turns out that the dimension four admitting the largest transformation group is rather special for such theories. The formalism provides new frames that incorporate non-metricity. The case of Palatini F(R)-gravity is considered in more detail.
We point out a misleading treatment and incorrect expressions in a recent paper published in this Journal [Eur. Phys. J. C (2019) 79: 541] regarding solutions for the Dirac equation in presence of scalar and vector potentials in a class of flat Godel-type space-time called Som-Raychaudhuri space-time. Following the appropriate procedure we obtain the solution for this system.
We study the massive scalar field Sorkin-Johnston (SJ) Wightman function restricted to a flat 2D causal diamond of linear dimension L. Our approach is two-pronged. In the first, we solve the central SJ eigenvalue problem explicitly in the small mass regime, upto order (mL)^4. This allows us to formally construct the SJ Wightman function up to this order. Using a combination of analytic and numerical methods, we obtain expressions for the SJ Wightman function both in the center and the corner of the diamond, to leading order. We find that in the center, it is more like the massless Minkowski Wightman function than the massive one, while in the corner it corresponds to that of the massive mirror. In the second part, in order to explore larger masses, we perform numerical simulations using a causal set approximated by a flat 2D causal diamond. We find that in the center of the diamond the causal set SJ Wightman function resembles the massless Minkowski Wightman function for small masses, as in the continuum, but beyond a critical value it resembles the massive Minkowski Wightman function as expected. Our calculations suggest that unlike the massive Minkowski vacuum, the SJ vacuum has a well-defined massless limit, which mimics the behavior of the Pauli Jordan function underlying the SJ construction. In the corner of the diamond, moreover, it agrees with the mirror vacuum for all masses, and not, as might be expected, with the Rindler vacuum.
We consider scalar field perturbations about asymptotically Lifshitz black holes with dynamical exponent z in D dimensions. We show that, for suitable boundary conditions, these Lifshitz black holes are stable under scalar field perturbations. For z=2, we explicitly compute the quasinormal mode frecuencies, which result to be purely imaginary, and then obtain the damping-off of the scalar field perturbation in these backgrounds. The general analysis includes, in particular, the z=3 black hole solution of three-dimensional massive gravity.