We study the fundamentals of quantum field theory on a rigid de Sitter space. We show that the perturbative expansion of late-time correlation functions to all orders can be equivalently generated by a non-unitary Lagrangian on a Euclidean AdS geomet
ry. This finding simplifies dramatically perturbative computations, as well as allows us to establish basic properties of these correlators, which comprise a Euclidean CFT. We use this to infer the analytic structure of the spectral density that captures the conformal partial wave expansion of a late-time four-point function, to derive an OPE expansion, and to constrain the operator spectrum. Generically, dimensions and OPE coefficients do not obey the usual CFT notion of unitarity. Instead, unitarity of the de Sitter theory manifests itself as the positivity of the spectral density. This statement does not rely on the use of Euclidean AdS Lagrangians and holds non-perturbatively. We illustrate and check these properties by explicit calculations in a scalar theory by computing first tree-level, and then full one-loop-resummed exchange diagrams. An exchanged particle appears as a resonant feature in the spectral density which can be potentially useful in experimental searches.
The $Tbar T$ deformation of a conformal field theory has a dual description as a cutoff $AdS_3$ spacetime, at least at the level of pure 3d gravity. We generalize this deformation in such a way that it builds up a patch of bulk $dS_3$ spacetime inste
ad. At each step along the trajectory in the space of $2d$ theories, the theory is deformed by a specific combination of $Tbar T$ and the two-dimensional cosmological constant. This provides a concrete holographic dual for the warped throat on the gravity side of the dS/dS duality, at leading order in large central charge. We also analyze a sequence of excitations of this throat on both sides of the duality, as well as the entanglement entropy. Our results point toward a mechanism for obtaining de Sitter solutions starting from seed conformal field theories with AdS duals.
The recent direct observation of gravitational waves (GW) from merging black holes opens up the possibility of exploring the theory of gravity in the strong regime at an unprecedented level. It is therefore interesting to explore which extensions to
General Relativity (GR) could be detected. We construct an Effective Field Theory (EFT) satisfying the following requirements. It is testable with GW observations; it is consistent with other experiments, including short distance tests of GR; it agrees with widely accepted principles of physics, such as locality, causality and unitarity; and it does not involve new light degrees of freedom. The most general theory satisfying these requirements corresponds to adding to the GR Lagrangian operators constructed out of powers of the Riemann tensor, suppressed by a scale comparable to the curvature of the observed merging binaries. The presence of these operators modifies the gravitational potential between the compact objects, as well as their effective mass and current quadrupoles, ultimately correcting the waveform of the emitted GW.
We propose a framework in which Weinbergs anthropic explanation of the cosmological constant problem also solves the hierarchy problem. The weak scale is selected by chiral dynamics that controls the stabilization of an extra dimension. When the Higg
s vacuum expectation value is close to a fermion mass scale, the radius of an extra dimension becomes large, and develops an enhanced number of vacua available to scan the cosmological constant down to its observed value. At low energies, the radion necessarily appears as an unnaturally light scalar, in a range of masses and couplings accessible to fifth-force searches as well as scalar dark matter searches with atomic clocks and gravitational-wave detectors. The fermion sector that controls the size of the extra dimension consists of a pair of electroweak doublets and several singlets. These leptons satisfy approximate mass relations related to the weak scale and are accessible to the LHC and future colliders.
