Matter coupled to 3d Quantum Gravity: One-loop Unitarity

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Livine, Etera R., Maris, Valentine
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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_version_ 1866916275057328128
author Livine, Etera R.
Maris, Valentine
author_facet Livine, Etera R.
Maris, Valentine
contents We expect quantum field theories for matter to acquire intricate corrections due to their coupling to quantum fluctuations of the gravitational field. This can be precisely worked out in 3d quantum gravity: after integrating out quantum gravity, matter fields are effectively described as noncommutative quantum field theories, with quantum-deformed Lorentz symmetries. An open question remains: Are such theories unitary or not? On the one hand, since these are effective field theories obtained after integrating out high energy degrees of freedom, we may expect the loss of unitarity. On the other hand, as rigorously defined field theories built with Lorentz symmetries and standing on their own, we naturally expect the conservation of unitarity. In an effort to settle this issue, we explicitly check unitarity for a scalar field at one-loop level in both Euclidean and Lorentzian space-time signatures. We find that unitarity requires adding an extra-term to the propagator of the noncommutative theory, corresponding to a massless mode and given by a representation with vanishing Plancherel measure, thus usually ignored in spinfoam path integrals for quantum gravity. This indicates that the inclusion of matter in spinfoam models, and more generally in quantum gravity, might be more subtle than previously thought.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_03190
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Matter coupled to 3d Quantum Gravity: One-loop Unitarity
Livine, Etera R.
Maris, Valentine
High Energy Physics - Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
We expect quantum field theories for matter to acquire intricate corrections due to their coupling to quantum fluctuations of the gravitational field. This can be precisely worked out in 3d quantum gravity: after integrating out quantum gravity, matter fields are effectively described as noncommutative quantum field theories, with quantum-deformed Lorentz symmetries. An open question remains: Are such theories unitary or not? On the one hand, since these are effective field theories obtained after integrating out high energy degrees of freedom, we may expect the loss of unitarity. On the other hand, as rigorously defined field theories built with Lorentz symmetries and standing on their own, we naturally expect the conservation of unitarity. In an effort to settle this issue, we explicitly check unitarity for a scalar field at one-loop level in both Euclidean and Lorentzian space-time signatures. We find that unitarity requires adding an extra-term to the propagator of the noncommutative theory, corresponding to a massless mode and given by a representation with vanishing Plancherel measure, thus usually ignored in spinfoam path integrals for quantum gravity. This indicates that the inclusion of matter in spinfoam models, and more generally in quantum gravity, might be more subtle than previously thought.
title Matter coupled to 3d Quantum Gravity: One-loop Unitarity
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.03190