1,064 research outputs found
Effective action and semiclassical limit of spin foam models
We define an effective action for spin foam models of quantum gravity by
adapting the background field method from quantum field theory. We show that
the Regge action is the leading term in the semi-classical expansion of the
spin foam effective action if the vertex amplitude has the large-spin
asymptotics which is proportional to an exponential function of the vertex
Regge action. In the case of the known three-dimensional and four-dimensional
spin foam models this amounts to modifying the vertex amplitude such that the
exponential asymptotics is obtained. In particular, we show that the ELPR/FK
model vertex amplitude can be modified such that the new model is finite and
has the Einstein-Hilbert action as its classical limit. We also calculate the
first-order and some of the second-order quantum corrections in the
semi-classical expansion of the effective action.Comment: Improved presentation, 2 references added. 15 pages, no figure
Black hole and brane production in TeV gravity: A review
In models with large extra dimensions particle collisions with center-of-mass
energy larger than the fundamental gravitational scale can generate
non-perturbative gravitational objects such as black holes and branes. The
formation and the subsequent decay of these super-Planckian objects would be
detectable in particle colliders and high energy cosmic ray detectors, and have
interesting implications in cosmology and astrophysics. In this paper we
present a review of black hole and brane production in TeV-scale gravity.Comment: 40 pages, 14 figures, submitted to the Int. Jou. Mod. Phys.
Comments on the kinematical structure of loop quantum cosmology
We comment on the presence of spurious observables and on a subtle violation
of irreducibility in loop quantum cosmology.Comment: 7 page
Euclidean three-point function in loop and perturbative gravity
We compute the leading order of the three-point function in loop quantum
gravity, using the vertex expansion of the Euclidean version of the new spin
foam dynamics, in the region of gamma<1. We find results consistent with Regge
calculus in the limit gamma->0 and j->infinity. We also compute the tree-level
three-point function of perturbative quantum general relativity in position
space, and discuss the possibility of directly comparing the two results.Comment: 16 page
3d Spinfoam Quantum Gravity: Matter as a Phase of the Group Field Theory
An effective field theory for matter coupled to three-dimensional quantum
gravity was recently derived in the context of spinfoam models in
hep-th/0512113. In this paper, we show how this relates to group field theories
and generalized matrix models. In the first part, we realize that the effective
field theory can be recasted as a matrix model where couplings between matrices
of different sizes can occur. In a second part, we provide a family of
classical solutions to the three-dimensional group field theory. By studying
perturbations around these solutions, we generate the dynamics of the effective
field theory. We identify a particular case which leads to the action of
hep-th/0512113 for a massive field living in a flat non-commutative space-time.
The most general solutions lead to field theories with non-linear redefinitions
of the momentum which we propose to interpret as living on curved space-times.
We conclude by discussing the possible extension to four-dimensional spinfoam
models.Comment: 17 pages, revtex4, 1 figur
Spin foams with timelike surfaces
Spin foams of 4d gravity were recently extended from complexes with purely
spacelike surfaces to complexes that also contain timelike surfaces. In this
article, we express the associated partition function in terms of vertex
amplitudes and integrals over coherent states. The coherent states are
characterized by unit 3--vectors which represent normals to surfaces and lie
either in the 2--sphere or the 2d hyperboloids. In the case of timelike
surfaces, a new type of coherent state is used and the associated completeness
relation is derived. It is also shown that the quantum simplicity constraints
can be deduced by three different methods: by weak imposition of the
constraints, by restriction of coherent state bases and by the master
constraint.Comment: 22 pages, no figures; v2: remarks on operator formalism added in
discussion; correction: the spin 1/2 irrep of the discrete series does not
appear in the Plancherel decompositio
Limit on the mass of a long-lived or stable gluino
We reinterpret the generic CDF charged massive particle limit to obtain a
limit on the mass of a stable or long-lived gluino. Various sources of
uncertainty are examined. The -hadron spectrum and scattering cross sections
are modeled based on known low-energy hadron physics and the resultant
uncertainties are quantified and found to be small compared to uncertainties
from the scale dependence of the NLO pQCD production cross sections. The
largest uncertainty in the limit comes from the unknown squark mass: when the
squark -- gluino mass splitting is small, we obtain a gluino mass limit of 407
GeV, while in the limit of heavy squarks the gluino mass limit is 397 GeV. For
arbitrary (degenerate) squark masses, we obtain a lower limit of 322 GeV on the
gluino mass. These limits apply for any gluino lifetime longer than
ns, and are the most stringent limits for such a long-lived or stable gluino.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in JHE
Coupled Quintessence and Phantom Based On a Dilaton
Based on dilatonic dark energy model, we consider two cases: dilaton field
with positive kinetic energy(coupled quintessence) and with negative kinetic
energy(phantom). In the two cases, we investigate the existence of attractor
solutions which correspond to an equation of state parameter and a
cosmic density parameter . We find that the coupled term
between matter and dilaton can't affect the existence of attractor solutions.
In the Mexican hat potential, the attractor behaviors, the evolution of state
parameter and cosmic density parameter , are shown
mathematically. Finally, we show the effect of coupling term on the evolution
of and with
respect to numerically.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, some references and Journal-ref adde
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