2009/11/30 by Gaurav Narain, Roberto Percacci · 9 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Asymptotic safety in quantum gravity #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmological constant #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Coupling constant #Fixed point #Functional renormalization group #Infrared fixed point #Mathematical analysis #Mathematical physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Quantum #Quantum gravity #Quantum mechanics #Relationship between string theory and quantum field theory #Renormalization #Renormalization group #Scalar (mathematics) #Scalar field #Scalar–tensor theory #Theoretical physics #Ultraviolet fixed point #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0264-9381/27/7/075001
18 pages, 10 figures. v.2: equations in appendix rewritten in more convenient form
arxiv created 2009/12/13 · openalex publication_date 2010/03/03 · arxiv updated 2015/05/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study the renormalization group flow in a class of scalar-tensor theories involving at most two derivatives of the fields. We show in general that minimal coupling is self-consistent, in the sense that when the scalar self-couplings are switched off, their beta functions also vanish. Complete, explicit beta functions that could be applied to a variety of cosmological models are given in a five-parameter truncation of the theory in d = 4. In any dimension d > 2 we find that the flow has only a 'Gaussian Matter' fixed point, where all scalar self-interactions vanish but Newton's constant and the cosmological constant are nontrivial. The properties of these fixed points can be studied algebraically to some extent. In d = 3 we also find a gravitationally dressed version of the Wilson–Fisher fixed point, but it seems to have unphysical properties. These findings are in accordance with the hypothesis that these theories are asymptotically safe.