2015/01/31 by Marco Cofano, C. D. Fu, Chih-Hao Fu +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Amplitude #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Coupling constant #Field theory (psychology) #Gauge theory #Mathematical physics #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Perturbation theory (quantum mechanics) #Physics #Propagator #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum field theory #Quantum mechanics #Scattering amplitude #Theoretical physics #Yang–Mills theory #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.92.065012
published as Phys. Rev. D 92, 065012 (2015) · v2: 38 pages, many figures, references added; v3: Typos corrected, version accepted for publication in PRD
openalex publication_date 2015/09/17 · arxiv created 2015/09/21 · arxiv updated 2015/09/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We introduce and study a new class of power-counting nonrenormalizable gauge theories in four space-time dimensions. The Lagrangian is an arbitrary function of the self-dual part of the field strength. The resulting perturbation theory has the property that whenever two derivatives act on an internal line propagator, the result is a delta function and the line collapses to a point. This means that there remains at most one derivative on each internal line, which gives improved ultra-violet behavior. For many purposes, this class of theories behaves just like ordinary Yang-Mills theory. In particular, they all share the Yang-Mills theory MHV amplitudes. Moreover, these theories remain constructible (in the generalized sense), with the higher-point tree-level scattering amplitudes obtainable from the lower-point amplitudes using the BCFW recursion relations, and adding new amplitudes at every particle number. Also, the square of these gauge-theory amplitudes gives the scattering amplitudes of ``deformations'' of general relativity, at least for the low particle numbers that we checked. We compute the one-loop beta function of the first new coupling constant, and find it to be positive, which signals the associated nonrenormalizable interaction becoming important in the ultraviolet.