Adiabatic renormalization in theories with modified dispersion relations

Abstract

We generalize the adiabatic renormalization to theories with dispersion relations modified at energies higher than a new scale MC. We obtain explicit expressions for the mean value of the stress tensor in the adiabatic vacuum, up to the second adiabatic order. We show that for any dispersion relation the divergences can be absorbed into the bare gravitational constants of the theory. We also point out that, depending on the renormalization prescription, the renormalized stress tensor may contain finite trans-Planckian corrections even in the limit MC → ∞.