Nonlocal effective gravitational field equations and the running of Newton’s constantG

Abstract

Nonperturbative studies of quantum gravity have recently suggested the possibility that the strength of gravitational interactions might slowly increase with distance. Here a set of generally covariant effective field equations are proposed, which are intended to incorporate the gravitational, vacuum-polarization induced, running of Newton's constant $G$. One attractive feature of this approach is that, from an underlying quantum gravity perspective, the resulting long-distance (or large time) effective gravitational action inherits only one adjustable parameter $\ensuremath{\xi}$, having the units of a length, arising from dimensional transmutation in the gravitational sector. Assuming the above scenario to be correct, some simple predictions for the long-distance corrections to the classical standard model Robertson-Walker metric are worked out in detail, with the results formulated as much as possible in a model-independent framework. It is found that the theory, even in the limit of vanishing renormalized cosmological constant, generally predicts an accelerated power-law expansion at later times $t\ensuremath{\sim}\ensuremath{\xi}\ensuremath{\sim}1/H$.