On the meaning of a non-renormalizable theory of gravitation

Abstract

The renormalizability of quantum gravity remains an open question while it has been established recently that quantum gravity in the presence of standard sources is non-renormalizable. In view of traditional confusion and ambiguities surrounding non-renormalizable quantum field theories, it has been felt that physical theories must be renormalizable. Recently a new, nonperturbative view of non-renormalizable theories has been suggested that may have relevance for various interactions including gravity and various sources. In a path integral approach to quantum field theory such a view attributes ‘hard cores’ in the space of field histories to non-renormalizable interactions. Just as with more familiar ‘hard cores’, turning off the interaction does not completely remove all effects of the potential. Consequently the interacting theory is not even continuously connected to the usual free theory, but rather to an alternative ‘pseudo-free’ theory that incorporates the vestiges of the ‘hard cores’. Some insight into what is the significance and interpretation of non-renormalizable interactions can be gleaned from exactly soluble models. Application of this philosophy of non-renormalizable interactions is discussed for the gravitational field in interaction with some standard sources.