The Spectrum of Quantum Gravity

Abstract

In this paper we consider the degrees of freedom beyond the graviton present in the effective field theory for quantum gravity. We point out that the position of the poles due to $${{R}^{2}}$$ and $${{R}_{{\mu \nu }}}{{R}^{{\mu \nu }}}$$ cannot be affected by operators that are higher order in curvature. On the other hand, operators of the type $$R\square R$$ will lead to new poles while shifting the positions of the poles found at second order in curvature. New degrees of freedom can be identified either, as just described, by looking at the poles of the graviton propagator corrected by quantum gravity or by mapping the Jordan frame theory to the Einstein frame theory. While this procedure is very well defined for second order curvature terms in the effective action, we point out that higher order terms in curvature lead to a nonlinear and non-local relation between the propagating scalar degree of freedom and the Ricci scalar. We show how to resolve these ambiguities and how to obtain the correct action in the Einstein frame. We illustrate our results by looking at $$f(R)$$ gravity.