Asymptotic Safety Research Articles

Model building from asymptotic safety with Higgs and flavor portals

We perform a comprehensive search for Standard Model extensions inspired by asymptotic safety. Our models feature a singlet matrix scalar field, three generations of vector-like leptons, and direct links to the Higgs and flavor sectors via new Yukawa and portal couplings. A novel feature is that the enlarged scalar sector may spontaneously break lepton flavor universality. We provide a complete two-loop renormalization group analysis of the running gauge, Yukawa, and quartic couplings to find ultraviolet fixed points and the BSM critical surface of parameters, $i.e.$ the set of boundary conditions at the TeV scale for which models remain well-behaved and predictive up to the Planck scale without encountering Landau poles or instabilities. This includes templates for asymptotically safe Standard Model extensions which match the measured values of gauge couplings and the Higgs, top, and bottom masses. We further detail the phenomenology of our models covering production, decay, fermion mixing, anomalous magnetic moments, effects from scalar mixing and chiral enhancement, and constraints on model parameters from data. Signatures at proton-proton and lepton colliders such as lepton flavor violation and displaced vertices, and the prospect for electric dipole moments or charged lepton-flavor-violating type processes, are also indicated.

Graviton-mediated scattering amplitudes from the quantum effective action

We employ the curvature expansion of the quantum effective action for gravity-matter systems to construct graviton-mediated scattering amplitudes for non-minimally coupled scalar fields in a Minkowski background. By design, the formalism parameterises all quantum corrections to these processes and is manifestly gauge-invariant. The conditions resulting from UV-finiteness, unitarity, and causality are analysed in detail and it is shown by explicit construction that the quantum effective action provides sufficient room to meet these structural requirements without introducing non-localities or higher-spin degrees of freedom. Our framework provides a bottom-up approach to all quantum gravity programs seeking for the quantisation of gravity within the framework of quantum field theory. Its scope is illustrated by specific examples, including effective field theory, Stelle gravity, infinite derivative gravity, and Asymptotic Safety.

Kantowski–Sachs cosmology, Weyl geometry, and asymptotic safety in quantum gravity

A brief review of the essentials of asymptotic safety and the renormalization group (RG) improvement of the Schwarzschild black hole that removes the r = 0 singularity is presented. It is followed with a RG improvement of the Kantowski–Sachs metric associated with a Schwarzschild black hole interior such that there is no singularity at t = 0 due to the running Newtonian coupling G(t) vanishing at t = 0. Two temporal horizons at [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are found. For times below the Planck scale t < t P, and above the Hubble time t > t H, the components of the Kantowski–Sachs metric exhibit a key sign change, so the roles of the spatial z and temporal t coordinates are exchanged, and one recovers a repulsive inflationary de Sitter-like core around z = 0, and a Schwarzschild-like metric in the exterior region z > R H = 2G o M. The inclusion of a running cosmological constant Λ(t) follows. We proceed with the study of a dilaton-gravity (scalar–tensor theory) system within the context of Weyl’s geometry that permits singling out the expression for the classical potential [Formula: see text], instead of being introduced by hand, and find a family of metric solutions that are conformally equivalent to the (anti) de Sitter metric. To conclude, an ansatz for the truncated effective average action of ordinary dilaton gravity in Riemannian geometry is introduced, and a RG-improved cosmology based on the Friedmann–Lemaitre–Robertson–Walker (FLRW) metric is explored where instead of recurring to the cutoff identification k = k(t) = ξH(t), based on the Hubble function H(t), with ξ a positive constant, one now has [Formula: see text], when [Formula: see text] is a positive-definite dilaton scalar field that is monotonically decreasing with time.

Anomalous magnetic moments from asymptotic safety

The measurements of the muon and electron anomalous magnetic moments hint at physics beyond the standard model. We show why and how models inspired by asymptotic safety can explain deviations from standard model predictions naturally. Our setup features an enlarged scalar sector and Yukawa couplings between leptons and new vector-like fermions. Using the complete two-loop running of couplings, we observe a well-behaved high energy limit of models including a stabilization of the Higgs. We find that a manifest breaking of lepton universality beyond standard model Yukawas is not necessary to explain the muon and electron anomalies. We further predict the tau anomalous magnetic moment, and new particles in the TeV energy range whose signatures at colliders are indicated. With small CP phases, the electron EDM can be as large as the present bound.

Effective Asymptotic Safety and Its Predictive Power: Gauge-Yukawa Theories

Effective field theory provides a new perspective on the predictive power of Renormalization Group fixed points. Critical trajectories between different fixed points confine the regions of UV-complete, IR-complete, as well as conformal theories. The associated boundary surfaces cannot be crossed by the Renormalization Group flow of any effective field theory. We delineate cases in which the boundary surface acts as an infrared attractor for generic effective field theories. Gauge-Yukawa theories serve as an example that is both perturbative and of direct phenomenological interest. We identify additional matter fields such that all the observed coupling values of the Standard Model, apart from the Abelian hypercharge, lie within the conformal region. We define a quantitative measure of the predictivity of effective asymptotic safety and demonstrate phenomenological constraints for the associated beyond Standard-Model Yukawa couplings.

Asymptotically safe gravity with fermions

We use the functional renormalization group equation for the effective average action to study the fixed point structure of gravity-fermion systems on a curved background spacetime. We approximate the effective average action by the Einstein-Hilbert action supplemented by a fermion kinetic term and a coupling of the fermion bilinears to the spacetime curvature. The latter interaction is singled out based on a “smart truncation building principle”. The resulting renormalization group flow possesses two families of interacting renormalization group fixed points extending to any number of fermions. The first family exhibits an upper bound on the number of fermions for which the fixed points could provide a phenomenologically interesting high-energy completion via the asymptotic safety mechanism. The second family comes without such a bound. The inclusion of the non-minimal gravity-matter interaction is crucial for discriminating the two families. Our work also clarifies the origin of the strong regulator-dependence of the fixed point structure reported in earlier literature and we comment on the relation of our findings to studies of the same system based on a vertex expansion of the effective average action around a flat background spacetime.

Why the Cosmological Constant Seems to Hardly Care About Quantum Vacuum Fluctuations: Surprises From Background Independent Coarse Graining

Background Independence is a sine qua non for every satisfactory theory of Quantum Gravity. In particular if one tries to establish a corresponding notion of Wilsonian renormalization, or coarse graining, it presents a major conceptual and technical difficulty usually. In this paper we adopt the approach of the gravitational Effective Average Action and demonstrate that generically coarse graining in Quantum Gravity and in standard field theories on a non-dynamical spacetime are profoundly different. By means of a concrete example, which in connection with the cosmological constant problem is also interesting in its own right, we show that the surprising and sometimes counterintuitive implications of Background Independent coarse graining are neither restricted to high energies, nor to strongly nonperturbative regimes. In fact, while our approach has been employed in most studies of Asymptotic Safety, this particular ultraviolet behaviour plays no essential role in the present context.

Dark Side of Weyl Gravity

We address the issue of a dynamical breakdown of scale invariance in quantum Weyl gravity together with related cosmological implications. In the first part, we build on our previous work [Phys. Rev. D2020, 101, 044050], where we found a non-trivial renormalization group fixed point in the infrared sector of quantum Weyl gravity. Here, we prove that the ensuing non-Gaussian IR fixed point is renormalization scheme independent. This confirms the feasibility of the analog of asymptotic safety scenario for quantum Weyl gravity in the IR. Some features, including non-analyticity and a lack of autonomy, of the system of β-functions near a turning point of the renormalization group at intermediate energies are also described. We further discuss an extension of the renormalization group analysis to the two-loop level. In particular, we show universal properties of the system of β-functions related to three couplings associated with C2 (Weyl square), G (Gauss–Bonnet), and R2 (Ricci curvature square) terms. Finally, we discuss various technical and conceptual issues associated with the conformal (trace) anomaly and propose possible remedies. In the second part, we analyze physics in the broken phase. In particular, we show that, in the low-energy sector of the broken phase, the theory looks like Starobinsky f(R) gravity with a gravi-cosmological constant that has a negative sign in comparison to the usual matter-induced cosmological constant. We discuss implications for cosmic inflation and highlight a non-trivial relation between Starobinsky’s parameter and the gravi-cosmological constant. Salient issues, including possible UV completions of quantum Weyl gravity and the role of the trace anomaly matching, are also discussed.

Critical Reflections on Asymptotically Safe Gravity

Asymptotic safety is a theoretical proposal for the ultraviolet completion of quantum field theories, in particular for quantum gravity. Significant progress on this program has led to a first characterization of the Reuter fixed point. Further advancement in our understanding of the nature of quantum spacetime requires addressing a number of open questions and challenges. Here, we aim at providing a critical reflection on the state of the art in the asymptotic safety program, specifying and elaborating on open questions of both technical and conceptual nature. We also point out systematic pathways, in various stages of practical implementation, towards answering them. Finally, we also take the opportunity to clarify some common misunderstandings regarding the program.

Shadow and deflection angle of rotating black hole in asymptotically safe gravity

We analytically investigate the shadows cast by rotating black holes in the asymptotically safe gravity (ASG) by deriving complete null geodesics and observables using the Hamilton–Jacobi equation and Carter separable method. It turns out that the apparent shape and size of the shadow depend on the ASG parameters (ζ,γ) in addition to other black hole parameters (M,a). The size of black hole shadows monotonically decrease and shadows get more distorted with increasing values of ASG parameters, when compared with the Kerr black hole shadows. In turn, we use shadow observables to estimate black hole spin and ASG parameters. Noteworthy, we find that the deflection angle of the light has been modified by ASG parameters to generalize the Kerr deflection angle, and the corrections in deflection angle are of O (μas). In the vanishing limits of ASG parameters our results smoothly reduced to the Kerr black holes. The inferred circularity deviation ΔC≤0.10 for the M87* black hole shadow merely constrains the ASG parameter ζ, however, shadow angular diameter θd=42±3μas, within the 1σ region, places bounds ζ≤0.1324 for γ=0.10.

Traversability of quantum improved wormhole solution

We have investigated the problem of traversability of wormholes in the framework of quantum improvement of gravity theory arising from functional renormalization group methods to describe the asymptotic safe quantum gravity. We have shown that improved pseudospherical wormholes could be traversable with non--exotic matter, while spherical ones could not. This is done within a specific model of improvement.

Quantum-Only Metrics in Spherically Symmetric Gravity

The Einstein action for the gravitational field has some properties which make of it, after quantization, a rare prototype of systems with quantum configurations that do not have a classical analogue. Assuming spherical symmetry in order to reduce the effective dimensionality, we have performed a Monte Carlo simulation of the path integral with transition probability e − β | S | . Although this choice does not allow to reproduce the full dynamics, it does lead us to find a large ensemble of metric configurations having action | S | ≪ ħ by several magnitude orders. These vacuum fluctuations are strong deformations of the flat space metric (for which S = 0 exactly). They exhibit a periodic polarization in the scalar curvature R. In the simulation we fix a length scale L and divide it into N sub-intervals. The continuum limit is investigated by increasing N up to ∼ 10 6 ; the average squared action ⟨ S 2 ⟩ is found to scale as 1 / N 2 and thermalization of the algorithm occurs at a very low temperature (classical limit). This is in qualitative agreement with analytical results previously obtained for theories with stabilized conformal factor in the asymptotic safety scenario.

On Characterizing the Quantum Geometry Underlying Asymptotic Safety

The asymptotic safety program builds on a high-energy completion of gravity based on the Reuter fixed point, a non-trivial fixed point of the gravitational renormalization group flow. At this fixed point the canonical mass-dimension of coupling constants is balanced by anomalous dimensions induced by quantum fluctuations such that the theory enjoys quantum scale invariance in the ultraviolet. The crucial role played by the quantum fluctuations suggests that the geometry associated with the fixed point exhibits non-manifold like properties. In this work, we continue the characterization of this geometry employing the composite operator formalism based on the effective average action. Explicitly, we give a relation between the anomalous dimensions of geometric operators on a background d-sphere and the stability matrix encoding the linearized renormalization group flow in the vicinity of the fixed point. The eigenvalue spectrum of the stability matrix is analyzed in detail and we identify a perturbative regime where the spectral properties are governed by canonical power counting. Our results recover the feature that quantum gravity fluctuations turn the (classically marginal) R^2-operator into a relevant one. Moreover, we find strong indications that higher-order curvature terms present in the two-point function play a crucial role in guaranteeing the predictive power of the Reuter fixed point.

Scalegenesis and fermionic dark matters in the flatland scenario

We propose an extension of the standard model with Majorana-type fermionic dark matters based on the flatland scenario where all scalar coupling constants, including scalar mass terms, vanish at the Planck scale, i.e. the scalar potential is flat above the Planck scale. This scenario could be compatible with the asymptotic safety paradigm for quantum gravity. We search the parameter space so that the model reproduces the observed values such as the Higgs mass, the electroweak vacuum and the relic abundance of dark matter. We also investigate the spin-independent elastic cross section for the Majorana fermions and a nucleon. It is shown that the Majorana fermions as dark matter candidates could be tested by dark matter direct detection experiments such as XENON, LUX and PandaX-II. We demonstrate that within the minimal setup compatible with the flatland scenario at the Planck scale or asymptotically safe quantum gravity, the extended model could have a strong predictability.

On the scaling of composite operators in asymptotic safety

The Asymptotic Safety hypothesis states that the high-energy completion of gravity is provided by an interacting renormalization group fixed point. This implies non-trivial quantum corrections to the scaling dimensions of operators and correlation functions which are characteristic for the corresponding universality class. We use the composite operator formalism for the effective average action to derive an analytic expression for the scaling dimension of an infinite family of geometric operators int {d}^dxsqrt{g}{R}^n . We demonstrate that the anomalous dimensions interpolate continuously between their fixed point value and zero when evaluated along renormalization group trajectories approximating classical general relativity at low energy. Thus classical geometry emerges when quantum fluctuations are integrated out. We also compare our results to the stability properties of the interacting renormalization group fixed point projected to f (R)-gravity, showing that the composite operator formalism in the single-operator approximation cannot be used to reliably determine the number of relevant parameters of the theory.

A Critique of the Asymptotic Safety Program

The present practice of Asymptotic Safety in gravity is in conflict with explicit calculations in low energy quantum gravity. This raises the question of whether the present practice meets the Weinberg condition for Asymptotic Safety. I argue, with examples, that the running of $\Lambda$ and $G$ found in Asymptotic Safety are not realized in the real world, with reasons which are relatively simple to understand. A comparison/contrast with quadratic gravity is also given, which suggests a few obstacles that must be overcome before the Lorentzian version of the theory is well behaved. I make a suggestion on how a Lorentzian version of Asymptotic Safety could potentially solve these problems.

Dark matter meets quantum gravity

We search for an extension of the Standard Model that contains a viable dark matter candidate and that can be embedded into a fundamental, asymptotically safe, quantum field theory with quantum gravity. Demanding asymptotic safety leads to boundary conditions for the non-gravitational couplings at the Planck scale. For a given dark matter model these translate into constraints on the mass of the dark matter candidate. We derive constraints on the dark matter mass and couplings in two minimal dark matter models: i) scalar dark matter coupled via the Higgs-portal in the $B$-$L$ model; ii) fermionic dark matter in a $U(1)_X$ extension of the Standard Model, coupled via the new gauge boson. For scalar dark matter we find 56 GeV $ < M_\text{DM} < 63$ GeV, and for fermionic dark matter $M_\text{DM} \leq 50$ TeV. Within our framework, we identify three benchmark scenarios with distinct phenomenological consequences.

On the quantum improved Schwarzschild black hole

Deriving the gravitational effective action directly from exact renormalization group is very complicated, if not impossible. Hence, to study the effects of running gravitational coupling which tends to a non-Gaussian UV fixed point (as it is supposed by the asymptotic safety conjecture), two steps are usually adopted. Cutoff identification and improvement of the gravitational coupling to the running one. As suggested in Ref. 1, a function of all independent curvature invariants seems to be the best choice for cutoff identification of gravitational quantum fluctuations in curved space–time and makes the action improvement, which saves the general covariance of theory, possible. Here, we choose Ricci tensor square for this purpose and then the equation of motion of improved gravitational action and its spherically symmetric vacuum solution are obtained. Indeed, its effect on the massive particles’ trajectory and the black hole thermodynamics is studied.

Cosmological constant problem: deflation during inflation

We argue that the discrepancy between the Planck mass scale and the observed value of the cosmological constant can be largely attenuated, if those quantities are understood as a result of effective, and thus scale-dependent, couplings. We exemplify this mechanism for the early inflationary epoch of the universe by solving the corresponding effective gap equations, subject to an energy condition. Several non-trivial checks and extensions are discussed. A comparison of our results to the renormalization group flow, obtained within the asymptotic safety program reveals a stunning agreement.

Asymptotic safety, the Higgs boson mass, and beyond the standard model physics

There are many hints that gravity is asymptotically safe. The inclusion of gravitational corrections can result in the ultraviolet fundamental Standard Model and constrain the Higgs mass to take the smallest value such that electroweak vacuum is stable. Taking into account the current top quark mass measurements this value is $m_H \approx 130$ GeV.\\ This article considers the predictions of the Higgs mass in two minimal Beyond Standard Model scenarios, where the stability is improved. One is the sterile quark axion model, while the other is the $U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge symmetry model introducing a new massive $Z'$ gauge boson. The inclusion of $Z'$ boson gives the correct prediction for this mass, while inclusion of sterile quark(s) gives only a slight effect.\\ Also a new, gravitational solution to the strong CP problem is discussed.