General Scalar Field Theory Research Articles

Leading all-loop quantum contribution to the effective potential in general scalar field theory

The RG equation for the effective potential in the leading log (LL) approximation is constructed which is valid for an arbitrary scalar field theory in 4 dimensions. The solution to this equation sums up the leading log ϕ contributions to all orders of perturbation theory. In general, this is the second order nonlinear partial differential equation, but in some cases it can be reduced to the ordinary one. For particular examples, this equation is solved numerically and the LL effective potential is constructed. The solution has a characteristic discontinuity replacing the Landau pole typical for the ϕ4 theory. For a power-like potential no new minima appear due to the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism.

Can light dark matter solve the core-cusp problem?

Recently there has been much interest in light dark matter, especially ultra-light axions, as they may provide a solution to the core-cusp problem at the center of galaxies. Since very light bosons can have a de Broglie wavelength that is of astrophysical size, they can smooth out the centers of galaxies to produce a core, as opposed to vanilla dark matter models, and so it has been suggested that this solves the core-cusp problem. In this work, we critically examine this claim. While an ultra-light particle will indeed lead to a core, we examine whether the relationship between the density of the core and its radius matches the data over a range of galaxies. We first review data that shows the core density of a galaxy $\rho_c$ varies as a function of the core radius $R_c$ as $\rho_c\propto1/R_c^\beta$ with $\beta\approx1$. We then compare this to theoretical models. We examine a large class of light scalar dark matter models, governed by some potential $V$. For simplicity, we take the scalar to be complex with a global $U(1)$ symmetry in order to readily organize solutions by a conserved particle number. However, we expect our central conclusions to persist even for a real scalar, and furthermore, a complex scalar matches the behavior of a real scalar in the non-relativistic limit, which is the standard regime of interest. For any potential $V$, we find the relationship between $\rho_c$ and $R_c$ for ground state solutions is always in one of the following regimes: (i) $\beta\gg1$, or (ii) $\beta\ll1$, or (iii) unstable, and so it never matches the data. We also find similar conclusions for virialized dark matter, more general scalar field theories, degenerate fermion dark matter, superfluid dark matter, and general polytropes. We conclude that the solution to the core-cusp problem is more likely due to either complicated baryonic effects or some other type of dark matter interactions.

CMB B-mode auto-bispectrum produced by primordial gravitational waves

Gravitational waves from inflation induce polarization patterns in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). It is known that there are only two types of non-Gaussianities of the gravitaional waves in the most general scalar field theories having second-order field equations. One originates from the inherent non-Gaussianity in general relativity, and the other from a derivative coupling between the Einstein tensor and a kinetic term of the scalar field. We calculate polarization bispectra induced by these non-Gaussianities by transforming them into separable forms by virtue of the Laplace transformation. It is shown that future experiments can detect only the new one if the latter coupling parameter takes an extremely large value, which, however, does not cotradict the current observational data.

Condensation of Lee-Yang zeros in scalar field theory.

We show that, at the critical temperature, there is a class of Lee-Yang zeros of the partition function in a general scalar field theory, which location scales with the size of the system with a characteristic exponent expressed in terms of the isothermal critical exponent δ. In the thermodynamic limit the zeros belonging to this class condense to the critical point ζ=1 on the real axis in the complex fugacity plane while the complementary set of zeros (with Reζ<1) covers the unit circle. Although the aforementioned class degenerates to a single point for an infinite system, when the size is finite it contributes significantly to the partition function and reflects the self-similar structure (fractal geometry, scaling laws) of the critical system. This property opens up the perspective to formulate finite-size scaling theory in effective QCD, near the chiral critical point, in terms of the location of Lee-Yang zeros.

Hawking fluxes and anomalies in rotating regular black holes with a time-delay

Based on the anomaly cancellation method we compute the Hawking fluxes (the Hawking thermal flux and the total flux of energy-momentum tensor) from a four-dimensional rotating regular black hole with a time-delay. To this purpose, in the three metrics proposed in [], we try to perform the dimensional reduction in which the anomaly cancellation method is feasible at the near-horizon region in a general scalar field theory. As a result we can demonstrate that the dimensional reduction is possible in two of those metrics. Hence we perform the anomaly cancellation method and compute the Hawking fluxes in those two metrics. Our Hawking fluxes involve three effects: (1) quantum gravity effect regularizing the core of the black holes, (2) rotation of the black hole, (3) time-delay. Further in this paper toward the metric in which the dimensional could not be performed, we argue that it would be some problematic metric, and mention its cause. The Hawking fluxes we compute in this study could be considered to correspond to more realistic Hawking fluxes. Further what Hawking fluxes can be obtained from the anomaly cancellation method would be interesting in terms of the relation between a consistency of quantum field theories and black hole thermodynamics.

Scattering equations and Feynman diagrams

We show a direct matching between individual Feynman diagrams and integration measures in the scattering equation formalism of Cachazo, He and Yuan. The connection is most easily explained in terms of triangular graphs associated with planar Feynman diagrams in $\phi^3$-theory. We also discuss the generalization to general scalar field theories with $\phi^p$ interactions, corresponding to polygonal graphs involving vertices of order $p$. Finally, we describe how the same graph-theoretic language can be used to provide the precise link between individual Feynman diagrams and string theory integrands.

Consistent perturbations in an imperfect fluid

We present a new prescription for analysing cosmological perturbationsin a more-general class of scalar-field dark-energy models where theenergy-momentum tensor has an imperfect-fluid form. This class includesBrans-Dicke models, f(R) gravity, theories with kinetic gravitybraiding and generalised galileons. We employ the intuitive languageof fluids, allowing us to explicitly maintain a dependence on physicaland potentially measurable properties. We demonstrate that hydrodynamicsis not always a valid description for describing cosmological perturbationsin general scalar-field theories and present a consistent alternativethat nonetheless utilises the fluid language.We apply this approach explicitly to a worked example: k-essencenon-minimally coupled to gravity. This is the simplest case whichcaptures the essential new features of these imperfect-fluid models.We demonstrate the generic existence of a new scale separating regimeswhere the fluid is perfect and imperfect. We obtain the equationsfor the evolution of dark-energy density perturbations in both theseregimes. The model also features two other known scales: the Comptonscale related to the breaking of shift symmetry and the Jeans scalewhich we show is determined by the speed of propagation of small scalar-fieldperturbations, i.e. causality, as opposed to the frequently used definitionof the ratio of the pressure and energy-density perturbations.

Inflation and primordial non-Gaussianities of “generalized Galileons”

We set up cosmological perturbation theory and study the cosmological implicationsof the so-called “generalized Galileon” developed in [6, 7].This is the most general scalar field theory whose Lagrangian contains derivatives up to second order while keeping second order equations of motion, and contains as sub-cases k-inflation, G-inflation and many other models. We calculate the power spectrum of the primordial curvature perturbation, finding a modification of the usual consistency relation of the tensor-to-scalar ratio in k-inflation or perfect fluid models. Finally we also calculate the bispectrum, which contains no new shapes beyond those of k-inflation.

Inflationary non-Gaussianities in the most general second-order scalar-tensor theories

For very general scalar-field theories in which the equations of motion are at second-order, we evaluate the three-point correlation function of primordial scalar perturbations generated during inflation. We show that the shape of non-Gaussianities is well approximated by the equilateral type. The equilateral non-linear parameter f_NL^equil is derived on the quasi de Sitter background where the slow-variation parameters are much smaller than unity. We apply our formula for f_NL^equil to a number of single-field models of inflation--such as k-inflation, k-inflation with Galileon terms, potential-driven Galileon inflation, nonminimal coupling models (including field-derivative coupling models), and Gauss-Bonnet gravity.

Fromk-essence to generalized Galileons

We determine the most general scalar field theories which have an action that depends on derivatives of order two or less, and have equations of motion that stay second order and lower on flat space-time. We show that those theories can all be obtained from linear combinations of Lagrangians made by multiplying a particular form of the Galileon Lagrangian by an arbitrary scalar function of the scalar field and its first derivatives. We also obtain curved space-time extensions of those theories which have second-order field equations for both the metric and the scalar field. This provides the most general extension, under the condition that field equations stay second order, of $k$-essence, Galileons, $k$-Mouflage as well as of the kinetically braided scalars. It also gives the most general action for a possible scalar classicalizer with second-order field equations. We discuss the relation between our construction and the Euler hierarchies of Fairlie et al. showing, in particular, that Euler hierarchies allow one to obtain the most general theory when the latter is shift symmetric. As a simple application of our formalism, we give the covariantized version of the conformal Galileon.

Quantum field theories on manifolds with curved boundaries: Scalar fields

A framework allowing for perturbative calculations to be carried out for quantum field theories with arbitrary smoothly curved boundaries is described. It is based on an expansion of the Green function for second-order differential operators valid in the neighbourhood of the boundary and which is obtained from a corresponding expansion of the associated heat kernel derived earlier for arbitrary mixed Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. The first few leading terms in the expansion are sufficient to calculate all additional divergences present in a perturbative loop expansion as a consequence of the presence of the boundary. The method is applied to a general renormalisable scalar field theory in four dimensions using dimensional regularisation to two loops and expanding about arbitrary background fields. Detailed results are also specialised to an O( n) symmetric model with a single coupling constant. Extra boundary terms are introduced into the action which give rise to either Dirichlet orgeneralized Neumann boundary conditions for the quantum fields. For plane boundaries the resulting renormalisation group functions are in accord with earlier results but here the additional terms depending on the extrinsic curvature of the boundary are found. Various consistency relations are also checked and the implications of conformal invariance at the critical point where the β-function vanishes are also derived. For a general scalar field theory, where the fieldsø attain specified values ϕ in the boundary, the local Schrödinger equation for the wave functional defined by the functional integral under deformations of the boundary is also verified to two loops. The perturbative expansion for the wave functional is defined by expansion around the solution of the classical field equations satisfying the required boundary values and the counterterms necessary to derive a finite hamiltonian operator, which includes a functional Laplace operator on the fields ϕ, are found to the order considered. Consistency of the local Schrödinger equation with the renormalisation group to all orders in perturbation theory is also discussed.

Mechanics in euclidian terms giving all the three einstein effects

The first part of this paper is concerned with test particles in a radially symmetric and stationary gravitational field. It is shown that if the special theory of relativity is valid in the infinitesimal neighborhood of any point of such a field, then a single new assumption will suffice to yield equations that predict all the three Einstein effects. Notably, the equations suggest also an energy process associated with the motion of a test particle in a gravitational field that may give an explanation to such phenomena as novae and radio stars. The second part of this paper shows that without further assumptions the equations for the radially symmetric and stationary field may be extended to a general scalar field theory. A simple solution of the latter theory reveals effects that may prove to be of interest to astronomy. The paper contains also a brief discussion of a necessary modification of the corpuscular theory of light in order to bring it in line with the present theory.