Unitarity Problem Research Articles

Gravity-matter sum rules in models with a single extra-dimension

We prove a set of sum rules needed for KK-graviton pair production from matter in orbifolded extra-dimensional models. The sum rules can be found in full generality by considering the properties of solutions to the Sturm-Liouville problem, which describes the wave functions and the masses of the KK-gravitons in four dimensions. They ensure cancellations in the amplitudes of the processes mentioned above which considerably reduce their growth with s in the high-energy limit. This protects extra-dimensional theories from the low-scale unitarity problems that plague other theories with massive spin-2 particles. We argue that such relations are valid for a broader category of models thus generalizing our previous results that were limited to the large μ limit of the Randall-Sundrum model.

Unitarity violation in field theories of Lee–Wick’s complex ghost

Abstract Theories with fourth-order derivatives, including the Lee–Wick finite QED model and quadratic gravity, have a better UV behavior, but the presence of negative metric ghost modes endangers unitarity. Noticing that the ghost acquires a complex mass by radiative corrections, Lee and Wick, in particular, claimed that such complex ghosts would never be created by collisions of physical particles because of energy conservation, so that the physical S-matrix unitarity must hold. We investigate the unitarity problem faithfully, working in the operator formalism of quantum field theory. When complex ghosts participate, a complex delta function (a generalization of the Dirac delta function) appears at each interaction vertex, which enforces a specific conservation law of complex energy. Its particular property implies that the naive Feynman rule is wrong if the four-momenta are assigned to the internal lines after taking account of the conservation law in advance. We show that complex ghosts are actually created and unitarity is violated in such fourth-order derivative theories. We also find a definite energy threshold below which ghosts cannot be created: The theories are unitary and renormalizable below the threshold.

On the questions of asymptotic recoverability of information and subsystems in quantum gravity

A longstanding question in quantum gravity regards the localization of quantum information; one way to formulate this question is to ask how subsystems can be defined in quantum-gravitational systems. The gauge symmetry and necessity of solving the gravitational constraints appear to imply that the answers to this question here are different than in finite quantum systems, or in local quantum field theory. Specifically, the constraints can be solved by providing a “gravitational dressing” for the underlying field-theory operators, but this modifies their locality properties. It has been argued that holography itself may be explained through this role of the gauge symmetry and constraints, at the nonperturbative level, but there are also subtleties in constructing a holographic map in this approach. There are also claims that holography is implied even by perturbative solution of the constraints. This short note provides further examination of these questions, and in particular investigates to what extent perturbative or nonperturbative solution of the constraints implies that information naïvely thought to be localized can be recovered by asymptotic measurements, and the relevance of this in defining subsystems. In the leading perturbative case, the relevant effects are seen to be exponentially suppressed and asymptotically vanishing, for massive fields. These questions are, for example, important in sharply characterizing the unitarity problem for black holes.

Decays of the heavy top and new insights on epsilon _K in a one-VLQ minimal solution to the CKM unitarity problem

We propose a minimal extension of the Standard Model where an up-type vector-like quark, denoted T, is introduced and provides a simple solution to the CKM unitarity problem. We adopt the Botella-Chau parametrization in order to extract the 4times 3 quark mixing matrix which contains the three angles of the 3times 3 CKM matrix plus three new angles denoted theta _{14}, theta _{24}, theta _{34}. It is assumed that the mixing of T with standard quarks is dominated by theta _{14}. Imposing a recently derived, and much more restrictive, upper-bound on the New Physics contributions to epsilon _{K}, we find, in the limit of exact theta _{14} dominance where the other extra angles vanish, that epsilon _{K}^{text {NP}} is too large. However, if one relaxes the exact theta _{14} dominance limit, there exists a parameter region, where one may obtain epsilon _{K}^{text {NP}} in agreement with experiment while maintaining the novel pattern of T decays with the heavy quark decaying predominantly to the light quarks d and u. We also find a reduction in the decay rate of K_Lrightarrow pi ^0 nu {overline{nu }}.

Unitarity problems for an effective field theory description of early universe cosmology

In the context of Effective Field Theory, the Hilbert space of states increases in an expanding universe. Hence, the time evolution cannot be unitary. The formation of structure is usually studied using effective field theory techniques. We study the constraints on effective field theory analyses of early universe models which come from demanding that the factor of the space of states corresponding to length scales where the primordial fluctuations are manifest does not suffer from the unitarity problem. For bouncing and emergent cosmologies, no constraints arise provided that the energy scale of the bounce or emergent phases is smaller than the ultraviolet (UV) cutoff scale. On the other hand, in the case of the inflationary scenario, non-trivial upper bounds on the energy scale of inflation arise.

Diagrammar of physical and fake particles and spectral optical theorem

We prove spectral optical identities in quantum field theories of physical particles (defined by the Feynman iϵ prescription) and purely virtual particles (defined by the fakeon prescription). The identities are derived by means of purely algebraic operations and hold for every (multi)threshold separately and for arbitrary frequencies. Their major significance is that they offer a deeper understanding on the problem of unitarity in quantum field theory. In particular, they apply to “skeleton” diagrams, before integrating on the space components of the loop momenta and the phase spaces. In turn, the skeleton diagrams obey a spectral optical theorem, which gives the usual optical theorem for amplitudes, once the integrals on the space components of the loop momenta and the phase spaces are restored. The fakeon prescription/projection is implemented by dropping the thresholds that involve fakeon frequencies. We give examples at one loop (bubble, triangle, box, pentagon and hexagon), two loops (triangle with “diagonal”, box with diagonal) and arbitrarily many loops. We also derive formulas for the loop integrals with fakeons and relate them to the known formulas for the loop integrals with physical particles.

On the group-theoretical approach to relativistic wave equations for arbitrary spin

Formulating a relativistic equation for particles with arbitrary spin remains an open challenge in theoretical physics. In this study, the main algebraic approaches used to generalize the Dirac and Kemmer–Duffin equations for arbitrary-spin particles are investigated. It is proved that an irreducible relativistic equation formulated using spin matrices satisfying the commutation relations of the anti-de Sitter group leads to inconsistent results, mainly as a consequence of the violation of unitarity and the appearance of a mass spectrum that does not reflect the physical reality of elementary particles. However, the introduction of subsidiary conditions resolves the problem of unitarity and restores the physical meaning of the mass spectrum. The equations obtained by these approaches are solved and the physical nature of the solutions is discussed.

Are the CKM anomalies induced by vector-like quarks? Limits from flavor changing and Standard Model precision tests

Recent high precision determinations of Vus and Vud indicate towards anomalies in the first row of the CKM matrix. Namely, determination of Vud from beta decays and of Vus from kaon decays imply a violation of first row unitarity at about 3σ level. Moreover, there is tension between determinations of Vus obtained from leptonic Kμ2 and semileptonic Kℓ3 kaon decays. These discrepancies can be explained if there exist extra vector-like quarks at the TeV scale, which have large enough mixings with the lighter quarks. In particular, extra vector-like weak singlets quarks can be thought as a solution to the CKM unitarity problem and an extra vector-like weak doublet can in principle resolve all tensions. The implications of this kind of mixings are examined against the flavour changing phenomena and SM precision tests. We consider separately the effects of an extra down-type isosinglet, up-type isosinglet and an isodoublet containing extra quarks of both up and down type, and determine available parameter spaces for each case. We find that the experimental constraints on flavor changing phenomena become more stringent with larger masses, so that the extra species should have masses no more than few TeV. Moreover, only one type of extra multiplet cannot entirely explain all the discrepancies, and some their combination is required, e.g. two species of isodoublet, or one isodoublet and one (up or down type) isosinglet. We show that these scenarios are testable with future experiments. Namely, if extra vector-like quarks are responsible for CKM anomalies, then at least one of them should be found at scale of few TeV, and anomalous weak isospin violating Z-boson couplings with light quarks should be detected if the experimental precision on Z hadronic decay rate is improved by a factor of 2 or so.

Addressing the CKM unitarity problem with a vector-like up quark

We point out that hints of deviations from unitarity in the first row of the CKM matrix may be explained by the presence of a single vector-like top. We study how the stringent experimental constraints arising from CP Violation in the kaon sector and from meson mixing such as {D}^0hbox{-} {overline{D}}^0,{K}^0hbox{-} {overline{K}}^0 and {B}_{d,s}^0hbox{-} {overline{B}}_{d,s}^0 can be satisfied in the proposed framework. In order for the deviations from unitarity to be of the required size while keeping the theory perturbative, the new top quark should have a mass mT ≲ 7 TeV which could be probed in upcoming experiments at the energy frontier.

A New Black Hole Solution in Conformal Dilaton Gravity on a Warped Spacetime

An exact time-dependent solution of a black hole is found in a conformally invariant gravity model on a warped Randall-Sundrum spacetime, by writing the metric . Here, represents the “un-physical” spacetime and ω the dilaton field, which will be treated on equal footing as any renormalizable scalar field. In the case of a five-dimensional warped spacetime, we thereafter write . The dilaton field can be used to describe the different notion the in-going and outside observers have of the Hawking radiation by using different conformal gauge freedom. The disagreement about the interior of the black hole is explained by the antipodal map of points on the horizon. The free parameters of the solution can be chosen in such a way that is singular-free and topologically regular, even for ω → 0 . It is remarkable that the 5D and 4D effective field equations for the metric components and dilaton fields can be written in general dimension n = 4,5. From the exact energy-momentum tensor in Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates, we are able to determine the gravitational wave contribution in the process of evaporation of the black hole. It is conjectured that, in context of quantization procedures in the vicinity of the horizon, unitarity problems only occur in the bulk at large extra-dimension scale. The subtraction point in an effective theory will be in the UV only in the bulk, because the use of a large extra dimension results in a fundamental Planck scale comparable with the electroweak scale.

From Slavnov—Taylor Identities to the Renormalization of Gauge Theories

An important, and highly non-trivial, problem is proving the renormalizability and unitarity of quantized non-Abelian gauge theories. Lee and Zinn-Justin have given the first proof of the renormalizability of non-Abelian gauge theories in the spontaneously broken phase. An essential ingredient in the proof has been the observation, by Slavnov and Taylor, of a non-linear, non-local symmetry of the quantized theory, a direct consequence of Faddeev and Popov’s quantization procedure. After the introduction of non-physical fermions to represent the Faddeev-Popov determinant, this symmetry has led to the Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin fermionic symmetry of the quantized action and, finally, to the resulting Zinn-Justin equation, which makes it possible to solve the renormalization and unitarity problems in their full generality. For an elementary introduction to the discussion of quantum non-Abelian gauge field theories in the spirit of the article, see, for example, L. D. Faddeev, “Faddeev-Popov ghosts,” Scholarpedia 4 (4), 7389 (2009); A. A. Slavnov, “Slavnov-Taylor identities,” Scholarpedia 3 (10), 7119 (2008); C. M. Becchi and C. Imbimbo, “Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin symmetry,” Scholarpedia 3 (10), 7135 (2008); J. Zinn-Justin, “Zinn-Justin equation,” Scholarpedia 4 (1), 7120 (2009).

Regge limit of gauge theory amplitudes beyond leading power approximation

We study the high-energy small-angle Regge limit of the fermion-antifermion scattering in gauge theories and consider the part of the amplitude suppressed by a power of the scattering angle. For abelian gauge group all-order resummation of the double-logarithmic radiative corrections to the leading power-suppressed term is performed. We find that when the logarithm of the scattering angle is comparable to the inverse gauge coupling constant the asymptotic double-logarithmic enhancement overcomes the power suppression, a formally subleading term becomes dominant, and the small-angle expansion breaks down. In QCD we show that in the color-singlet channel for sufficiently small scattering angles the abelian power-suppressed contribution becomes comparable to the one of BFKL pomeron. Possible role of the subleading-power effects for the solution of the unitarity problem of perturbative Regge analysis in QED and QCD is discussed. An intriguing relation between the asymptotic behavior of the power-suppressed amplitudes in Regge and Sudakov limits is discovered.

The 'unitarity problem' of Higgs inflation in the light of collapse dynamics

Higgs inflation scenario is one of the most compelling models of inflation at present time. It not only explains the observed data well, but also provides means to include the inflaton field within the well understood Standard Model of particle physics, without invoking any need for its extension. Despite this, due to the requirement of large non-minimal coupling to the curvature scalar of the inflaton field, or in this case the Higgs field, this model suffers from a problem often called as the `unitarity' or the `naturalness' problem. On the other hand, to address the longstanding `interpretational issue' of quantum to classical transition of the primordial modes, the collapse dynamics of quantum mechanics has recently been included into the inflationary mechanism. We show that inclusion of such collapse mechanism in Higgs inflation helps alleviate the `unitarity problem' to a great deal.

Light inflaton completing Higgs inflation

We consider the extension of the Standard Model (SM) with a light inflaton where both unitarity problem in Higgs inflation and vacuum instability problem are resolved. The linear non-minimal coupling of the inflaton to gravity leads to a significant kinetic mixing between the inflaton and the graviton such that perturbative unitarity is restored up to Planck scale. We show the correlation between unitarity scale and inflationary observables in this model and discuss how the effective Higgs inflation appears.

Flattening the inflaton potential beyond minimal gravity

We review the status of the Starobinsky-like models for inflation beyond minimal gravity and discuss the unitarity problem due to the presence of a large non-minimal gravity coupling. We show that the induced gravity models allow for a self-consistent description of inflation and discuss the implications of the inflaton couplings to the Higgs field in the Standard Model.

Nonviolent unitarization: basic postulates to soft quantum structure of black holes

A first-principles approach to the unitarity problem for black holes is systematically explored, based on the postulates of 1) quantum mechanics 2) the ability to approximately locally divide quantum gravitational systems into subsystems 3) correspondence with quantum field theory predictions for appropriate observers and (optionally) 4) universality of new gravitational effects. Unitarity requires interactions between the internal state of a black hole and its surroundings that have not been identified in the field theory description; correspondence with field theory indicates that these are soft. A conjectured information-theoretic result for information transfer between subsystems, partly motivated by a perturbative argument, then constrains the minimum coupling size of these interactions of the quantum atmosphere of a black hole. While large couplings are potentially astronomically observable, given this conjecture one finds that the new couplings can be exponentially small in the black hole entropy, yet achieve the information transfer rate needed for unitarization, due to the large number of black hole internal states. This provides a new possible alternative to arguments for large effects near the horizon. If universality is assumed, these couplings can be described as small, soft, state-dependent fluctuations of the metric near the black hole. Open questions include that of the more fundamental basis for such an effective picture.

Planck scale operators, inflation, and fine tuning

Ultraviolet completion of the standard model plus gravity at and beyond the Planck scale is a daunting problem to which no generally accepted solution exists. Principal obstacles include (a) lack of data at the Planck scale (b) nonrenormalizability of gravity and (c) unitarity problem. Here we make a simple observation that, if one treats all Planck scale operators of equal canonical dimension democratically, one can tame some of the undesirable features of these models. With a reasonable amount of fine tuning one can satisfy slow roll conditions required in viable inflationary models. That remains true even when the number of such operators becomes very large.

Unitarity problems in 3D gravity theories

We revisit the problem of the bulk-boundary unitarity clash in 2 + 1 dimensional gravity theories, which has been an obstacle in providing a viable dual two-dimensional conformal field theory for bulk gravity in anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime. Chiral gravity, which is a particular limit of cosmological topologically massive gravity (TMG), suffers from pertur- bative log-modes with negative energies inducing a non-unitary logarithmic boundary field theory. We show here that any f(R) extension of TMG does not improve the situation. We also study the perturbative modes in the metric formulation of minimal massive gravity- originally constructed in a first-order formulation-and find that the massive mode has again negative energy except in the chiral limit. We comment on this issue and also discuss a possible solution to the problem of negative energy modes. In any of these theories, the infinitesimal dangerous deformations might not be integrable to full solutions; this suggests a linearization instability of AdS spacetime in the direction of the perturbative log-modes.

The third way to 3D gravity

Consistency of Einstein’s gravitational field equation [Formula: see text] imposes a “conservation condition” on the [Formula: see text]-tensor that is satisfied by (i) matter stress tensors, as a consequence of the matter equations of motion and (ii) identically by certain other tensors, such as the metric tensor. However, there is a third way, overlooked until now because it implies a “nongeometrical” action: one not constructed from the metric and its derivatives alone. The new possibility is exemplified by the 3D “minimal massive gravity” model, which resolves the “bulk versus boundary” unitarity problem of topologically massive gravity with Anti-de Sitter asymptotics. Although all known examples of the third way are in three spacetime dimensions, the idea is general and could, in principle, apply to higher dimensional theories.

Uninformed Hawking radiation

We show in detail that the Parikh-Wilczek tunneling method (PWTM), which was designed for resolving the information loss problem in Hawking radiation (HR) fails whenever the radiation occurs from an isothermal process. The PWTM aims to produce a non-thermal HR which adumbrates the resolution of the problem of unitarity in quantum mechanics (QM), and consequently the entropy (or information) conservation problem. The effectiveness of the method has been satisfactorily tested on numerous black holes (BHs). However, it has been shown that the isothermal HR, which results from the emission of the uncharged particles of the linear dilaton BH (LDBH) described in the Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton (EMD) theory, the PWTM has vulnerability in having non-thermal radiation. In particular, we consider Painlevé-Gullstrand coordinates (PGCs) and isotropic coordinates (ICs) in order to prove the aforementioned failure in the PWTM. While carrying out calculations in the ICs, we also highlight the effect of the refractive index on the null geodesics.