Causality and gravity

A bstract We show how uncertainty in the causal structure of field theory is essentially inevitable when one includes quantum gravity. This includes the fact that lightcones are ill-defined in such a theory. This effect is small in the effective field theory regime, where it is independent of the UV...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of high energy physics 2021-11, Vol.2021 (11), p.1-23, Article 10
Main Authors: Donoghue, John F., Menezes, Gabriel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Causality
Classical and Quantum Gravitation
Effective Field Theories
Elementary Particles
Energy
Field theory
Gravity
High energy physics
Models of Quantum Gravity
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Propagation
Quantum Field Theories
Quantum Field Theory
Quantum gravity
Quantum Physics
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Relativity Theory
Spacetime
String Theory
Uncertainty
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Summary:A bstract We show how uncertainty in the causal structure of field theory is essentially inevitable when one includes quantum gravity. This includes the fact that lightcones are ill-defined in such a theory. This effect is small in the effective field theory regime, where it is independent of the UV completion of the theory, but grows with energy and represents an unknown uncertainty for a generic UV completion. We include details of the causality uncertainty which arises in a particular UV completion, i.e. quadratic gravity. We describe how the mechanisms uncovered in the effective field theory treatment, and some of those in quadratic gravity, could be common features of quantum gravity.
ISSN:1029-8479
1029-8479
DOI:10.1007/JHEP11(2021)010