Quantum corrections to gravity and their implications for cosmology and astrophysics

Abstract

The quantum contributions to the gravitational action are relatively easy to calculate in the higher derivative sector of the theory. However, the applications to the post-inflationary cosmology and astrophysics require the corrections to the Einstein-Hilbert action and to the cosmological constant, and those we can not derive yet in a consistent and safe way. At the same time, if we assume that these quantum terms are covariant and that they have relevant magnitude, their functional form can be defined up to a single free parameter, which can be defined on the phenomenological basis. It turns out that the quantum correction may lead, in principle, to surprisingly strong and interesting effects in astrophysics and cosmology.

15 pages, LaTeX, WS style, contribution to the Proceedings of the QFEXT-2011 conference in the Centro de Ciencias de Benasque Pedro Pasqual, Spain

References in corpus (8)

• High-Resolution Rotation Curves and Galaxy Mass Models from THINGS
• Effective Action of Vacuum: Semiclassical Approach
• Dark energy: a quantum fossil from the inflationary Universe?
• The PN.S Elliptical Galaxy Survey: a standard LCDM halo around NGC 4374?
• Stress Tensor from the Trace Anomaly in Reissner-Nordstrom Spacetimes
• Renormalization group scale-setting in astrophysical systems
• Dynamics of the Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector in the quantum-corrected Newton gravity
• Testing dark matter warmness and quantity via the reduced relativistic gas model

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Inflation with an antisymmetric tensor field
• Scalar-Tensor gravity with system-dependent potential and its relation with Renormalization Group extended General Relativity
• Elliptical galaxies kinematics within general relativity with renormalization group effects
• Covariant quantum corrections to a scalar field model inspired by nonminimal natural inflation
• Solar System constraints on Renormalization Group extended General Relativity: The PPN and Laplace-Runge-Lenz analyses with the external potential effect
• Covariant Effective Action for Scalar-Tensor Theories of Gravity