Emergent Gravity requires (kinematic) non-locality

Abstract

This work refines arguments forbidding non-linear dynamical gravity from appearing in the low energy effective description of field theories with local kinematics, even for those with instantaneous long-range interactions. Specifically, we note that gravitational theories with universal coupling to energy -- an intrinsically non-linear phenomenon -- are characterized by Hamiltonians that are pure boundary terms on shell. In order for this to be the low energy effective description of a field theory with local kinematics, all bulk dynamics must be frozen and thus irrelevant to the construction. The result applies to theories defined either on a lattice or in the continuum, and requires neither Lorentz-invariance nor translation-invariance.

7 pages + title page & references

References in corpus (7)

• Quantum Gravity at a Lifshitz Point
• Gapless Bosonic Excitation without symmetry breaking: Novel Algebraic Spin liquid with soft Gravitons
• On the emergence of Lorentzian signature and scalar gravity
• Emergent physics: Fermi point scenario
• From configuration to dynamics -- Emergence of Lorentz signature in classical field theory
• Novel Algebraic Boson Liquid phase with soft Graviton excitations
• Can Hamiltonians be boundary observables in Parametrized Field Theories?

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Observables, gravitational dressing, and obstructions to locality and subsystems
• How is quantum information localized in gravity?
• Nonlocal Scalar Quantum Field Theory from Causal Sets
• The Hilbert Space of Quantum Gravity Is Locally Finite-Dimensional
• AdS and dS black hole solutions in analogue gravity: The relativistic and non-relativistic cases