Renormalization and causality violations in classical gravity coupled with quantum matter

Abstract

I prove that classical gravity coupled with quantized matter can be renormalized with a finite number of independent couplings, plus field redefinitions, without introducing higher-derivative kinetic terms in the gravitational sector, but adding vertices that couple the matter stress-tensor with the Ricci tensor. The theory is called "acausal gravity", because it predicts the violation of causality at high energies. Renormalizability is proved by means of a map M that relates acausal gravity with higher-derivative gravity. The causality violations are governed by two parameters, a and b, that are mapped by M into higher-derivative couplings. At the tree level causal prescriptions exist, but they are spoiled by the one-loop corrections. Some ideas are inspired by the usual treatments of the Abraham-Lorentz force in classical electrodynamics.

35 pages; v2 includes comparisons with other approaches and proof corrections for JHEP

References in corpus (5)

• Why Eppley and Hannah's Experiment Isn't
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• Metamorphosis of the Cosmological Constant and 5D Origin of the Fiducial Metric
• Windows on Quantum Gravity
• Renormalizable acausal theories of classical gravity coupled with interacting quantum fields
• Classicized dynamics and initial conditions in field theories with fakeons
• Tree-level scattering amplitudes in nonlocal field theories