Bimetric Truncations for Quantum Einstein Gravity and Asymptotic Safety
Jul, 200948 pages
Published in:
- Annals Phys. 325 (2010) 785-815
e-Print:
- 0907.2617 [gr-qc]
Report number:
- MZ-TH-09-17
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Abstract: (arXiv)
In the average action approach to the quantization of gravity the fundamental requirement of 'background independence' is met by actually introducing a background metric but leaving it completely arbitrary. The associated Wilsonian renormalization group defines a coarse graining flow on a theory space of functionals which, besides the dynamical metric, depend explicitly on the background metric. All solutions to the truncated flow equations known to date have a trivial background field dependence only, namely via the classical gauge fixing term. In this paper we analyze a number of conceptual issues related to the bimetric character of the gravitational average action and explore a first nontrivial bimetric truncation in the simplified setting of conformally reduced gravity. Possible implications for the Asymptotic Safety program and the cosmological constant problem are discussed in detail.- Renormalization group
- Quantum gravity
- quantum gravity
- asymptotic safety
- cosmological constant
- renormalization group
- background field
- gauge fixing
- metric
- effective action
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