Alessia Platania

Top mass determination, Higgs inflation, and vacuum stability

A bstractThe possibility that new physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) appears only at the Planck scale MP is often considered. However, it is usually assumed that new physics interactions at MP do not affect the electroweak vacuum lifetime, so the latter is obtained neglecting these terms. According to the resulting stability phase diagram, for the current experimental values of the top and Higgs masses, our universe lives in a metastable state (with very long lifetime), near the edge of stability. However, we show that the stability phase diagram strongly depends on new physics and that, despite claims to the contrary, a more precise determination of the top (as well as of the Higgs) mass will not allow to discriminate between stability, metastability or criticality of the electroweak vacuum. At the same time, we show that the conditions needed for the realization of Higgs inflation scenarios (all obtained neglecting new physics) are too sensitive to the presence of new interactions at MP . Therefore, Higgs inflation scenarios require very severe fine tunings that cast serious doubts on these models.

Quantum gravity on foliated spacetimes: Asymptotically safe and sound

Asymptotic Safety provides a mechanism for constructing a consistent and predictive quantum theory of gravity valid on all length scales. Its key ingredient is a non-Gaussian fixed point of the gravitational renormalization group flow which controls the scaling of couplings and correlation functions at high energy. In this work we use a functional renormalization group equation adapted to the ADM-formalism for evaluating the gravitational renormalization group flow on a cosmological Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background. Besides possessing the UV-non-Gaussian fixed point characteristic for Asymptotic Safety the setting exhibits a second non-Gaussian fixed point with a positive Newtons constant and real critical exponents. The new fixed point alters the phase diagram in such a way that all renormalization group trajectories connected to classical general relativity are well-defined on all length scales. In particular a positive cosmological constant is dynamically driven to zero in the deep infrared. Moreover, the scaling dimensions associated with the universality classes emerging within the causal setting exhibit qualitative agreement with results found within the

Renormalization group fixed points of foliated gravity-matter systems

\epsilon

Asymptotically safe inflation from quadratic gravity

-expansion around two dimensions, Monte Carlo simulations based on Lattice Quantum Gravity, and the discretized Wheeler-deWitt equation.

Bouncing and emergent cosmologies from Arnowitt–Deser–Misner RG flows

A bstractWe employ the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner formalism to study the renormalization group flow of gravity minimally coupled to an arbitrary number of scalar, vector, and Dirac fields. The decomposition of the gravitational degrees of freedom into a lapse function, shift vector, and spatial metric equips spacetime with a preferred (Euclidean) “time”- direction. In this work, we provide a detailed derivation of the renormalization group flow of Newton’s constant and the cosmological constant on a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background. Adding matter fields, it is shown that their contribution to the flow is the same as in the covariant formulation and can be captured by two parameters dgdλ. We classify the resulting fixed point structure as a function of these parameters finding that the existence of non-Gaussian renormalization group fixed points is rather generic. In particular the matter content of the standard model and its most common extensions gives rise to one non-Gaussian fixed point with real critical exponents suitable for Asymptotic Safety. Moreover, we find non-Gaussian fixed points for any number of scalar matter fields, making the scenario attractive for cosmological model building.

Gravitational Collapse in Quantum Einstein Gravity

Abstract Asymptotically Safe theories of gravity have recently received much attention. In this work we discuss a class of inflationary models derived from quantum-gravity modification of quadratic gravity according to the induced scaling around the non-Gaussian fixed point at very high energies. It is argued that the presence of a three dimensional ultraviolet critical surface generates operators of non-integer power of the type R 2 − θ / 2 in the effective Lagrangian, where θ > 0 is a critical exponent. The requirement of a successful inflationary model in agreement with the recent Planck 2015 data puts important constraints on the strength of this new type of couplings.

Functional Renormalization Group Flows on Friedman–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker backgrounds

The Asymptotically Safe Gravity provides a framework for the description of gravity from the trans-Planckian regime to cosmological scales. According to this scenario, the cosmological constant and Newtons coupling are functions of the energy scale whose evolution is dictated by the renormalization group equations. The formulation of the renormalization group equations on foliated spacetimes, based on the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) formalism, furnishes a natural way to construct the RG energy scale from the spectrum of the laplacian operator on the spatial slices. Combining this idea with a Renormalization Group improvement procedure, in this work we study quantum gravitational corrections to the Einstein-Hilbert action on Friedmann-Lema\^{i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) backgrounds. The resulting quantum-corrected Friedmann equations can give rise to both bouncing cosmologies and emergent universe solutions. Our bouncing models do not require the presence of exotic matter and emergent universe solutions can be constructed for any allowed topology of the spatial slices.

Cosmic censorship in quantum Einstein gravity

The existence of spacetime singularities is one of the biggest problems of nowadays physics. According to Penrose, each physical singularity should be covered by a “cosmic censor” which prevents any external observer from perceiving their existence. However, classical models describing the gravitational collapse usually results in strong curvature singularities, which can also remain “naked” for a finite amount of advanced time. This proceedings studies the modifications induced by asymptotically safe gravity on the gravitational collapse of generic Vaidya spacetimes. It will be shown that, for any possible choice of the mass function, quantum gravity makes the internal singularity gravitationally weak, thus allowing a continuous extension of the spacetime beyond the singularity.

Asymptotically Safe gravitational collapse: Kuroda-Papapetrou RG-improved model

We revisit the construction of the gravitational functional renormalization group equation tailored to the Arnowitt–Deser–Misner formulation emphasizing its connection to the covariant formulation. The results obtained from projecting the renormalization group flow onto the Einstein–Hilbert action are reviewed in detail and we provide a novel example illustrating how the formalism may be connected to the causal dynamical triangulations approach to quantum gravity.