1204.0965 (Astrid Eichhorn)

Quantum-gravity-induced matter self-interactions in the
asymptotic-safety scenario    [PDF]

Astrid Eichhorn

We investigate the high-energy properties of matter theories coupled to quantum gravity. Specifically, we show that quantum gravity fluctuations generically induce matter self-interactions in a scalar theory. Our calculations apply within asymptotically safe quantum gravity, where our results indicate that the UV is dominated by an interacting fixed point, with non-vanishing gravitational as well as matter couplings. We show that the number of relevant directions of the fixed point depends on the inclusion of these quantum-gravity induced matter self-interactions. Furthermore we point out that terms of this type can have observable consequences in the context of scalar-field driven inflation, where they can induce potentially observable non-Gaussianities in the CMB.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.0965