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Abstract. We review many quantum aspects of torsion theory and discuss the possibility of the space-time torsion to exist and to be detected. The paper starts, in Chapter 2, with a pedagogical introduction to the classical gravity with torsion, that includes also interaction of torsion with matter fields. Special attention is paid to the conformal properties of the theory. In Chapter 3, the renormalization of quantum theory of matter fields and related topics, like renormalization group, effective potential and anomalies, are considered. Chapter 4 is devoted to the action of spinning and spinless particles in a space-time with torsion, and to the discussion of possible physical effects generated by the background torsion. In particular, we review the upper bounds for the magnitude of the background torsion which are known from the literature. In Chapter 5, the comprehensive study of the possibility of a theory for the propagating completely antisymmetric torsion field is presented. It is supposed that the propagating field should be quantized, and that its quantum effects must be described by, at least, some effective low-energy quantum field theory. We show, that the propagating torsion may be consistent with the principles of quantum theory only in the case when the torsion mass is much greater than the mass of the heaviest fermion coupled to torsion. Then, universality of the fermion-torsion interaction implies that torsion itself has a huge mass, and can not be observed in realistic experiments. Thus, the theory of quantum matter fields on the classical torsion background can be formulated in a consistent way, while the theory of dynamical torsion meets serious obstacles. In Chapter 6, we briefly discuss the string-induced torsion and the possibility to induce torsion action and torsion itself through the quantum effects of matter fields.

In quantum field theory the parameters of the vacuum action are subject to renormalization group running. In particular, the "cosmological constant" is not a constant in a quantum field theory context, still less should be zero. In this paper we continue with previous work, and derive the particle contributions to the running of the cosmological and gravitational constants in the framework of the Standard Model in curved space-time. At higher energies the calculation is performed in a sharp cut off approximation. We assess, in two different frameworks, whether the scaling dependences of the cosmological and gravitational constants spoil primordial nucleosynthesis. Finally, the cosmological implications of the running of the cosmological constant are discussed.

A large value of the cosmological constant (CC) is induced in the Standard Model (SM) of Elementary Particle Physics because of Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking. To provide a small value of the observable CC one has to introduce the vacuum term which cancels the induced one at some point in the very far infrared cosmic scale. Starting from this point we investigate whether the cancellation is preserved at different energy scales. We find that the running of the Higgs mass, couplings and the vacuum term inevitably result in a scaling dependence of the observable value. As a consequence one meets a nonzero CC at an energy scale comparable to the typical electron neutrino mass suggested by some experiments, and the order of magnitude of this constant is roughly the one derived from recent supernovae observations. However the sign of it is negative -opposite to what is suggested by these observations. This discrepancy may be a hint of the existence of an extra very light scalar, perhaps a Cosmon-like dilaton, which should essentially decouple from the SM Lagrangian, but that it nevertheless could mediate new macroscopic forces in the submillimeter range.

The renormalization group (RG) approach to cosmology is an efficient method to study the possible evolution of the cosmological parameters from the point of view of quantum field theory (QFT) in curved space-time. In this work we continue our previous investigations of the RG method based on potential low-energy effects induced from physics at very high energy scales M X M P . In the present instance we assume that both the Newton constant, G, and the cosmological term, Λ, can be functions of a scale parameter µ. It turns out that G(µ) evolves according to a logarithmic law which may lead to asymptotic freedom of gravity, similar to the gauge coupling in QCD. At the same time Λ(µ) evolves quadratically with µ. We study the consistency and cosmological consequences of these laws when µ ≃ H. Furthermore, we propose to extend this method to the astrophysical domain after identifying the local RG scale at the galactic level. It turns out that Kepler's third law of celestial mechanics receives quantum corrections that may help to explain the flat rotation curves of the galaxies without introducing the dark matter hypothesis. The origin of these effects (cosmological and astrophysical) could be linked, in our framework, to physics at M X ∼ 10 16−17 GeV .

We analyze the perturbative implications of the most general high derivative approach to quantum gravity based on a diffeomorphism-invariant local action. In particular, we consider the superrenormalizable case with a large number of metric derivatives in the action. The structure of ultraviolet divergences is analyzed in some detail. We show that they are independent of the gauge-fixing condition and the choice of field reparametrization. The cosmological counterterm is shown to vanish under certain parameter conditions. We elaborate on the unitarity problem of high derivative approaches and the distribution of masses of unphysical ghosts. We also discuss the properties of the low energy regime and explore the possibility of having a multiscale gravity with different scaling regimes compatible with Einstein gravity at low energies. Finally, we show that the ultraviolet scaling of matter theories is not affected by the quantum corrections of high derivative gravity. As a consequence, asymptotic freedom is stable under those quantum gravity corrections.

We construct a semiclassical Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) cosmological model assuming a running cosmological constant (CC). It turns out that the CC becomes variable at arbitrarily low energies due to the remnant quantum effects of the heaviest particles, e.g. the Planck scale physics. These effects are universal in the sense that they lead to a low-energy structure common to a large class of high-energy theories. Remarkably, the uncertainty concerning the unknown high-energy dynamics is accumulated into a single parameter ν, such that the model has an essential predictive power. Future Type Ia supernovae experiments (like SNAP) can verify whether this framework is correct. For the flat FLRW case and a moderate value ν ∼ 10 −2 , we predict an increase of 10 − 20% in the value of Ω Λ at redshifts z = 1 − 1.5 perfectly reachable by SNAP.

Despite the many outstanding cosmological observations leading to a strong evidence for a nonvanishing cosmological constant (CC) term Λ in the gravitational field equations, the theoretical status of this quantity seems to be lagging well behind the observational successes. It thus seems timely to revisit some fundamental aspects of the CC term in Quantum Field Theory (QFT). We emphasize that, in curved space-time, nothing a priori prevents this term from potentially having a mild running behavior associated to quantum effects. Remarkably, this could be the very origin of the dynamical nature of the Dark Energy, in contrast to many other popular options considered in the literature. In discussing this possibility, we also address some recent criticisms concerning the possibility of such running. Our conclusion is that, while there is no comprehensive proof of the CC running, there is no proof of the non-running either. The problem can be solved only through a deeper understanding of the vacuum contributions of massive quantum fields on a curved spacetime background. We suggest that such investigations are at the heart of one of the most important endeavors of fundamental theoretical cosmology in the years to come.