Loss of incoherence and determination of coupling constants in quantum gravity

Giddings, Steven B.; Strominger, Andrew

doi:10.1016/0550-3213(88)90109-5

Cited by 576 publications

(613 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…(This is a conventional "renormalization" of the baby universe wave up to a normalization factor, independent of J and X, that can be absorbed into the integration measure. Wick's theorem tells us that This result was derived by Coleman [8] and by Strominger and Giddings [9]. It shows that c~ i can be interpreted as the operator a i + a~ acting on baby universe states of type i, and that physics at fixed c~" is physics in a "condensate" of baby universes, an eigenstate of the "position" operator of the baby universe "oscillator."…”

Section: ~' X Issjxj Ijmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…In the semiclassical approximation, such a completeness relation is satisfied, because there is a natural way to associate a baby universe with a wormhole. The baby universe is the three-geometry obtained when we slice the classical wormhole solution through its midpoint [2,8,9]. But there is no unambiguous way of associating a general wormhole configuration (that is not a classical solution) with a baby universe, and I see no reason to expect that there exists a basis for the baby universe states such that the identity indicated in fig.…”

Section: ~' X Issjxj Ijmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Coleman, however, has argued persuasively that the physical effects of wormholes are quite different than we might naively expect [8,9]. He concludes that, because of wormhole effects, the fundamental constants of Nature are afflicted by an intrinsic quantum indeterminacy; we must regard our universe as having been chosen at random from an ensemble of possible universes, each with different values of the fundamental constants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wormholes in spacetime and the constants of nature

Preskill

1989

Nuclear Physics B

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Section: ~' X Issjxj Ijmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: ~' X Issjxj Ijmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wormholes in spacetime and the constants of nature

Preskill

1989

Nuclear Physics B

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“…Possibilities to avoid this divergence were discussed in [102][103][104][105], mostly in the baby-universe interpretation of Giddings-Strominger wormholes. It is possible to express the partition function as an integral over a parameter α, which is an eigenvalue of a baby-universe operator [103].…”

Section: Jhep02(2017)097mentioning

confidence: 99%

Can gravitational instantons really constrain axion inflation?

Hebecker¹,

Mangat²,

Theisen

et al. 2017

J. High Energ. Phys.

100

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Axions play a central role in inflationary model building and other cosmological applications. This is mainly due to their flat potential, which is protected by a global shift symmetry. However, quantum gravity is known to break global symmetries, the crucial effect in the present context being gravitational instantons or Giddings-Strominger wormholes. We attempt to quantify, as model-independently as possible, how large a scalar potential is induced by this general quantum gravity effect. We pay particular attention to the crucial issue which solutions can or cannot be trusted in the presence of a moduli-stabilisation and a Kaluza-Klein scale. An important conclusion is that, due to specific numerical prefactors, the effect is surprisingly small even in UV-completions with the highest possible scale offered by string theory.As we go along, we discuss in detail Euclidean wormholes, cored and extremal instantons, and how the latter arise from 5d Reissner-Nordström black holes. We attempt to dispel possible doubts that wormholes contribute to the scalar potential by an explicit calculation. We analyse the role of stabilised dilaton-like moduli. Finally, we argue that Euclidean wormholes may be the objects satisfying the Weak Gravity Conjecture extended to instantons.

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“…However, it is well known that quantum gravity effects are, in general, expected to violate global and discrete symmetries [4]. The only exception to this expectation are local discrete symmetries [5].…”

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confidence: 99%

Local discrete symmetries from superstring derived models

Faraggi

1997

Physics Letters B

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Discrete and global symmetries play an essential role in many extensions of the Standard Model, for example, to preserve the proton lifetime, to prevent flavor changing neutral currents, etc. An important question is how can such symmetries survive in a theory of quantum gravity, like superstring theory.In a specific string model I illustrate how local discrete symmetries may arise in string models and play an important role in preventing fast proton decay and flavor changing neutral currents. The local discrete symmetry arises due to the breaking of the non-Abelian gauge symmetries by Wilson lines in the superstring models and forbids, for example dimension five operators which mediate rapid proton decay, to all orders of nonrenormalizable terms. In the context of models of unification of the gauge and gravitational interactions, it is precisely this type of local discrete symmetries that must be found in order to insure that a given model is not in conflict with experimental observations. *

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Loss of incoherence and determination of coupling constants in quantum gravity

Cited by 576 publications

References 9 publications

Wormholes in spacetime and the constants of nature

Wormholes in spacetime and the constants of nature

Can gravitational instantons really constrain axion inflation?

Local discrete symmetries from superstring derived models

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