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Gravitational effective action at second order in curvature and gravitational waves

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Version 2 2023-06-12, 08:42
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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-12, 08:42 authored by Xavier CalmetXavier Calmet, Salvatore Capozziello, Daniel Pryer
We consider the full effective theory for quantum gravity at second order in curvature including non-local terms. We show that the theory contains two new degrees of freedom beyond the massless graviton: namely a massive spin-2 ghost and a massive scalar field. Furthermore, we show that it is impossible to fine-tune the parameters of the effective action to eliminate completely the classical spin-2 ghost because of the non-local terms in the effective action. Being a classical field, it is not clear anyway that this ghost is problematic. It simply implies a repulsive contribution to Newton’s potential. We then consider how to extract the parameters of the effective action and show that it is possible to measure, at least in principle, the parameters of the local terms independently of each other using a combination of observations of gravitational waves and measurements performed by pendulum type experiments searching for deviations of Newton’s potential.

Funding

Particle Physics Theory at Royal Holloway and Sussex; G0742; STFC-SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL; ST/J000477/1

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields

ISSN

1434-6044

Publisher

Springer Verlag

Issue

9

Volume

77

Page range

1-6

Article number

a589

Department affiliated with

  • Physics and Astronomy Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Theoretical Particle Physics Research Group Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2017-08-31

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2017-09-12

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2017-08-31

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