The cosmological constant problem and the effective potential of a gravity-coupled scalar

Abstract We consider a quantum scalar field in a classical (Euclidean) De Sitter background, whose radius is fixed dynamically by Einstein’s equations. In the case of a free scalar, it has been shown by Becker and Reuter that if one regulates the quantum effective action by putting a cutoff N on the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Renata Ferrero, Roberto Percacci
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2024-09-01
Series:Journal of High Energy Physics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2024)074
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Summary:Abstract We consider a quantum scalar field in a classical (Euclidean) De Sitter background, whose radius is fixed dynamically by Einstein’s equations. In the case of a free scalar, it has been shown by Becker and Reuter that if one regulates the quantum effective action by putting a cutoff N on the modes of the quantum field, the radius is driven dynamically to infinity when N tends to infinity. We show that this result holds also in the case of a self-interacting scalar, both in the symmetric and broken-symmetry phase. Furthermore, when the gravitational background is put on shell, the quantum corrections to the mass and quartic self-coupling are found to be finite.
ISSN:1029-8479