Einstein gravity as a symmetry-breaking effect in quantum field theory

Journal Article · Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1982 · Rev. Mod. Phys.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.54.729· OSTI ID:5004025

Adler, S L

This article gives a pedagogical review of recent work in which the Einstein-Hilbert gravitational action is obtained as a symmetry-breaking effect in quantum field theory. Particular emphasis is placed on the case of renormalizable field theories with dynamical scale-invariance breaking, in which the induced gravitational effective action is finite and calculable. A functional integral formulation is used throughout, and a detailed analysis is given of the role of dimensional regularization in extracting finite answers from formally quadratically divergent integrals. Expressions are derived for the induced gravitational constant, for the induced cosmological constant, and for quantized matter theories on a background manifold, and a strategy is outlined for computing the induced constants in the case of an SU(n) gauge theory. By use of the background field method, the formalism is extended to the case in which the metric is also quantized, yielding a derivation of the semiclassical Einstein equations as an approximation to quantum gravity, as well as general formulas for the induced (or renormalized) gravitational and cosmological constants.

• Research Organization: The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76ER02220
• OSTI ID: 5004025
• Journal Information: Rev. Mod. Phys.; (United States), Vol. 54:3
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
RENORMALIZATION
SYMMETRY BREAKING
QUANTUM GRAVITY
EINSTEIN FIELD EQUATIONS
ALGORITHMS
COSMOLOGY
COUPLING CONSTANTS
GAUGE INVARIANCE
GENERAL RELATIVITY THEORY
GRAVITATION
INTEGRALS
METRICS
REVIEWS
SCALE INVARIANCE
SU GROUPS
DOCUMENT TYPES
EQUATIONS
FIELD EQUATIONS
FIELD THEORIES
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
LIE GROUPS
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC
SYMMETRY GROUPS
657003* - Theoretical & Mathematical Physics- Relativity & Gravitation
645400 - High Energy Physics- Field Theory