Superluminality and UV completion

DOI10.1016/J.NUCLPHYSB.2007.03.034zbMATH Open1200.81157arXivhep-th/0701185OpenAlexW2023407388MaRDI QIDQ2372865FDOQ2372865

Authors: Graham M. Shore 

Publication date: 2 August 2007

Published in: Nuclear Physics B (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The idea that the existence of a consistent UV completion satisfying the fundamental axioms of local quantum field theory or string theory may impose positivity constraints on the couplings of the leading irrelevant operators in a low-energy effective field theory is critically discussed. Violation of these constraints implies superluminal propagation, in the sense that the low-frequency limit of the phase velocity $v_{mph}(0)$ exceeds $c$. It is explained why causality is related not to $v_{mph}(0)$ but to the high-frequency limit $v_{mph}(infty)$ and how these are related by the Kramers-Kronig dispersion relation, depending on the sign of the imaginary part of the refractive index $Iman(w)$ which is normally assumed positive. Superluminal propagation and its relation to UV completion is investigated in detail in three theories: QED in a background electromagnetic field, where the full dispersion relation for $n(w)$ is evaluated numerically for the first time and the role of the null energy condition $T_m{k}^m{k}^{g}e0$ is highlighted; QED in a background gravitational field, where examples of superluminal low-frequency phase velocities arise in violation of the positivity constraints; and light propagation in coupled laser-atom $L$-systems exhibiting Raman gain lines with $Iman(w)<0$. The possibility that a negative $Iman(w)$ must occur in quantum field theories involving gravity to avoid causality violation, and the implications for the relation of IR effective field theories to their UV completion, are carefully analysed.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0701185

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum optics (81V80) Model quantum field theories (81T10) Electromagnetic interaction; quantum electrodynamics (81V10)

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Cited In (25)

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• Advances in QED with intense background fields
• Superluminal censorship
• Causality and micro-causality in curved spacetime
• Superluminality, black holes and EFT
• Scalar fields near compact objects: resummation versus UV completion
• Strong-field qed and high-power lasers
• The stringy origins of Galileons and their novel limit
• Massive gravity
• Superluminal Travel Requires Negative Energies
• Inflation with 0 ≤ c _s ≤ 1
• Cosmic acceleration from string induced Galileons
• Low-energy electromagnetic radiation as an indirect probe of black-hole evaporation
• Graviton propagation and vacuum polarization in curved space
• The causal structure of QED in curved spacetime: analyticity and the refractive index
• The Maslov index and some applications to dispersion relations in curved space times
• Decoherence and CPT violation in a stringy model of space-time foam
• One-loop multicollinear limits from 2-point amplitudes on self-dual backgrounds
• Initial value problem in string-inspired nonlocal field theory
• Causality of 3D extended gravity theories
• Dispersion relations and causality: does relativistic causality require thatn(ω) → 1 as ω → ∞ ?

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