Superluminality and UV completion

DOI10.1016/J.NUCLPHYSB.2007.03.034MaRDI QIDQ2372865zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Graham M. Shore

Publication date 2 August 2007

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

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

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

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

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.

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Cited in

(26)

• Superluminal velocity and deviation from Newton's inverse square law
• Superluminality, black holes and EFT
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• One-loop multicollinear limits from 2-point amplitudes on self-dual backgrounds
• Initial value problem in string-inspired nonlocal field theory
• The effect of gravitational tidal forces on renormalized quantum fields
• Massive gravity
• Superluminal vector in ghost-free massive gravity
• Strong-field qed and high-power lasers
• String quantum gravity, Lorentz-invariance violation and gamma ray astronomy
• Dispersion relations and causality: does relativistic causality require thatn(ω) → 1 as ω → ∞ ?
• Low-energy electromagnetic radiation as an indirect probe of black-hole evaporation
• Superluminal censorship
• Causality and micro-causality in curved spacetime
• Superluminal Travel Requires Negative Energies
• Graviton propagation and vacuum polarization in curved space
• The stringy origins of Galileons and their novel limit
• Cosmic acceleration from string induced Galileons
• Scalar fields near compact objects: resummation versus UV completion
• Inflation with 0 ≤ c _s ≤ 1
• Causality of 3D extended gravity theories
• The Maslov index and some applications to dispersion relations in curved space times
• Advances in QED with intense background fields
• A cosmological tachyon collider: enhancing the long-short scale coupling
• Consistency between bulk and boundary causalities in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes
• The causal structure of QED in curved spacetime: analyticity and the refractive index

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