Infrared scaling for a graviton condensate

Bose, S., Mazumdar, A. and Toros, M. (2022) Infrared scaling for a graviton condensate. Nuclear Physics B, 977, 115730. (doi: 10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2022.115730)

Abstract

The coupling between gravity and matter provides an intriguing length scale in the infrared for theories of gravity within Einstein-Hilbert action and beyond. In particular, we will show that such an infrared length scale is determined by the number of gravitons Ng 1 associated to a given mass in the non-relativistic limit. After tracing out the matter degrees of freedom, the graviton vacuum is found to be in a displaced vacuum with an occupation number of gravitons Ng 1. In the infrared, the length scale appears to be L = Ngp, where L is the new infrared length scale, and p is the Planck length. In a specific example, we have found that the infrared length scale is greater than the Schwarzschild radius for a slowly moving in-falling thin shell of matter. We will argue that the appearance of such an infrared length scale in higher curvature theories of gravity, such as in quadratic and cubic curvature theories of gravity, is also expected. Furthermore, we will show that gravity is fundamentally different from the electromagnetic interaction where the number of photons, Np, is the fine structure constant after tracing out an electron wave function.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Funded by SCOAP3. MT and SB would like to acknowledge EPSRC grant No. EP/N031105/1, SB the EPSRC grant EP/S000267/1, and MT funding by the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2020-197). AM's research is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Science and Research (NWO) grant number 680-91-119.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Toros, Dr Marko

Creator Roles

Toros, M.: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Bose, S., Mazumdar, A., and Toros, M.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: Nuclear Physics B
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0550-3213
• ISSN (Online): 1873-1562
• Published Online: 10 March 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Author(s).
• First Published: First published in Nuclear Physics B 977:115730
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons license

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
308508		Quantum Mechanics in a Rotating World	Miles Padgett	Leverhulme Trust (LEVERHUL)	RPG-2020-197	P&S - Physics & Astronomy