Structure of correlated worldline theories of quantum gravity

AO Barvinsky, D Carney, PCE Stamp - Physical Review D, 2018 - APS
AO Barvinsky, D Carney, PCE Stamp
Physical Review D, 2018APS
We consider the general form of correlated worldline (CWL) theories of quantum gravity. We
show that one can have two different kinds of CWL theory, in which the generating functional
is written as either a sum or a product over multiple copies of the coupled matter and
gravitational fields. In both versions, the paths in a functional formulation are correlated via
gravity itself, causing a breakdown of the superposition principle; however, the product form
survives consistency tests not satisfied by the summed form. To better understand the …
We consider the general form of correlated worldline (CWL) theories of quantum gravity. We show that one can have two different kinds of CWL theory, in which the generating functional is written as either a sum or a product over multiple copies of the coupled matter and gravitational fields. In both versions, the paths in a functional formulation are correlated via gravity itself, causing a breakdown of the superposition principle; however, the product form survives consistency tests not satisfied by the summed form. To better understand the structure of these two theories, we show how to perform diagrammatic expansions in the gravitational coupling for each version of CWL theory, using particle propagation and scalar fields as examples. We explicitly calculate contributions to two-point and four-point functions, again for each version of the theory, up to second order in the gravitational coupling.
American Physical Society