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arXiv · 1012.4353

On the Interpretation of Gravitational Corrections to Gauge Couplings

John Ellis·Nick E. Mavromatos
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Abstract

Several recent papers discuss gravitational corrections to gauge couplings that depend quadratically on the energy. In the framework of the background-field approach, these correspond in general to adding to the effective action terms quadratic in the field strength but with higher-order space-time derivatives. We observe that such terms can be removed by appropriate local field redefinitions, and do not contribute to physical scattering-matrix elements. We illustrate this observation in the context of open string theory, where the effective action includes, among other terms, the well-known Born-Infeld form of non-linear electrodynamics. We conclude that the quadratically energy-dependent gravitational corrections are \emph{not} physical in the sense of contributing to the running of a physically-measurable gauge coupling, or of unifying couplings as in string theory.

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John Ellis, Nick E. Mavromatos. 2010-12-20. On the Interpretation of Gravitational Corrections to Gauge Couplings. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2012.04.005

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