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Xavier Calmet

Publications and source records attributed to Xavier Calmet.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

The flavor of quantum gravity

We develop an effective field theory to describe the coupling of non-thermal quantum black holes to particles such as those of the Standard Model. The effective Lagrangian is determined by imposing that the production cross section of a non-thermal quantum black hole be given by the usual geometrical cross section. Having determined the effective Lagrangian, we estimate the contribution of a virtual hole to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, $μ\to e γ$ transition and to the electric dipole moment of the neutron. We obtain surprisingly weak bounds on the Planck mass due to a chiral suppression factor in the calculated low energy observables. The tightest bounds come from $μ\to e γ$ and the limit on the neutron electric dipole moment. These bounds are in the few TeV region. However, the bound obtained from proton decay is much more severe and of the order of $1 \times 10^6$ GeV.

hep-ph↗

Gravitational Corrections to Fermion Masses in Grand Unified Theories

We reconsider quantum gravitational threshold effects to the unification of fermion masses in Grand Unified Theories. We show that the running of the Planck mass can have a sizable effect on these thresholds which are thus much more important than naively expected. These corrections make any extrapolation from low energy measurements challenging.

hep-ph↗

Remarks on Higgs Inflation

We discuss models where the Higgs boson of the electroweak standard model plays the role of the inflaton. We focus on the question of the violation of perturbative unitarity due to the coupling of the Higgs boson either to the Ricci scalar or to the Einstein tensor and discuss the background dependence of the unitarity bounds. Our conclusion is that the simplest model which restricts itself to the standard model Higgs boson without introducing further degrees of freedom has a serious problem. However, in the asymptotically safe gravity scenario, the Higgs boson of the standard model could be the inflaton and no physics beyond the standard model is required to explain both inflation and the spontaneous breaking of the electroweak symmetry of the standard model.

hep-ph↗

Asymptotically safe weak interactions

We emphasize that the electroweak interactions without a Higgs boson are very similar to quantum general relativity. The Higgs field could just be a dressing field and might not exist as a propagating particle. In that interpretation, the electroweak interactions without a Higgs boson could be renormalizable at the non-perturbative level because of a non-trivial fixed point. Tree-level unitarity in electroweak bosons scattering is restored by the running of the weak scale.

hep-ph↗

Deformed Special Relativity from Asymptotically Safe Gravity

By studying the notion of a fundamentally minimal length scale in asymptotically safe gravity we find that a specific version of deformed special relativity (DSR) naturally arises in this approach. We then consider two thought experiments to examine the interpretation of the scenario and discuss similarities and differences to other approaches to DSR.

gr-qc↗

Primordial Black Holes and a Large Hidden Sector

In this note we point out that primordial black holes could be much shorter lived than usually assumed if there is a large hidden sector of particles that only interacts gravitationally with the particles of the standard model. The observation of the explosion of one of these black holes would severely constrain the energy scale at which gravity becomes strong.

hep-ph↗

An alternative view on the electroweak interactions

We discuss an alternative to the Higgs mechanism which leads to gauge invariant masses for the electroweak bosons. The key idea is to reformulate the gauge invariance principle which, instead of being applied as usual at the level of the action, is applied at the level of the quantum fields. In other words, we define gauge invariant quantum fields which are used to build the action. In that framework, the Higgs field is not necessarily a physical degree of freedom but can merely be a dressing field that does not propagate. If the Higgs boson is not propagating, the weak interactions must become strongly coupled below 1 TeV and have a non-trivial fixed point and would thus be renormalizable at the non-perturbative level. On the other hand, if a gauge invariant Higgs boson is introduced in the model, its couplings to the fermions and the electroweak bosons can be quite different from those expected in the standard model.

hep-ph↗

Lower Dimensional Quantum Black Holes

There are theoretical reasons to think that space-time is lower dimensional at very short distances. If this is the case, quantum black holes produced at the LHC or in cosmic rays scattering live in lower dimensions. We discuss production cross section and signatures for the corresponding quantum black holes at the LHC within several different models of low-dimensional space-time.

hep-ph↗

A review of Quantum Gravity at the Large Hadron Collider

The aim of this article is to review the recent developments in the phenomenology of quantum gravity at the Large Hadron Collider. We shall pay special attention to four-dimensional models which are able to lower the reduced Planck mass to the TeV region and compare them to models with a large extra-dimensional volume. We then turn our attention to reviewing the emission of gravitons (massless or massive) at the LHC and to the production of small quantum black holes.

hep-ph↗

Unitarity bounds on low scale quantum gravity

We study the unitarity of models with low scale quantum gravity both in four dimensions and in models with a large extra-dimensional volume. We find that models with low scale quantum gravity have problems with unitarity below the scale at which gravity becomes strong. An important consequence of our work is that their first signal at the Large Hadron Collider would not be of a gravitational nature such as graviton emission or small black holes, but rather linked to the mechanism which fixes the unitarity problem. We also study models with scalar fields with non minimal couplings to the Ricci scalar. We consider the strength of gravity in these models and study the consequences for inflation models with non-minimally coupled scalar fields. We show that a single scalar field with a large non-minimal coupling can lower the Planck mass in the TeV region. In that model, it is possible to lower the scale at which gravity becomes strong down to 14 TeV without violating unitarity below that scale.

hep-ph↗

On the unitarity of linearized General Relativity coupled to matter

We consider the unitarity of the S-matrix for linearized General Relativity coupled to particle physics models. Taking renormalization group effects of the Planck mass into account, we find that the scale at which unitarity is violated is strongly dependent on the particle content of the theory. We find that the requirement that the S-matrix be unitary up to the scale at which quantum gravitational effects become strong implies a bound on the particle content of the model.

hep-th↗

Grand unification through gravitational effects

We systematically study the unification of gauge couplings in the presence of (one or more) effective dimension-5 operators cHGG/4MPl, induced into the grand unified theory by gravitational interactions at the Planck scale MPl. These operators alter the usual condition for gauge coupling unification, which can, depending on the Higgs content H and vacuum expectation value, result in unification at scales MX significantly different than naively expected. We find non-supersymmetric models of SU(5) and SO(10) unification, with natural Wilson coefficients c, that easily satisfy the constraints from proton decay. Furthermore, gauge coupling unification at scales as high as the Planck scale seems feasible, possibly hinting at simultaneous unification of gauge and gravitational interactions. In the Appendix we work out the group theoretical aspects of this scenario for SU(5) and SO(10) unified groups in detail; this material is also relevant in the analysis of non-universal gaugino masses obtained from supergravity.

hep-ph↗

Massless versus Kaluza-Klein Gravitons at the LHC

We show that the LHC will be able to differentiate between a four-dimensional model with quantum gravity at ~1 TeV where the (massless) graviton becomes strongly coupled to standard model particles at 1 TeV and brane world type models with a large extra-dimensional volume and massive Kaluza-Klein gravitons. We estimate that the 14 TeV LHC could put a limit of the order of ~5 TeV on the four dimensional Planck mass in a model independent way.

hep-ph↗

Quantum Gravity at the LHC

It has recently been shown that if there is a large hidden sector in Nature, the scale of quantum gravity could be much lower than traditionally expected. We study the production of massless gravitons at the LHC and compare our results to those obtained in extra dimensional models. The signature in both cases is missing energy plus jets. In case of non observation, the LHC could be used to put the tightest limit to date on the value of the Planck mass.

hep-ph↗

Effective Theory for Dark Matter and a New Force in the Dark Matter Sector

An effective theory for dark matter has recently been proposed. The key assumption is that the dark matter particle which is a Dirac fermion is protected from decaying by a global U(1) symmetry. We point out that quantum gravity effects will violate this symmetry and that the dark matter candidate thus decays very fast. In order to solve that problem, we propose to consider a local gauge symmetry which implies a new force in the dark matter sector. It is likely that this new local U(1) symmetry will need to be spontaneously broken leading for a range of the parameters of the model to a Sommerfeld enhancement of the annihilation cross-sections which is useful to explain the Pamela and ATIC results using a weakly interacting massive particle with a mass in the TeV range.

hep-ph↗

Quantum gravity at a TeV and the renormalization of Newton's constant

We examine whether renormalization effects can cause Newton's constant to change dramatically with energy, perhaps even reducing the scale of quantum gravity to the TeV region without the introduction of extra dimensions. We examine a model that realizes this possibility and describe experimental signatures from production of small black holes.

hep-th↗

Grand unification and enhanced quantum gravitational effects

In grand unified theories with large numbers of fields, renormalization effects significantly modify the scale at which quantum gravity becomes strong. This in turn can modify the boundary conditions for coupling constant unification, if higher dimensional operators induced by gravity are taken into consideration. We show that the generic size of these effects from gravity can be larger than the two-loop corrections typically considered in renormalization group analyses of unification. In some cases, gravitational effects of modest size can render unification impossible.

hep-ph↗

Quantum Gravitational Effects and Grand Unification

In grand unified theories with large numbers of fields, renormalization effects significantly modify the scale at which quantum gravity becomes strong. This in turn can modify the boundary conditions for coupling constant unification, if higher dimensional operators induced by gravity are taken into consideration. We show that the generic size of, and the uncertainty in, these effects from gravity can be larger than the two-loop corrections typically considered in renormalization group analyses of unification. In some cases, gravitational effects of modest size can render unification impossible.

hep-ph↗