Graviton self-energy from gravitons in cosmology*This paper is dedicated to Stanley Deser on the occasion of his 90th birthday. (17th June 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tan, L; Tsamis, N C; Woodard, R P
• Is Part Of: Classical and quantum gravity. Volume 38:Number 14(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-06-17
• Subjects: quantum gravity -- cosmology -- inflation; Quantum gravity -- Periodicals; Gravitation -- Periodicals; Relativity (Physics) -- Periodicals; Space and time -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 521.1
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6382/ac0233
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0264-9381

Abstract

Abstract: Although matter contributions to the graviton self-energy − i [ Σ ρ σ μ ν ] ( x ; x ′ ) must be separately conserved on x μ and x ′ μ, graviton contributions obey the weaker constraint of the Ward identity, which involves a divergence on both coordinates. On a general homogeneous and isotropic background this leads to just four structure functions for matter contributions but nine structure functions for graviton contributions. We propose a convenient parameterization for these nine structure functions. We also apply the formalism to explicit one loop computations of − i [ Σ ρ σ μ ν ] ( x ; x ′ ) on de Sitter background, one of the contributions from a massless, minimally coupled scalar and the other for the contribution from gravitons in the simplest gauge. We also specialize the linearized, quantum-corrected Einstein equation to the graviton mode function and to the gravitational response to a point mass.