Recent works [D. Buccio et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 021604 (2024)and D. Buccio et al., Phys. Rev. D 111, 065022 (2025)] have argued that improved one-loop beta-functions capturing the physical momentum dependence of one-loop corrected higher-derivative gravity theories are the most suitable to describe their high-energy behavior. This work critically tests the validity of this claim. We compute the explicit gauge dependence of the one-loop momentum running of curvature-squared operators in quadratic gravity and conformal gravity using the background field method. We find them to be gauge dependent, and we discuss the implications of this result for the theory and its physical predictivity.
Gauge dependence of momentum running in higher-derivative gravity
Parente, Luca
2025-01-01
Abstract
Recent works [D. Buccio et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 021604 (2024)and D. Buccio et al., Phys. Rev. D 111, 065022 (2025)] have argued that improved one-loop beta-functions capturing the physical momentum dependence of one-loop corrected higher-derivative gravity theories are the most suitable to describe their high-energy behavior. This work critically tests the validity of this claim. We compute the explicit gauge dependence of the one-loop momentum running of curvature-squared operators in quadratic gravity and conformal gravity using the background field method. We find them to be gauge dependent, and we discuss the implications of this result for the theory and its physical predictivity.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
