Tree-level scattering amplitudes in nonlocal field theories

We propose a nonlocal field theory for gravity in presence of matter consistent with perturbative unitarity, quantum finiteness, and other essential classical properties that we are going to list below. First, the theory exactly reproduces the same tree-level scattering amplitudes of Einstein's gravity coupled to matter insuring no violation of macro-causality. Second, all the exact solutions of the Einstein's theory are also exact solutions of the nonlocal theory. Finally, a...

We explicitly compute the tree-level on-shell four-graviton amplitudes in four, five and six dimensions for local and weakly nonlocal gravitational theories that are quadratic in both, the Ricci and scalar curvature with form factors of the d'Alembertian operator inserted between. More specifically we are interested in renormalizable, super-renormalizable or finite theories. The scattering amplitudes for these theories turn out to be the same as the ones of Einstein gravity r...

We derive the N=1 supersymmetric extension for a class of weakly nonlocal four dimensional gravitational theories.The construction is explicitly done in the superspace and the tree-level perturbative unitarity is explicitly proved both in the superfield formalism and in field components. For the minimal nonlocal supergravity the spectrum is the same as in the local theory and in particular it is ghost-free. The supersymmetric extension of the super-renormalizable Starobinsky ...

In this proceedings, I will consider quantum aspects of a non-local, infinite-derivative scalar field theory - a ${\it toy \, model}$ depiction of a covariant infinite-derivative, non-local extension of Einstein's general relativity which has previously been shown to be free from ghosts around the Minkowski background. The graviton propagator in this theory gets an exponential suppression making it ${\it asymptotically \, free}$, thus providing strong prospects of resolving v...

We prove that the Minkowski spacetime is stable at nonlinear level and to all perturbative orders in the gravitational perturbation in a general class of nonlocal gravitational theories that are unitary and finite at quantum level.

We extensively study the ultraviolet quantum properties of a nonlocal action for gravity nonminimally coupled to matter. The theory unifies matter and gravity in an action principle such that all the classical solutions of Einstein's theory coupled to matter are also solutions of the nonlocal theory. At the quantum level, we show that the theory is power-counting super-renormalizable in even dimensions and finite in odd dimensions. A simple extension of the model compatible w...

The tree-level scattering amplitudes of general relativity encode the full non-linearity of the Einstein field equations. Yet remarkably compact expressions for these amplitudes have been found which seem unrelated to a perturbative expansion of the Einstein-Hilbert action. This suggests an entirely different description of GR which makes this on-shell simplicity manifest. Taking our cue from the tree-level amplitudes, we discuss how such a description can be found. The resul...

Higher derivative theories of gravity are associated with a mass scale to insure the correct dimensionality of the covariant derivatives. This mass scale is known as the scale of non-locality. In this paper, by considering a higher derivative toy model, we show that for a system of $n$ particles the effective mass scale is inversely proportional to the square root of the number of particles. We demonstrate that as the number of particles increases the corresponding effective ...

We outline the program to apply modern quantum field theory methods to calculate observables in classical general relativity through a truncation to classical terms of the multi-graviton two-body on-shell scattering amplitudes between massive fields. Since only long-distance interactions corresponding to non-analytic pieces need to be included, unitarity cuts provide substantial simplifications for both post-Newtonian and post-Minkowskian expansions. We illustrate this quantu...

Spacetime---the union of space and time---is both the actor and the stage during physical processes in our fascinating Universe. In Lorentz invariant local theories, the existence of a maximum signalling speed (the "speed of light") determines a notion of causality in spacetime, distinguishing the past from the future, and the cause from the effect. This thesis is dedicated to the study of \emph{deviations} from locality. Focussing on a particular class of \emph{non-local} th...