Do we Observe Quantum Gravity Effects at Galactic Scales?

Motivated by the conjecture that the cosmological constant problem is solved by strong quantum effects in the infrared we use the exact flow equation of Quantum Einstein Gravity to determine the renormalization group behavior of a class of nonlocal effective actions. They consist of the Einstein-Hilbert term and a general nonlinear function $F_k(V)$ of the Euclidean spacetime volume $V$. For the $V + V \ln V$-invariant the renormalization group running enormously suppresses t...

The quantum gravity is formulated based on principle of local gauge invariance. The model discussed in this paper has local gravitational gauge symmetry and gravitational field is represented by gauge field. In leading order approximation, it gives out classical Newton's theory of gravity. It can also give out Einstein's field equation with cosmological constant. For classical tests, it gives out the same theoretical predictions as those of general relativity. This quantum ga...

Corrections are computed to the classical static isotropic solution of general relativity, arising from non-perturbative quantum gravity effects. A slow rise of the effective gravitational coupling with distance is shown to involve a genuinely non-perturbative scale, closely connected with the gravitational vacuum condensate, and thereby, it is argued, related to the observed effective cosmological constant. Several analogies between the proposed vacuum condensate picture of ...

We discuss predictions for cosmology which result from the scaling solution of functional flow equations for a quantum field theory of gravity. A scaling solution is necessary to render quantum gravity renormalizable. Our scaling solution is directly connected to the quantum effective action for the metric coupled to a scalar field. It includes all effects of quantum fluctuations and is invariant under general coordinate transformations. Solving the cosmological field equatio...

We consider the application of quantum corrections computed using renormalization group arguments in the astrophysical domain and show that, for the most natural interpretation of the renormalization group scale parameter, a gravitational coupling parameter $G$ varying $10^{-7}$ of its value across a galaxy (which is roughly a variation of $10^{-12}$ per light-year) is sufficient to generate galaxy rotation curves in agreement with the observations. The quality of the resulti...

I review the field-theoretic renomalization group approach to quantum gravity, built around the existence of a non-trivial ultraviolet fixed point in four dimensions. I discuss the implications of such a fixed point, found in three largely unrelated non-perturbative approaches, and how it relates to the vacuum state of quantum gravity, and specifically to the running of $G$. One distinctive feature of the new fixed point is the emergence of a second genuinely non-perturbative...

I give a brief non-technical review of "Quantum Gravity Phenomenology" and in particular I describe some studies which should soon allow to establish valuable data-based constraints on the short-distance structure of spacetime.

We explore the phenomenology of nontrivial quantum effects on low-energy gravity. These effects come from the running of the gravitational coupling parameter G and the cosmological constant L in the Einstein-Hilbert action, as induced by the Renormalization Group (RG). The Renormalization Group corrected General Relativity (RGGR model) is used to parametrize these quantum effects, and it is assumed that the dominant dark matter-like effects inside galaxies is due to these non...

We review the origins, motivations, and implications for cosmology and black holes, of our proposal that "dark energy" is not a quantum vacuum energy, but rather arises from a Weyl scaling invariant nonderivative component of the gravitational action.

The renormalization group (RG) approach to cosmology is an efficient method to study the possible evolution of the cosmological parameters from the point of view of quantum field theory in curved space-time. In this work we continue our previous investigations of the RG method based on potential low-energy effects induced from physics at very high energy scales M_X near M_P. In the present instance we assume that both the Newton constant, G, and the cosmological term, \Lambda...