Notes on conformal anomaly, nonlocal effective action, and the metamorphosis of the running scale
A. O. Barvinsky, W. Wachowski
Abstract
Explicit expressions for anomalies and associated effective actions may take many different forms. Here the authors discuss the conformal anomaly and solve in a clear and explicit manner long-standing confusions and controversies for several wildly different looking effective actions. They show how they are related by different choices of the conformal gauge, reflecting the ambiguity caused by Weyl-invariant pieces. They also discuss applications of these new results to anomaly-driven inflation and the ``running'' of gravitational and cosmological constants.
Topics & Concepts
Conformal anomalyAmbiguityConformal mapAnomaly (physics)Action (physics)Invariant (physics)Theoretical physicsGauge (firearms)Scale (ratio)PhysicsInflation (cosmology)Conformal symmetryMathematical physicsMathematicsComputer scienceQuantum mechanicsHistoryGeometryProgramming languageArchaeologyCosmology and Gravitation TheoriesBlack Holes and Theoretical PhysicsParticle physics theoretical and experimental studies