Nonperturbative quantum field theory in curved spaces: the effective potential in de Sitter

DIANA L. LÓPEZ NACIR

París

Seminario; Seminaires; 2013

APC-ASTROPARTICULE ET COSMOLOGIE

Quantum field theory on curved space-times is a very powerful framework for the study of quantum phenomena in situations where the gravitation itself can be treated classically. Of special interest is the study of interacting quantum fields in de Sitter space-time, where previous studies have reveled that the standard perturbative expansion gives rise to corrections that secularly grow with time and/or infrared divergences. This has motivated the consideration of alternative techniques and in particular the use of resummation schemes. When resummation schemes are employed the renormalization process involves subtleties, even in flat space-time. In this talk I will present recent work on this topic in relation to the renormalization process for a truncation of a systematically improvable resummation scheme applied to a quantum self-interacting scalar field on a general curved background. For the particular case of de Sitter spacetime, I will discuss recent results concerning spontaneous symmetry breaking in connection with the subtleties appearing in the renormalization procedure.