Two quantum effects in the theory of gravitation

Abstract

We will discuss two methods by which the formalism of quantum field theory can be included in calculating the physical effects of gravitation. In the first of these, the consequences of treating general relativity as an effective quantum field theory will be examined. The primary result will be the calculation of the first-order quantum gravity corrections to the [beta] functions of arbitrary Yang-Mills theories. These corrections will effect the high-energy phenomenology of such theories, including the details of coupling constant unification. Following this, we will address the question of how to form effective quantum field theories in classical gravitational backgrounds. We follow the prescription that effective theories should provide a description of experimentally accessible degrees of freedom with all other degrees of freedom integrated out of the theory. We will show that this prescription appears to fail for a scalar field in a black hole background because of an anomaly generated in general covariance at the black hole horizon. This anomaly is repaired and the effective field theory is saved, however, by the inevitable presence of Hawking radiation in the quantum theory.