Renormalization group and decoupling in curved space

Abstract

It is well known that the renormalization group equations depend on the scale where they are applied. This phenomenon is especially relevant for the massive fields in curved space, because the decoupling effects may be responsible for important cosmological applications like the graceful exit from the inflation and low-energy quantum dynamics of the cosmological constant. We investigate, using both covariant and non-covariant methods of calculations and mass-dependent renormalization scheme, the vacuum quantum effects of a massive scalar field in curved space-time. In the higher derivative sector we arrive at the explicit form of decoupling and obtain the β-functions in both UV and IR regimes as the limits of general expressions. For the cosmological and Newton constants the corresponding β-functions are not accessible in the perturbative regime and in particular the form of decoupling remains unclear. © SISSA/ISAS 2003.