Abstract
In this thesis we study both classical and quantum properties of a gauge realisation
of Weyl symmetry, achieved by endowing the space-time manifold
with a torsional connection. Some component of torsion can then act as a
gauge connection, thus compensating the local transformations of the metric
tensor and the fields.
This leads to a rather generic physical theory, described in chapter 2,
which features a dilaton and a vector field on top of the usual particle content
of the standard model. We then study a possible mechanism that spontaneous
breaks conformal symmetry, showing that cosmological inflation can
be described in such a framework. The resulting model has notable features
and agrees with inflationary observables in a wide range of the parameter
space.
In chapter 4 we discuss detection of torsion by means of gravitational
waves detectors, which is within range of experimental approach once the
space based gravitational detectors will be online. Finally in chapter 5 we
address the conformal anomaly and present first evidence that the extended
Ward identity, which take into account the additional vector field, hold in
a perturbative dimensional renormalization scheme, even when anomalous
contributions are generated in the energy momentum tensor trace.
Original language | English |
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Qualification | Doctor of Philosophy |
Awarding Institution |
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Supervisors/Advisors |
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Award date | 9 Sept 2019 |
Publisher | |
Print ISBNs | 978-94-6380-480-6 |
Publication status | Published - 9 Sept 2019 |
Keywords
- Conformal symmetry
- Conformal anomaly
- Inflation