Unimodular gravity and general relativity UV divergent contributions to the scattering of massive scalar particles

Abstract

We work out the one-loop and order κ 2m2 φ UV divergent contributions, coming from Unimodular Gravity and General Relativity, to the S matrix element of the scattering process φ+φ → φ+φ in a λφ4 theory with mass mφ . We show that both Unimodular Gravity and General Relativity give rise to the same UV divergent contributions in Dimension Regularization. This seems to be at odds with the known result that in a multiplicative MS dimensional regularization scheme the General Relativity corrections, in the de Donder gauge, to the beta function βλ of the λ coupling do not vanish, whereas the Unimodular Gravity corrections, in a certain gauge, do vanish. Actually, we show that the UV divergent contributions to the 1PI Feynman diagrams which give rise to those non-vanishing corrections to βλ do not contribute to the UV divergent behaviour of the S matrix element of φ + φ → φ + φ and this shows that any physical consequence –such existence of asymptotic freedom due to gravitational interactions– drawn from the value of βλ is not physically meaningful.