The fate of the trace anomaly in a finite formulation of field theory

Within the framework of the recently proposed Taylor–Lagrange regularization scheme which leads to finite elementary amplitudes in four-dimensional space–time with no additional dimensionful scales — we show that the trace of the energy–momentum tensor does not show any anomalous contribution even though quantum corrections are considered. Moreover, since the only renormalization we can think of within this scheme is a finite renormalization of the bare parameters to give the physical ones, the canonical dimension of quantum fields is also preserved by the use of this regularization scheme.

Dogmas of Effective Field Theory: Scheme Dependence, Fundamental Parameters, and the Many Faces of the Higgs Naturalness Principle

The earliest formulation of the Higgs naturalness argument has been criticized on the grounds that it relies on a particular cutoff-based regularization scheme. One response to this criticism has been to circumvent the worry by reformulating the naturalness argument in terms of a renormalized, regulator-independent parametrization. An alternative response is to deny that regulator dependence poses a problem for the naturalness argument, because nature itself furnishes a particular, physically correct regulator for any effective field theory (EFT) in the form of that EFT’s physical cutoff, together with an associated set of bare parameters that constitute the unique physically preferred “fundamental parameters” of the EFT. Here, I argue that both lines of defense against the initial worry about regulator dependence are flawed. I argue that reformulation of the naturalness argument in terms of renormalized parameters simply trades dependence on a particular regularization scheme for dependence on a particular renormalization scheme, and that one or another form of scheme dependence afflicts all formulations of the Higgs naturalness argument. Concerning the second response, I argue that the grounds for suspending the principle of regularization or renormalization scheme independence in favor of a physically preferred parametrization are thin; the assumption of a physically preferred parametrization, whether in the form of bare “fundamental parameters” or renormalized “physical parameters,” constitutes a theoretical idle wheel in generating the confirmed predictions of established EFTs, which are invariably scheme-independent. I highlight certain features of the alternative understanding of EFTs, and the EFT-based approach to understanding the foundations of QFT, that emerges when one abandons the assumption of a physically preferred parametrization. I explain how this understanding departs from several dogmas concerning the mathematical formulation and physical interpretation of EFTs in high-energy physics.

On perturbative aspects of a nonminimal Lorentz-violating QED with CPT-odd dimension-5 terms

We consider the Lorentz-violating extended QED involving all nonminimal dimension-5 additive CPT-odd terms. For this theory, we investigate the generation of the Carroll–Field–Jackiw (CFJ) term and its higher-derivative counterparts of the first order in any of these nonminimal couplings. The CFJ term is demonstrated to vanish in the dimensional regularization scheme. We also study the question of higher-derivative divergent contributions and demonstrate that they can be eliminated by considering a given proportionality between the coefficients.

Rotated twisted-mass: a convenient regularization scheme for isospin breaking QCD and QED lattice calculations

We propose a scheme of lattice twisted-mass fermion regularization which is particularly convenient for application to isospin breaking (IB) QCD and QED calculations, based in particular on the so called RM123 approach, in which the IB terms of the action are treated as a perturbation. The main, practical advantage of this scheme is that it allows the calculation of IB effects on some mesonic observables, like e.g. the $$\pi ^+ - \pi ^0$$ π + - π 0 mass splitting, using lattice correlation functions in which the quark and antiquark fields in the meson are regularized with opposite values of the Wilson parameter r. These correlation functions are found to be affected by much smaller statistical fluctuations, with respect to the analogous functions in which quark and antiquark fields are regularized with the same value of r. Two numerical application of this scheme, that we call rotated twisted-mass, within pure QCD and QCD + QED respectively, are also provided for illustration.

A microlocal approach to renormalization in stochastic PDEs

We present a novel framework for the study of a large class of nonlinear stochastic partial differential equations (PDEs), which is inspired by the algebraic approach to quantum field theory. The main merit is that, by realizing random fields within a suitable algebra of functional-valued distributions, we are able to use techniques proper of microlocal analysis which allow us to discuss renormalization and its associated freedom without resorting to any regularization scheme and to the subtraction of infinities. As an example of the effectiveness of the approach we apply it to the perturbative analysis of the stochastic [Formula: see text] model.

Robust Regularization with Adversarial Labelling of Perturbed Samples

Recent researches have suggested that the predictive accuracy of neural network may contend with its adversarial robustness. This presents challenges in designing effective regularization schemes that also provide strong adversarial robustness. Revisiting Vicinal Risk Minimization (VRM) as a unifying regularization principle, we propose Adversarial Labelling of Perturbed Samples (ALPS) as a regularization scheme that aims at improving the generalization ability and adversarial robustness of the trained model. ALPS trains neural networks with synthetic samples formed by perturbing each authentic input sample towards another one along with an adversarially assigned label. The ALPS regularization objective is formulated as a min-max problem, in which the outer problem is minimizing an upper-bound of the VRM loss, and the inner problem is L1-ball constrained adversarial labelling on perturbed sample. The analytic solution to the induced inner maximization problem is elegantly derived, which enables computational efficiency. Experiments on the SVHN, CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100 and Tiny-ImageNet datasets show that the ALPS has a state-of-the-art regularization performance while also serving as an effective adversarial training scheme.

Modern Technique for Real Photon Radiative Correction Calculations

The problem of the bremsstrahlung contribution calculation as a part of the radiative corrections in the case of single gauge boson production was discussed. It was shown that the hard photon bremsstrahlung contribution can be divided into the finite and divergent terms. The exact calculation of soft photon bremsstrahlung and infrared part of hard photon bremsstrahlung was presented in frame of the dimensional regularization scheme. Numerical analysis of radiative corrections to the cross sections of single gauge boson production was performed.

A prescription for projectors to compute helicity amplitudes in D dimensions

This article discusses a prescription to compute polarized dimensionally regularized amplitudes, providing a recipe for constructing simple and general polarized amplitude projectors in D dimensions that avoids conventional Lorentz tensor decomposition and avoids also dimensional splitting. Because of the latter, commutation between Lorentz index contraction and loop integration is preserved within this prescription, which entails certain technical advantages. The usage of these D-dimensional polarized amplitude projectors results in helicity amplitudes that can be expressed solely in terms of external momenta, but different from those defined in the existing dimensional regularization schemes. Furthermore, we argue that despite being different from the conventional dimensional regularization scheme (CDR), owing to the amplitude-level factorization of ultraviolet and infrared singularities, our prescription can be used, within an infrared subtraction framework, in a hybrid way without re-calculating the (process-independent) integrated subtraction coefficients, many of which are available in CDR. This hybrid CDR-compatible prescription is shown to be unitary. We include two examples to demonstrate this explicitly and also to illustrate its usage in practice.