We investigate the ultraviolet behavior of quantum gravity within a functional renormalization group approach. The present setup includes the full ghost and graviton propagators and, for the first time, the dynamical graviton three-point function. The latter gives access to the coupling of dynamical gravitons and makes the system minimally self-consistent. The resulting phase diagram confirms the asymptotic safety scenario in quantum gravity with a nontrivial UV fixed point. A well-defined Wilsonian block spinning requires locality of the flow in momentum space. This property is discussed in the context of functional renormalization group flows. We show that momentum locality of graviton correlation functions is nontrivially linked to diffeomorphism invariance, and is realized in the present setup.

Weinberg’s asymptotic safety scenario provides an elegant mechanism to construct a quantum theory of gravity within the framework of quantum field theory based on a non-Gaussian fixed point of the renormalization group flow. In this work we report novel evidence for the validity of this scenario, using functional renormalization group techniques to determine the renormalization group flow of the Einstein-Hilbert action supplemented by the two-loop counterterm found by Goroff and Sagnotti. The resulting system of beta functions comprises three scale-dependent coupling constants and exhibits a non-Gaussian fixed point which constitutes the natural extension of the one found at the level of the Einstein-Hilbert action. The fixed point exhibits two ultraviolet attractive and one repulsive direction supporting a low-dimensional UV-critical hypersurface. Our result vanquishes the long-standing criticism that asymptotic safety will not survive once a “proper perturbative counterterm” is included in the projection space.

We study four-dimensional quantum gravity using nonperturbative renormalization group methods. We solve the corresponding equations for the fully momentum-dependent propagator, Newtons coupling and the cosmological constant. For the first time, we obtain a global phase diagram where the non-Gaussian ultraviolet fixed point of asymptotic safety is connected via smooth trajectories to a classical infrared fixed point. The theory is therefore ultraviolet complete and deforms smoothly into classical gravity as the infrared limit is approached.

We critically examine the gauge and field-parametrization dependence of renormalization group flows in the vicinity of non-Gaußian fixed points in quantum gravity. While physical observables are independent of such calculational specifications, the construction of quantum gravity field theories typically relies on off-shell quantities such as $\beta$ functions and generating functionals and thus face potential stability issues with regard to such generalized parametrizations. We analyze a two-parameter class of covariant gauge conditions, the role of momentum-dependent field rescalings and a class of field parametrizations. Using the product of Newton and cosmological constant as an indicator, the principle of minimum sensitivity identifies stationary points in this parametrization space which show a remarkable insensitivity to the parametrization. In the most insensitive cases, the quantized gravity system exhibits a non-Gaußian UV stable fixed point, lending further support to asymptotically safe quantum gravity. One of the stationary points facilitates an analytical determination of the quantum gravity phase diagram and features ultraviolet and infrared complete RG trajectories with a classical regime.

Over the last years the asymptotic safety program has matured into a serious candidate for a quantum theory of gravity compatible with observations. The rapid technical progress in computing renormalisation group flows for gravity and gravity-matter systems in the non-perturbative regime has put many interesting physical questions within reach. In particular, the construction of the non-perturbative quantum corrections to the propagation of fields on a fluctuating spacetime allows addressing the effective propagation of matter on a quantum spacetime or the possible resolution of spacetime singularities based on first principle computations. In this article, we assemble a technical toolbox for carrying out investigations on this promising research frontier. As a specific example we present results for the momentum-dependent two-point function for a scalar field induced by the quantum fluctuations of the underlying geometry in a self-consistent way.

A key incentive of quantum gravity is the removal of spacetime singularities plaguing the classical theory. We compute the nonperturbative momentum dependence of a specific structure function within the gravitational asymptotic safety program which encodes the quantum corrections to the graviton propagator for momenta above the Planck scale. The resulting quantum-corrected Newtonian potential approaches a constant negative value as the distance between the two point masses goes to zero, thereby removing the classical singularity. The generic nature of the underlying mechanism suggests that it will remain operative in the context of black hole and cosmic singularities.