Squeezed Gravitons and One-Loop Self-Energy under Light-Cone Smearing

[2605.05916] Squeezed Gravitons and One-Loop Self-Energy under Light-Cone Smearing Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in High Energy Physics - Theory arXiv:2605.05916 (hep-th) [Submitted on 7 May 2026 ( v1 ), last revised 24 Aug 2026 (this version, v3)] Title: Squeezed Gravitons and One-Loop Self-Energy under Light-Cone Smearing Authors: Hiroki Matsui View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: We investigate light-cone smearing induced by quantum fluctuations of gravitons and its implications for the ultraviolet structure of quantum field theory. By treating the first-order correction to Synge's world function as an operator, we show that the retarded Green's function is smeared by the variance of graviton fluctuations. The smearing width depends on the quantum state of gravitons: vacuum fluctuations generate a Gaussian smearing of the light cone, coherent states shift the light-cone position, and squeezed states modify the smearing width itself. We then apply the smeared Feynman propagator to one-loop self-energies in interacting scalar field theories. Within a phenomenological finite-resolution prescription that keeps the effective width nonzero, the ultraviolet-sensitive short-distance terms in the $\phi^3$ bubble and $\phi^4$ tadpole diagram expressions are finite. For the illustrative choice that the coarse-graining scale is the Planck length, primordial gravitons induce a relative correction of order $10^{-10}$ to the one-loop self-energy. Our results suggest that the quantum state of gravitons can leave a finite imprint on the causal and short-distance structure of quantum field theory. Comments: 31 pages, v3: Accepted for publication in Physical Review D Subjects: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) ; General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc); High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2605.05916 [hep-th] (or arXiv:2605.05916v3 [hep-th] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.05916 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Journal reference: Phys.Rev.D 114 (2026) 4, 045028 Related DOI : https://doi.org/10.1103/z1z6-8c8b Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources Submission history From: Hiroki Matsui [ view email ] [v1] Thu, 7 May 2026 09:28:05 UTC (34 KB) [v2] Mon, 1 Jun 2026 12:02:02 UTC (36 KB) [v3] Mon, 24 Aug 2026 08:08:31 UTC (37 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: hep-th < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-05 Change to browse by: gr-qc hep-ph References & Citations INSPIRE HEP SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) IArxiv recommender toggle IArxiv Recommender ( What is IArxiv? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab)

Related documents

• Squeezed Gravitons and One-Loop Self-Energy under Light-Cone Smearing#682669
• Ovcharenko-Podolsky Einstein-Maxwell gravitational instantons#996523
• The Hyperextreme 2-Soliton Vortex: Compact Toroidal Closed Timelike Curves, a Naked Ring Singularity, and Thin-Shell Excision#718809
• From Micro-Closure Dynamics to Einstein-Class Gravity#210187
• Gravito-Electromagnetic perturbation of higher derivative corrected Kerr-Newman black hole#614123