Hard thermal loops in a gravitational field

Abstract

We calculate the high-temperature (T ⁴) limit of the 3-graviton vertex function, with a single loop of internal scalar particles in thermal equilibrium. We use the analytically continued imaginary-time formalism. We verify a particular case of the Ward identity connecting the 3- and 2-graviton functions. This confirms that there is covariance under general coordinate transformations (which reduce to the identity at infinity).

We remark that the ghost-ghost-graviton vertex (with ghost and graviton internal lines) has noT ⁴ term. This implies that the 3-graviton function with internal graviton (and ghost) lines must satisfy the Ward identity too, so it is possible for it to be proportional to the scalar contribution. We have verified this for that part of the vertex function which is manifestly symmetric and traceless in the six Lorentz indices.