If the universe were curved and noncommutative

Abstract

We review recent discussions concerning the definition of a quantum field theory in a curved and noncommutative space, the Snyder--de Sitter space. For a quartic self-interacting scalar field in a spacetime of arbitrary dimension, we show how to perturbatively define the classical action in the small-deformation regime and give its explicit first-order expression. Afterwards, we compute the divergences of the one-loop effective action for the two- and four-dimensional cases. These are employed to calculate the beta functions of the couplings and to numerically analyze the corresponding renormalization group flow. Depending on the initial conditions of the couplings, in four dimensions it is possible to obtain an asymptotic-free theory or a flip in the sign of the cosmological constant as a consequence of the running.