The Einstein Tensor from UV-regulated Field Correlations

Abstract

It is known that the spacetime metric can be recovered from quantum-field correlators. We extend this programme by showing that the Einstein tensor can be directly written in terms of UV-regulated field correlations. The same correlation structure also directly determines the Ricci tensor, while higher coincidence derivatives recover the connection and Riemann tensor. We further show that the renormalized stress-energy tensor can be formulated within this framework, up to the standard finite renormalization freedom. These results provide a correlation-based organization of the semiclassical Einstein equations and advance the programme of formulating spacetime geometry in terms of quantum field correlations.