Non-locality in Quantum Field Theory due to General Relativity

Understand

We show that General Relativity coupled to a quantum field theory generically leads to non-local effects in the matter sector.

• These non-local effects can be described by non-local higher dimensional operators which remarkably have an approximate shift symmetry.
• When applied to inflationary models, our results imply that small non-Gaussianities are a generic feature of models based on General Relativity coupled to matter fields.
• However, these effects are too small to be observable in the Cosmic Microwave Background.