Quantum gravity at a large number of dimensions Original Research Article

We consider the large-D limit of Einstein gravity. It is observed that a consistent leading large-D graph limit exists, and that it is built up by a subclass of planar diagrams. The graphs in the effective field theory extension of Einstein gravity are investigated in the same context, and it is seen that an effective field theory extension of the basic Einstein–Hilbert theory will not upset the latter leading large-D graph limit, i.e., the same subclass of planar diagrams will dominate at large-D in the effective field theory. The effective field theory description of large-D quantum gravity limit will be renormalizable, and the resulting theory will thus be completely well defined up to the Planck scale at ∼1019 GeV. The 1/D expansion in gravity is compared to the successful 1/N expansion in gauge theory (the planar diagram limit), and dissimilarities and parallels of the two expansions are discussed. We consider the expansion of the effective field theory terms and we make some remarks on explicit calculations of n-point functions.