MANIFESTATIONS OF QUANTUM-GRAVITY IN SCALAR QED PHENOMENA

Quantum gravitational corrections to the effective potential, at the one-loop level and in the leading-log approximation, for scalar quantum electrodynamics with higher-derivative gravity, which is taken as an effective theory for quantum gravity (QG), are calculated. We point out the appearance of relevant phenomena caused by quantum gravity, such as dimensional transmutation, QG-driven instabilities of the potential, QG corrections to scalar-to-vector mass ratios, and curvature-induced phase transitions, whose existence is shown by means of analytical and numerical study. © 1995 The American Physical Society.