UV Completion

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In theoretical physics, UV completion of a quantum field theory A is another quantum field theory (or a more generalized theory) B that reduces to A below some energy scale (the cutoff of A). However, theory B must be, unlike theory A, well-defined at arbitrarily high energies; i.e. in the ultraviolet regime (this is the origin of the adjective "UV").

The theory B must be renormalizable; it can have no Landau poles; and most typically, B enjoys asymptotic freedom in the case that B is a quantum field theory (or at least has a nontrivial UV fixed point). However, B may also be a background of string theory whose UV behavior is at least as good as that of renormalizable quantum field theories. Besides these two known examples (QFT and string theory), it could be a completely different theory than string theory that behaves well at very high energies.

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