Corrections to gauge theories in effective quantum gravity with a cutoff

Abstract: We calculate the lowest order quantum gravity contributions to QED beta function in an effective field theory picture with a momentum cutoff. We use a recently proposed 4 dimensional improved momentum cutoff that preserves gauge and Lorentz symmetries. We find that there is non-vanishing quadratic contribution to the photon 2-point function but that does not lead to the running of the original coupling after renormalization. We argue that gravity cannot turn gauge theories asymptotically free.