One of the deepest insights from the general theory of relativity is the relational nature of spacetime. While it is a generally agreed on that the nature of spacetime must be drastically different at the Planck scale, it has been a common practice to assume a full pseudo-Riemannian geometry of spacetime no matter what the physical fields present are, and to apply such geometry to cosmology. In the spirit of preserving the relational description of spacetime, we initiate a discussion on the applicability of general relativity all the way to Planck scale, and propose the possibility that the full pseudo-Riemannian geometry emerges as late as the time of electroweak phase transition when spacetime acquires the projective structure necessary to describe the motions of massive particles. A brief discussion of possible properties of spacetime prior to electroweak symmetry breaking is followed by an exploration of plausible experimental indications that such transition is real.
Casimir effect for massless minimally coupled scalar field is studied. An explicit answer for de Sitter spacetime is obtained and analized. Cosmological implications of the result are discussed.
We show that a partially massless graviton can propagate on a large set of spacetimes which are not Einstein spacetimes. Starting from a recently constructed theory for a massive graviton that propagates the correct number of degrees of freedom on an arbitrary spacetime, we first give the full explicit form of the scalar constraint responsible for the absence of a sixth degree of freedom. We then spell out generic conditions for the constraint to be identically satisfied, so that there is a scalar gauge symmetry which makes the graviton partially massless. These simplify if one assumes that sp…
Current measurements of Standard Model parameters suggest that the electroweak vacuum is metastable. This metastability has important cosmological implications, because large fluctuations in the Higgs field could trigger vacuum decay in the early universe. For the false vacuum to survive, interactions which stabilize the Higgs during inflation -- e.g., inflaton-Higgs interactions or non-minimal couplings to gravity -- are typically necessary. However, the post-inflationary preheating dynamics of these same interactions could also trigger vacuum decay, thereby recreating the problem we sought t…
We provide a systematic and comprehensive derivation of the linearized dynamics of massive and partially massless spin-2 particles in a Schwarzschild (anti) de Sitter black hole background, in four and higher spacetime dimensions. In particular, we show how to obtain the quadratic actions for the propagating modes and recast the resulting equations of motion in a Schrödinger-like form. In the case of partially massless fields in Schwarzschild de Sitter spacetime, we study the isospectrality between modes of different parity. In particular, we prove isospectrality analytically for modes with mu…
A method for computing the stress-energy tensor for the quantized, massless, spin 1/2 field in a general static spherically symmetric spacetime is presented. The field can be in a zero temperature state or a non-zero temperature thermal state. An expression for the full renormalized stress-energy tensor is derived. It consists of a sum of two tensors both of which are conserved. One tensor is written in terms of the modes of the quantized field and has zero trace. In most cases it must be computed numerically. The other tensor does not explicitly depend on the modes and has a trace equal to th…
While it is generally agreed that the nature of spacetime must be drastically different at the Planck scale, it has been a common practice to assume that spacetime is endowed with a full pseudo-Riemannian geometry regardless of the physical fields present or the length scale at which the geometry is probed, and to adopt this assumption in theories of cosmology, particle physics, quantum gravity, etc. Following Einstein's view that the mathematical description of spacetime ought to be physically motivated, we initiate a discussion on the validity of this assumption, and propose that the full ps…
The study of phase-space constructions based on the properties of the $κ$-Poincaré Hopf algebra has been a very active area, mostly because of its possible applications in the phenomenology of Planck-scale-induced momentum dependence of the speed of ultrarelativistic particles. We here summarize, with emphasis on the emerging relativity of spacetime locality, some results relevant for this research program that were recently reported in arXiv:1006.2126 (PhysRevLett106,071301) arXiv:1102.4637 (PhysLettB700,150) and arXiv:1107.1724 .
A new noncommutative spacetime of structure $ {\cal M}^4 \times Z_2 \times Z_2$ is proposed. The generalized Hilbert-Einstein action contains gravity, all known interactions and Higgs field. This theory can also provide a unified geometric framework for multigravity, which might explain the existence of dark matter and inflationary cosmology. In other words, high energy physics has laid out the crude shape of the new spacetime, while cosmology will shed light to the more details of it.
We consider dynamics of massless particle in 2d spacetimes with constant curvature. We analyze different examples of spacetime. Dynamical integrals are constructed from spacetime symmetry related to $sl(2.{\bf R})$ algebra. Mass-shell condition restricts dynamical integrals to a cone (without vertex) which defines physical-phase space. We parametrize the cone by canonical coordinates. Canonical quantization with definite choice of operator ordering leads to unitary irreducible representations of $SO_\uparrow (2.1)$ group.
We study a novel class of higher derivative theories for interacting massless gravitons in Minkowski spacetime. These theories were first discussed by Wald decades ago, and are characterized by scattering amplitudes essentially different from general relativity and many of its modifications. We discuss various aspects of these higher derivative theories, including the Lagrangian construction, violation of asymptotic causality, scattering amplitudes, non-renormalization, and possible implications on emergent gravitons from condensed matter systems.
Quasi-classical picture of motion of spin 1/2 massless particle in a curved spacetime is built on base of simple Lagrangian model. The one is constructed due to analogy with Lagrangian of massive spin 1/2 particle. Equations of motion and spin propagation coincide with Papapetrou equations describing dynamic of photon in a curved spacetime.
We consider here the existence and structure of trapped surfaces, horizons and singularities in spherically symmetric static massless scalar field spacetimes. Earlier studies have shown that there exists no event horizon in such spacetimes if the scalar field is asymptotically flat. We extend this result here to show that this is true in general for spherically symmetric static massless scalar field spacetimes, whether the scalar field is asymptotically flat or not. Other general properties and certain important features of these models are also discussed.
Quantum inequalities have been established for various quantum fields in both flat and curved spacetimes. In particular, for spin-3/2 fields, Yu and Wu have explicitly derived quantum inequalities for massive case. Employing the similar method developed by Fewster and colleagues, this paper provides an explicit formula of quantum inequalities for massless spin-3/2 field in four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime.
We compute the regularized temperature for a spacetime foam model, consisting on S^4 instantons, in quantum gravity. Assuming that thermal equilibrium takes place with some amount of radiation - with thermal fields in the SU(2)xU(1) gauge theory - we obtain the remarkable result that the squared value of this temperature exactly coincides with the electroweak coupling constant at the energy scale of the gauge bosons W. This is consistent with the classical ADM result that the electrical charge should be equal to its finite gravitational self energy.
Dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking by the Hosotani mechanism in the Randall-Sundrum warped spacetime is examined, relations among the W-boson mass (m_W), the Kaluza-Klein mass scale (M_{KK}), and the Higgs boson mass (m_H) being derived. It is shown that M_{KK}/m_W = (2 pi kR)^{1/2} (pi/theta_W) and m_H /m_W = 0.058 kR (pi/theta_W), where k^2, R, and theta_W are the curvature and size of the extra-dimensional space and the Wilson line phase determined dynamically. For typical values kR = 12 and theta_W = (0.2 to 0.4) pi, one finds that M_{KK} = (1.7 to 3.5) TeV, k = (1.3 to 2.6) x 10^{19}…
We address the concerns raised by the author of "Comment: Some exact quasinormal frequencies of a massless scalar field in Schwarzschild spacetime" appeared in arXiv:1807.05940. In particular, we explain why the analysis in our paper [Phys. Rev. D{\bf{98}}, 024017 (2018)] is relevant and correct.
Motivated by the endeavors of Li Xiang and You-Gen Shen on naked singularities, we investigate the validity of the cosmic censorship conjecture in the context of generalized uncertainty principle. In particular, upon considering both linear and quadratic terms of momentum in the uncertainty principle, we first compute the entropy of a massless charged black hole in de Sitter spacetime at a given modified temperature. Then, we compute the corresponding modified cosmological radius and express the black hole electric charge in terms of this modified cosmological radius and, thus, in terms of the…
The approximate stress-energy tensor of the conformally invariant massless spin-1/2 field in the Hartle-Hawking state in the Schwarzschild spacetime is constructed. It is shown that by solving the conservation equation in conformal space and utilizing the regularity conditions in a physical metric one obtains the stress-energy tensor that is in a good agreement with the numerical calculations. The back reaction of the quantized field upon the spacetime metric is briefly discussed.
We investigate the power-law tails in the evolution of a charged massless scalar field around a fixed background of a dilaton black hole. Using both analytical and numerical methods we find the inverse power-law relaxation of charged fields at future timelike infinity, future null infinity, and along the outer horizon of the considered black hole. We invisage that a charged hair decays slower than neutral ones. The oscillatory inverse power law along the outer horizon of the dilaton black hole is of a great importance for a mass inflation scenario along the Cauchy horizon of a dynamically form…
A short derivation is given of the weak gravitational field approximation to the scalar massless propagator in Schwarzschild spacetime obtained by Paszko using the path-integral approach. The contribution from the direct coupling of the quantum field to the scalar curvature is explictly included. The propagator complies with Hadamard's pattern, and the vacuum state is consistent with the perturbative version of the Boulware vacuum. The momentum space propagator is computed for massless or massive particles to the same perturbative order. The renormalized value of $\ < ϕ^2(x)\ >$ for the massle…
We consider $d$-dimensional static spacetimes in Einstein gravity with a cosmological constant in the presence of a minimally coupled massless scalar field. The spacetimes have a $(d-2)$-dimensional base manifold given by an Einstein space and the massless scalar field depends only on the radial coordinate. The field equations are decoupled in the general case, and can be solved exactly for the cases when either the cosmological constant vanishes or the base manifold is Ricci flat. We focus on the case of a negative cosmological constant and a Ricci-flat base manifold. The solution has a curva…
Since horizon formation in global anti-de Sitter spacetime is dual to thermalization of a conformal field theory on a compact space, whether generic initial data is stable or unstable against gravitational collapse is of great interest. We argue that all the known stable initial data for massless scalars are dominated by single scalar eigenmodes, specifically providing strong numerical evidence consistent with the interpretation that initial data with equal energies in two modes collapse on time scales of order the inverse square of the amplitude. We further scan the parameter space for massiv…
We prove that, under the standard conformal scaling, a massless field in de Sitter spacetime admits an O(4)-invariant Fock quantization such that time evolution is unitarily implemented. This result disproves previous claims in the literature. We discuss the relationship between this quantization with unitary dynamics and the family of O(4)-invariant Hadamard states given by Allen and Folacci, as well as with the Bunch-Davies vacuum.
The stress-energy tensor for the massless spin 1/2 field is numerically computed outside and on the event horizons of both charged and uncharged static non-rotating black holes, corresponding to the Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstrom and extreme Reissner-Nordström solutions of Einstein's equations. The field is assumed to be in a thermal state at the black hole temperature. Comparison is made between the numerical results and previous analytic approximations for the stress-energy tensor in these spacetimes. For the Schwarzschild (charge zero) solution, it is shown that the stress-energy differs…
The closed-universe recollapse conjecture is studied for a class of closed spherically symmetric spacetimes which includes those having as a matter source: (1) a massless scalar field; (2) a perfect fluid obeying the equation of state $ρ= P$; and (3) null dust. It is proven that all timelike curves in any such spacetime must have length less than $6 \max_Σ(2m)$, where $m$ is the mass associated with the spheres of symmetry and $Σ$ is any Cauchy surface for the spacetime. The simplicity of this result leads us to conjecture that a similar bound can be established for the more general sphericall…
A class of curved spacetimes with global parabolic isometries (GPI) is introduced. These isometries have fixed point sets on two-dimensional null surfaces which can be interpreted as worldsheets of massless cosmic strings. Back reaction effects of the strings in such spacetimes can be described exactly, in terms of a nontrivial holonomy at the worldsheet. We show that the GPI spacetimes are type $N$ geometries of the Petrov classification. We describe a number of features of these spacetimes, including properties of Killing horizons associated to GPI. As an example, we consider a circular mass…
We calculate the renormalized vacuum average of the energy-momentum tensor of massless left-handed spinor field in the pointlike global monopole spacetime using point-separation approach. The general structure of the vacuum average of the energy-momentum tensor is obtained and expressed in terms of $<T^0_0>^{ren}$ component, explicit form of which is analyzed in great details for arbitrary solid angle deficit.
In classical spacetime null geodesics give information on where free massless particles travel. In quantum spacetime where quantum indefiniteness renders spacetime fuzzy null geodesics as sharp trajectories cannot be retained. We propose a "tendency postulate" that gives information on where free massless objects tend to travel based exclusively on meaningful notions in quantum spacetime. It says that free massless objects tend to trace large quantum causal fluctuations. We implement the tendency postulate in concrete models of quantum spacetime that describe causal fluctuation. The tendency p…
The motion of massless spinning test particles is investigated using the Newman-Penrose formalism within the Mathisson-Papapetrou model extended to massless particles by Mashhoon and supplemented by the Pirani condition. When the "multipole reduction world line" lies along a principal null direction of an algebraically special vacuum spacetime, the equations of motion can be explicitly integrated. Examples are given for some familiar spacetimes of this type in the interest of shedding some light on the consequences of this model.
Employing a pseudo-orthonormal coordinate-free approach we write down the Dirac equation in spacetimes with static generally prolate metrics. As examples, we consider the electrically charged C-metric, the vacuum C-metric, the Reissner-Nordstrom and Schwarszchild spacetimes and the BBMB black hole and show that the solutions to the Dirac equations for particles these spacetimes can be derived in terms of Heun's general functions and their confluent and double confluent forms.
A new branch of quasinormal modes for a massless scalar field propagating on the Schwarzschild spacetime was recently announced [1807.04513]. We review the quasinormal modes characterisation and arguments and identify the flaws in their proof. Then, we preset explicit counterexamples to such arguments. Finally, we study the modes via alternative methods and do not find the new branch. We conclude against their interpretation.
In this paper we consider a charged massless scalar quantum field operator in the spacetime of an idealized cosmic string, i.e., an infinitely long, straight and static cosmic string, which presents a magnetic field confined in a cylindrical tube of finite radius. Three distinct situations are taking into account in this analysis: {\it{i)}} a homogeneous field inside the tube, {\it{ii)}} a magnetic field proportional to $1/r$ and {\it{iii)}} a cylindrical shell with $δ$-function. In these three cases the axis of the infinitely long tube of radius $R$ coincides with the cosmic string. In order …
We calculate the vacuum averages of the energy-momentum tensor associated with a massless left-handed spinor fields due to magnetic fluxes on idealized cosmic string spacetime. In this analysis three distinct configurations of magnetic fields are considered: {\it{i)}} a homogeneous field inside the tube, {\it{ii)}} a magnetic field proportional to $1/r$ and {\it{iii)}} a cylindrical shell with $δ$-function. In these three cases the axis of the infinitely long tubes of radius $R$ coincides with the cosmic string. In order to proceed with these calculations we explicitly obtain the Euclidean Fey…
Earlier we obtained quasi-classical equations of motion of spin 1/2 massless particle in a curved spacetime on base of simple Lagrangian model \cite{al2}. Now we suggest an approach to derive the equations in framework of field theory. Noether theorem formulated in terms of Cartan' formalism of orthonormal frames gives equations for current of spin of the field and tensor of stress-energy. It is shown that under eikonal approximation the above mentioned equations can be reduced to equations for worldline of the particle and equation of spin of the particle along the worldline. This way conform…
We study massive and massless conical defects in Minkowski and de Sitter spaces in various spacetime dimensions. The energy-momentum of a defect, considered as an (extended) relativistic object, is completely characterized by the holonomy of the connection associated with its spacetime metric. The possible holonomies are given by Lorentz group elements, which are rotations and null rotations for massive and massless defects respectively. In particular, if we fix the direction of propagation of a massless defect in n+1-dimensional Minkowski space, then its space of holonomies is a maximal abeli…
In this work we consider the exact solution of the Klein-Gordon equation describing a massless scalar field in the spacetime of a four dimensional canonical acoustic black hole, which is given in terms of the general Heun function, to investigate the interesting phenomena related to the resonant frequencies.
In this paper, the two-dimensional Reissner-Nordström black hole is considered as a system of the Casimir type. In this background the Casimir effect for the massless Dirac field is discussed. The massless Dirac field is confined between two ``parallel plates'' separated by a distance $L$ and there is no particle current drilling through the boundaries. The vacuum expectation values of the stress tensor of the massless Dirac field at infinity are calculated separately in the Boulware state, the Hartle-Hawking state and the Unruh state.
Although the observed universe appears to be geometrically flat, it could have one of 18 global topologies. A constant-time slice of the spacetime manifold could be a torus, Mobius strip, Klein bottle, or others. This global topology of the universe imposes boundary conditions on quantum fields and affects the vacuum energy density via Casimir effect. In a spacetime with such a nontrivial topology, the vacuum energy density is shifted from its value in a simply-connected spacetime. In this paper, the vacuum expectation value of the stress-energy tensor for a massless scalar field is calculated…
We present a new hybrid Cauchy-characteristic evolution method that is particularly suited for the study of gravitational collapse in spherically-symmetric asymptotically (global) Anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetimes. The Cauchy evolution allows us to track the scalar field through the different bounces off the AdS boundary while the characteristic method can bring us very close to the point of formation of an apparent horizon. Here, we describe all the details of the method, including the transition between the two evolution schemes and the details of the numerical implementation for the case of m…
We give a rigorous definition of the Unruh state in the setting of massless Dirac fields on slowly rotating Kerr spacetimes. In the black hole exterior region, we show that it is asymptotically thermal at Hawking temperature on the past event horizon. Furthermore, we demonstrate that in the union of the exterior and interior regions, the Unruh state is pure and Hadamard. The main ingredients are the Häfner-Nicolas scattering theory, new microlocal estimates for characteristic Cauchy problems and criteria on the level of square-integrable solutions.
In spinor formalism, since any massless free-field spinor with spin higher than $1/2$ can be constructed with spin-1/2 spinors (Dirac-Weyl spinors) and scalars, we introduce a map between Weyl fields and Dirac-Weyl fields. We determine the corresponding Dirac-Weyl spinors in a given empty spacetime. Regarding them as basic units, other higher spin massless free-field spinors are then identified. Along this way, we find some hidden fundamental features related to these fields. In particular, for non-twisting vacuum Petrov type N solutions, we show that all higher spin massless free-field spinor…
The relativistic Dirac equation in four-dimensional spacetime reveals a coherent relation between the dimensions of spacetime and the degrees of freedom of fermionic spinors. A massless Dirac fermion generates new symmetries corresponding to chirality spin and charge spin as well as conformal scaling transformations. With the introduction of intrinsic W-parity, a massless Dirac fermion can be treated as a Majorana-type or Weyl-type spinor in a six-dimensional spacetime that reflects the intrinsic quantum numbers of chirality spin. A generalized Dirac equation is obtained in the six-dimensional…
The behavior of spin - 1/2 - particles in anisotropic Bianchi type I backgrounds is investigated utilizing the concept of differential forms and orthonormal frames. Specializing to the massless case and power law scale factors $α_j(t) = t^{q_j}$ of the metric where $q_1 = q_2 $, an analytical outcome for the time evolution operator in terms of Bessel functions is presented.
We study the long-distance behaviour of the massless vector propagator in (n)-dimensional de Sitter spacetime, where $n \geq 4$. Specifically, we consider the massless limit of the vector propagator in the Stueckelberg theory, which is an extension of Proca theory, with an additional gauge-fixing term. We work to leading order in the de Sitter-invariant distance $Z$ to show that, in the large $Z$ limit, this propagator tends to a gauge dependent constant, where the gauge worked in is described by the Stueckelberg parameter $ξ$. In the Landau gauge, where $ξ=0$, this constant is found to be 0. …
It has recently been shown that the strong cosmic censorship conjecture can be violated by the massless neutral scalar field in the nearly extremal Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter black hole. However, the formation of such a black hole by gravitational collapse necessitates the presence of the charged sector on top of the Einstein-Maxwell system. Thus we numerically calculate the quasi-normal modes for a massless charged scalar field in the Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter spacetime by generalizing the characteristic formulation to the charged case. As a result, the strong cosmic censorship turns out…
Motivated by the desire to understand the causal structure of physical signals produced in curved spacetimes -- particularly around black holes -- we show how, for certain classes of geometries, one might obtain its retarded or advanced minimally coupled massless scalar Green's function by using the corresponding Green's functions in the higher dimensional Minkowski spacetime where it is embedded. Analogous statements hold for certain classes of curved Riemannian spaces, with positive definite metrics, which may be embedded in higher dimensional Euclidean spaces. The general formula is applied…
We present in this work the study of the linear perturbations of the 2+1-dimensional circularly symmetric solution, obtained in a previous work, with kinematic self-similarity of the second kind. We have obtained an exact solution for the perturbation equations and the possible perturbation modes. We have shown that the background solution is a stable solution.
In this work, we study quantum fluctuations in the stress energy tensor of spinor fields evolving in general FRW spacetimes. We quantify these fluctuations by the noise kernel of spinor fields. For the particular case of de Sitter spacetime, we place the spinor field in what is called the fermionic Bunch Davies vacuum and study the variation of the noise kernel with the mass of the field. We then make use of the conformal invariance of massless spinor fields and employ an equivalence that relates a massless spinor field in any given FRW spacetime with a corresponding massless spinor field in d…
Stochastic motion of massless particles near event horizons in Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordström spacetimes
Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院数学与系统科学研究院）；School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学数学科学学院）；School of Mathematics, Guangxi University（广西大学数学学院）；Guangxi Center for Mathematical Research, Guangxi University（广西大学广西数学研究中心）；Ningde No.5 Middle School of Fujian（福建省宁德第五中学）
We have found two non-trivial massless Dirac and two massive Rarita-Schwinger solutions in plane wave spacetimes. The first order symmetry operator transforming one of the massless Dirac solution to the other is constructed. The only non-vanishing spinor bilinear generated by the standard spinor basis is obtained and algebraic relations between the induced parallel forms are demonstrated. It is also seen that the spin-3/2 norm of the Rarita-Schwinger solutions enforces to the massless sector.
We present the manifestly covariant Lagrangian of a massless polarized particle, that implies all dynamic and algebraic equations as the conditions of extreme of this variational problem. The model allows for minimal interaction with a gravitational field, leading to the equations, coinciding with Maxwell equations in the geometrical optics approximation. The model allows also a wide class of non minimal interactions, which suggests an alternative way to study the electromagnetic radiation beyond the leading order of geometrical optics. As a specific example, we construct a curvature-dependent…
