Gravitational Zero Point Energy and the Induced Cosmological Constant
Remo Garattini
备注：
LaTeX 10 Pages. Submitted to the volume "Cosmology, Quantum Vacuum, and Zeta Functions", in honour of Professor Emilio Elizalde on the occasion of his 60th birthday
We discuss how to extract information about the cosmological constant from the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, considered as an eigenvalue of a Sturm-Liouville problem in a generic spherically symmetric background. The equation is approximated to one loop with the help of a variational approach with Gaussian trial wave functionals. A canonical decomposition of modes is used to separate transverse-traceless tensors (graviton) from ghosts and scalar. We show that no ghosts appear in the final evaluation of the cosmological constant. A zeta function regularization and a ultra violet cutoff are used to handle with divergences. A renormalization procedure is introduced to remove the infinities. We compare the result with the one obtained in the context of noncommutative geometries
We study gravitational waves generated during the inflationary epoch in presence of a decaying cosmological parameter on a 5D geometrical background which is Riemann flat. Two examples are considered, one with a constant cosmological parameter and the second with a decreasing one.
Gravitational waves have been directly detected and astronomical observations indicate that our Universe has a positive cosmological constant $Λ$. Nevertheless, a theoretical gauge-invariant notion of gravitational waves arriving at infinity (escaping from the space-time) in the presence of a positive $Λ$ has been elusive. We find the answer to this long-standing gravitational puzzle and present a geometric, gauge-invariant radiation condition at infinity.
The issue of the gauge invariance of gravitational waves arises if they are produced in the early universe at second-order in perturbation theory. We address it by dividing the discussion about the gauge invariance in three parts: the production of gravitational waves, their propagation in the real universe, and their measurement.
We use the recently discovered universality of Einstein equations in the first order formalism to suggest a positive definite Euclidean action. Possible implications for quantum gravity are considered. We discuss the Hawking and Coleman approach to the vanishing of the cosmological constant by using the new action and find that the cosmological constant is probably zero. A possible scenario for obtaining such an action from superstring field theory is discussed.
We develop an stochastic approach to study gravitational waves produced during the inflationary epoch under the presence of a decaying cosmological parameter, on a 5D geometrical background which is Riemann flat. We obtain that the squared tensor metric fluctuations depend strongly on the cosmological parameter $Λ(t)$ and we finally illustrate the formalism with an example of a decaying $Λ(t)$.
We show that solitonic cosmological gravitational waves propagated through the Friedmann universe and generated by the inhomogeneities of the gravitational field near the Big Bang can be responsible for increase of cosmological distances.
The free Dirac equation is solved in a Bianchi Type I space-time, which represents a homogeneous but anisotropic universe, to show the creation of fermionic particles. It is found that unlike in the isotropic case, massless fermion production is possible. An estimate of the energy density of massless particles created during an early anisotropic phase of cosmological expansion is shown to cause substantial back-reaction on the gravitational field. The potential relevance to dark matter particle production, primordial magnetogenesis, and early universe cosmology is discussed briefly.
We study the linearized equations describing the propagation of gravitational waves through dust. In the leading order of the WKB approximation, dust behaves as a non-dispersive, non-dissipative medium. Taking advantage of these features, we explore the possibility that a gravitational wave from a distant source gets trapped by the gravitational field of a long filament of galaxies of the kind seen in the large scale structure of the Universe. Such a waveguiding effect may lead to a huge magnification of the radiation from distant sources, thus lowering the sensitivity required for a successfu…
Recently a notion of gravitational aether is advocated to solve the cosmological constant problem.Through the modification of the source of gravity one finds that the effective Newton's constant is source dependent so as to provide a simple but consistent way to decouple gravity from the vacuum energy.However,in the original paper the ratio of the effective Newton's constants for pressureless dust and radiation has an upper bound which is 0.75.In this paper we propose a scheme to loose this bound by introducing a bulk viscosity for the gravitational aether,and expect this improvement will prov…
Weak field gravitational wave solutions are investigated in Brans-Dicke (BD) theory in the presence of a cosmological constant. In this setting the background geometry is not flat but asymptotically de-Sitter. We investigate the linearised field equations, and their gravitational wave solutions in a certain gauge choice. We will show that this theory leads to massless scalar waves as in original BD theory and in contrast to massive BD theory. The effects of these waves on free particles and their polarization properties are studied extensively and effects of the cosmological constant is analyz…
We investigate the dynamics of homogeneous gravitational collapse of a massless vector field in the presence of a positive cosmological constant $Λ$. The corresponding density function $ρ(a)$ obtained for the massless vector field is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the scale factor $a (t)$. The variation of the scale factor shows that for $0\, \leΛ< 1$, we obtain the gravitational collapse of the vector fields leading singularity formation in a {\it finite} comoving time resulting in a {\it Blackhole} such that with increasing $Λ$, the singularity formation time, $t_s$ increases.…
In this paper, we discuss the gravitational waves in the context of gauge theory gravity with a negative cosmological constant. The gauge theory gravity is a gravity theory under gauge formulation in the language of geometric algebra. In contrast to general relativity, the background spacetime in gauge theory gravity is flat, the gauge freedom comes from the fact that equations in terms of physical quantities should be kept in a covariant form under spacetime displacement and rotation. Similar to the electromagnetism, the gauge formulation enables us to interpret the gravitational force as a g…
We study gravitational wave memory effect in the FRW cosmological model with matter and cosmological constant. Since the background is curved, gravitational radiation develops a tail part arriving after the main signal that travels along the past light cone of the observer. First we discuss first order gravitational wave sourced by a binary system, and find that the tail only gives a negligible memory, in accord with previous results. Then we study the nonlinear memory effect coming from induced gravitational radiation sourced by first order gravitational radiation propagating over cosmologica…
Previous papers dealt with the quantization of the Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) model for vanishing cosmological constant $Λ$. Here we extend the analysis to the case $Λ>0$. Our main goal is to present solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, to give their interpretation, and to derive Hawking radiation from them. We restrict ourselves to a discussion of those points that are different from the $Λ=0$-case. These have mainly to do with the occurrence of two horizons.
We have recently presented a manifestly local and general coordinate invariant formulation of a nonlocal approach to the cosmological constant problem. In this article, we investigate quantum effects from both matter and gravitational fields in this formulation. In particular, we pay our attention to the gravitational loop effects and show that the effective cosmological constant is radiatively stable even in the presence of the gravitational loop effects in addition to matter loop effects. For this purpose we need to add the $R^2$ term and the corresponding topological action as an total acti…
We analyse the canonical energy of vacuum linearised gravitational fields on light cones on a de Sitter, Minkowski, and Anti de Sitter backgrounds in Bondi gauge. We derive the associated asymptotic symmetries. When $Λ>0$ the energy diverges, but a renormalised formula with well defined flux is obtained. We show that the renormalised energy in the asymptotically off-diagonal gauge coincides with the quadratisation of the generalisation of the Trautman-Bondi mass proposed in [13].
We study the propagation of a gravitational wave in an Ads spacetime. We find that, in presence of the cosmological constant, the graviton mass cannot be measured with higher precision than the square root of the cosmological constant.
We consider the evolution of a flat Friedmann-Roberstson-Walker Universe in a higher derivative theories, including $αR^{2}$ terms to the Einstein-Hilbert action in the presence of a variable gravitational and cosmological constants. We study here the evolution of the gravitational and cosmological constants in the presence of radiation and matter domination era of the universe. We present here new cosmological solutions which are physically interesting for model building.
We consider thermal effects in the propagation of gravitational waves on a cosmological background. In particular, we consider scalar field cosmologies and study gravitational modes near cosmological singularities. We point out that the contribution of thermal radiation can heavily affect the dynamics of gravitational waves giving enhancement or dissipation effects both at quantum and classical level.These effects are considered both in General Relativity and in modified theories like $F(R)$ gravity which can be easily reduced to scalar-tensor cosmology. The possible detection and disentanglem…
Starting from the energy-momentum of matter and gravitational field in the framework of General Relativity and Teleparallel Gravity, we obtain the energy-momentum complex in flat FRW spacetime. We show that the complex vanishes at background level considering the various prescriptions, that is the Einstein, Møller, Landau-Lifshitz and Bergmann ones. On the other hand, at level of linear cosmological perturbations, the energy-momentum complex is different from zero and coincides in the various prescriptions. Finally, we evaluate the gravitational energy for different cosmological epochs governe…
Similar to QCD, general relativity has a $Θ$ sector due to large diffeomorphisms. We make explicit, for the first time, that the gravitational CP violating $Θ$ parameter is non-perturbatively related to the cosmological constant. A gravitational pseudoscalar coupling to massive fermions gives rise to general relativity from a topological $B\wedge F$ theory through a chiral symmetry breaking mechanism. We show that a gravitational Peccei-Quinn like mechanism can dynamically relax the cosmological constant.
We review cosmological backgrounds of gravitational waves with a particular attention to the scientific potential of the eLISA/NGO mission. After an overview of cosmological backgrounds and detectors, we consider different cosmological sources that could lead to an observable signal. We then study the backgrounds produced by first-order phase transitions and networks of cosmic strings, assessing the prospects for their detection.
A mechanism for suppressing the cosmological constant is developed, based on an analogy with a superconducting phaseshift in which free fermions coupled perturbatively to a weak gravitational field are in an unstable false vacuum state. The coupling of the fermions to the gravitational field generates fermion condensates with zero momentum and a phase transition induces a nonperturbative transition to a true vacuum state by producing a positive energy gap $Δ$ in the vacuum energy, identified with $\sqrtΛ$, where $Λ$ is the cosmological constant. In the strong coupling limit a large cosmologica…
Gravitational instabilities of isothermal spheres are studied in the presence of a positive or negative cosmological constant, in the Newtonian limit. In gravity, the statistical ensembles are not equivalent. We perform the analysis both in the microcanonical and the canonical ensembles, for which the corresponding instabilities are known as `gravothermal catastrophe' and `isothermal collapse', respectively. In the microcanonical ensemble, no equilibria can be found for radii larger than a critical value, which is increasing with increasing cosmological constant. In contrast, in the canonical …
We study the fate of gravitational collapse in presence of a cosmological constant. The junctions conditions between static and non-static space-times are deduced. Three apparent horizon are formed, but only two have physical significance, one of them being the black hole horizon and the other the cosmological horizon. The cosmological constant term slows down the collapse of matter, limiting also the size of the black hole.
The cosmological background of gravitational waves can be tuned by the higher-order corrections to the gravitational Lagrangian. In particular, it can be shown that assuming $R^{1+ε}$, where $ε$ indicates a generic (eventually small) correction to the Hilbert-Einstein action in the Ricci scalar $R$, gives a parametric approach to control the evolution and the production mechanism of gravitational waves in the early Universe.
We analyze propagation equations for the polar modes of gravitational waves in cosmological space-times. We prove that polar gravitational waves must perturb the density and non-azimuthal components of the velocity of material medium of the Friedman-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker spacetimes. Axial gravitational waves can influence only the azimuthal velocity, leading to local cosmological rotation. The whole gravitational dynamics reduces to the single "master equation" that has the same form for polar and axial modes. That allows us to conclude that the status of the Huygens principle is the same …
Gravitational waves are inevitably produced by second order terms in cosmological perturbation theory. Most notably, the so-called induced gravitational waves are a window to the small scales part of the primordial spectrum of fluctuations and a key counterpart to the primordial black hole scenario. However, semi-analytical solutions are only known for matter and radiation domination eras. In this paper, we present new analytic integral formulas for the induced gravitational waves on subhorizon scales in a general cosmological background with a constant equation of state. We also discuss appli…
Several mechanisms exist for generating a stochastic background of gravitational waves in the period following inflation. These mechanisms are generally classical in nature, with the gravitational waves being produced from inhomogeneities in the fields that populate the early universe and not quantum fluctuations. The resulting stochastic background could be accessible to next generation gravitational wave detectors. We develop a framework for computing such a background analytically and computationally. As an application of our framework, we consider the stochastic background of gravitational…
We discuss whether an appropriately defined dimensionless scalar function might be an acceptable candidate for the gravitational entropy, by explicitly considering Szekeres and Bianchi type VI$_{h}$ models that admit an isotropic singularity. We also briefly discuss other possible gravitational entropy functions, including an appropriate measure of the velocity dependent Bel-Robinson tensor.
The 2+1-dimensional geodesic circularly symmetric solutions of Einstein-massless-scalar field equations with negative cosmological constant are found and their local and global properties are studied. It is found that one of them represents gravitational collapse where black holes are always formed.
In the middle of last century, Bondi and his coworkers proposed an out going boundary condition for the Einstein equations. Based on such boundary condition the authors theoretically solved the puzzle of the existence problem of gravitational wave. Currently many works on gravitational wave source modeling use Bondi's result to do the analysis including the gravitational wave calculation in numerical relativity. Recently more and more observations imply that the Einstein equations should be modified with an nonzero cosmological constant. In this work we use Bondi's original method to treat the…
Conversion of gravitational waves into electromagnetic radiation is discussed. The probability of transformations of gravitons into photons in presence of cosmological background magnetic field is calculated at the recombination epoch and during subsequent cosmological stages. The produced electromagnetic radiation is concentrated in the X-ray part of the spectrum. It is shown that if the early Universe was dominated by primordial black holes (PBHs) prior to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), the relic gravitons emitted by PBHs would transform to an almost isotropic background of electromagnetic …
We investigate Isaacson's high-frequency gravitational waves which propagate in some relevant cosmological models, in particular the FRW spacetimes. Their time evolution in Fourier space is explicitly obtained for various metric forms of (anti--)de Sitter universe. Behaviour of high-frequency waves in the anisotropic Kasner spacetime is also described.
We review several cosmological backgrounds of gravitational waves accessible to direct-detection experiments, with a special emphasis on those backgrounds due to first-order phase transitions and networks of cosmic (super-)strings. For these two particular sources, we revisit in detail the computation of the gravitational wave background and improve the results of previous works in the literature. We apply our results to identify the scientific potential of the NGO/eLISA mission of ESA regarding the detectability of cosmological backgrounds.
A recent article by Wojtak {\it et al} (arXiv:1504.00718) pointed out that the local gravitational redshift, despite its smallness ($\sim 10^{-5}$), can have a noticeable ($\sim 1\%$) systematic effect on our cosmological parameter measurements. The authors studied a few extended cosmological models (nonflat $Λ$CDM, $w$CDM, and $w_0$-$w_a$CDM) with a mock supernova data set. We repeat this calculation and find that the $\sim 1\%$ biases are due to strong degeneracy between cosmological parameters. When cosmic microwave background (CMB) data are added to break the degeneracy, the biases due to …
The aim of this contribution is to provide a short introduction to recently investigated models in which our accessible universe is a four-dimensional submanifold, or brane, embedded in a higher dimensional spacetime and ordinary matter is trapped in the brane. I focus here on the gravitational and cosmological aspects of such models with a single extra-dimension.
Quantum fluctuation of unstable modes about gravitational instantons causes the instability of flat space at finite temperature, leading to the spontaneous process of nucleating quantum black holes. The energy-density of quantum black holes, depending on the initial temperature, gives the cosmological term, which naturally accounts for the inflationary phase of Early Universe. The reheating phase is attributed to the Hawking radiation and annihilation of these quantum black holes. Then, the radiation energy-density dominates over the energy-density of quantum black holes, the Universe started …
The energy momentum tensor of a magnetic field always contains a spin-2 component in its anisotropic stress and therefore generates gravitational waves. It has been argued in the literature (Caprini & Durrer \cite{CD}) that this gravitational wave production can be very strong and that back-reaction cannot be neglected. On the other hand, a gravitational wave background does affect the evolution of magnetic fields. It has also been argued (Tsagas et al. \cite{Tsagas:2001ak},\cite{Tsagas:2005ki}) that this can lead to very strong amplification of a primordial magnetic field. In this paper we re…
In this paper, we calculate the one-loop quantum cosmological corrections to the kink energy in the closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe in which the fluctuation potential $V^{\prime\prime}$ has a shape invariance property. We use the generalized zeta function regularization method to implement our setup for describing quantum kink-like states. It is conjectured that the corrections lead to the renormalized gravitational constant.
In a toy model we derive the gravitational equation on a self-gravitating curved D-brane. The effective theory on the brane is drastically changed from the ordinal Einstein equation. The net cosmological constant on the brane depends on a tuning between the brane tension and the brane charges. Moreover, non-zero matter stress tensor exists if the net cosmological constant is not zero. This fact indicates a direct connection between matters on the brane and the dark energy.
Nonthermal leptogenesis via cosmological gravitational particle production is tested by inflationary gravitational waves
University of Manitoba（曼尼托巴大学）；Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学）；The University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）；Rice University（莱斯大学）；University of Winnipeg（温尼伯大学）
When photons from distant galaxies and stars pass through our neighboring environment, the wavelengths of the photons would be shifted by our local gravitational potential. This local gravitational redshift effect can potentially have an impact on the measurement of cosmological distance-redshift relation. Using available supernovae data, Wojtak et al [1] found seemingly large biases of cosmological parameters for some extended models (non-flat $Λ$CDM, $w$CDM, etc.). Huang [2] pointed out that, however, the biases can be reduced to a negligible level if cosmic microwave background (CMB) data a…
We find exact nonlinear solutions of general relativity that represent twisted gravitational waves (TGWs) in the presence of a cosmological constant. A TGW is a nonplanar wave propagating along a fixed spatial direction with a null Killing wave vector that has a nonzero twist tensor. The solutions all turn out to have wave fronts with negative Gaussian curvature. Among the classes of solutions presented in this paper, we find a unique class of simple conformally flat TGWs that is due to the presence of a negative cosmological constant and therefore represents part of anti-de Sitter spacetime. …
Cosmological constant problem (in its various versions) is arguably the deepest gap in our understanding of theoretical physics, the solution to which may very likely require revisiting the Einstein theory of gravity. In this letter, I argue that the simplest consistent way to decouple gravity from the vacuum energy (and hence solve the problem) is through the introduction of an incompressible gravitational aether fluid. The theory then predicts that gravitational constant for radiation is 33% larger than that of non-relativistic matter, which is preferred by most cosmological observations (wi…
Self-consistent system of nonlinear spinor field and Bianchi I (BI) gravitational one with time dependent gravitational constant ($G$) and cosmological constant ($Λ$) has been studied. The initial and the asymptotic behaviors of the field functions and the metric one have been thoroughly investigated. Given $Λ= Λ_0/τ^2$, with $τ= \sqrt{-g}$, $G$ has been estimated as a function of $τ$. The role of perfect fluid at the initial state of expansion and asymptotical isotropization process of the initailly anisotropic universe has been elucidated.
The solution of the null non-radial geodesic in a Schwarzschild-de Sitter background is revisited. The gravitational bending of a light ray is affected by the cosmological constant, in agreement with the findings of some previous investigations. The present study confirms that the leading correction term depends directly not only on the cosmological constant but also on the impact parameter and on the angular distance to the source. Using the resulting lens equation, the projected mass of the lens was estimated for several systems displaying Einstein rings. Corrections on masses due to the cos…
We present a set of equations describing the cosmological gravitational wave in a gravity theory with quadratic order gravitational coupling terms which naturally arise in quantum correction procedures. It is known that the gravitational wave equation in the gravity theories with a general $f(R)$ term in the action leads to a second order differential equation with the only correction factor appearing in the damping term. The case for a $R^{ab} R_{ab}$ term is completely different. The gravitational wave is described by a fourth order differential equation both in time and space. However, curi…
We consider the evolution of a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Universe, filled with a causal bulk viscous cosmological fluid, in the presence of variable gravitational and cosmological constants. The basic equation for the Hubble parameter, generalizing the evolution equation in the case of constant gravitational coupling and cosmological term, is derived, under the supplementary assumption that the total energy of the Universe is conserved. By assuming that the cosmological constant is proportional to the square of the Hubble parameter and a power law dependence of the bulk viscosity coeffic…
We point out that gravitational wave detectors such as LISA have the potential of probing a cosmological time evolution of the Higgs boson self-coupling constant $λ$ and thus the Higgs boson's mass $m_H= \sqrt{ 2 λ} v$. The phase transition of the Standard Model could have been a first order one if the Higgs mass was below 72 GeV at a temperature $T_\star \ge 100$ GeV. Gravitational waves could thus have been produced during the electroweak phase transition. A discovery by LISA of a stochastic background of gravitational waves with a characteristic frequency $k_\star \ge 10^{-5}$ Hz could be i…
In the framework of 10-dimensional "Friedmann-Calabi-Yau" cosmology of superstring origin we show that the time variation of either Newton's gravitational constant or Yang-Mills one is unavoidable in the present epoch.
We study the infrared effective theory of gravity that stems from the quantum trace anomaly. Quantum fluctuations of the metric induce running of the cosmological constant and the Newton constant at cosmological scales. By imposing the generalized Bianchi identity we obtain a prediction for the scale dependence of the dark matter and dark energy densities in terms of the parameters of the underlying conformal theory. For certain values of the model parameters the dark energy equation of state and the observed spectral index of the primordial density fluctuations can be simultaneously reproduce…
We study cosmological gravitational waves generated during inflation under the influence of a decaying cosmological "constant", in the Transverse-Traceless (TT) gauge. In our approach we consider a non-perturbative contribution of the dynamical cosmological "constant" to the tensor modes. As an application of the model we study the well-known cases $Λ(t)=σH^2$ and $Λ(t) =\vartheta H$. The spectrum of gravitational waves for the first case results scale invariant at the end of inflation, whereas for the second case scale invariance is not achieved, leaving this to new proposals of the form: $Λ(…
