Within the low-energy effective field theories of QED and gravity, the low-energy speed of light or that of gravitational waves can typically be mildly superluminal in curved spacetimes. Related to this, small scattering time advances relative to the curved background can emerge from known effective field theory coefficients for photons or gravitons. We clarify why these results are not in contradiction with causality, analyticity or Lorentz invariance, and highlight various subtleties that arise when dealing with superluminalities and time advances in the gravitational context. Consistent low-energy effective theories are shown to self-protect by ensuring that any time advance and superluminality calculated within the regime of validity of the effective theory is necessarily unresolvable, and cannot be argued to lead to a macroscopically larger lightcone. Such considerations are particularly relevant for putting constraints on cosmological and gravitational effective field theories and we provide explicit criteria to be satisfied so as to ensure causality.
We consider how causality and micro-causality are realised in QED in curved spacetime. The photon propagator is found to exhibit novel non-analytic behaviour due to vacuum polarization, which invalidates the Kramers-Kronig dispersion relation and calls into question the validity of micro-causality in curved spacetime. This non-analyticity is ultimately related to the generic focusing nature of congruences of geodesics in curved spacetime, as implied by the null energy condition, and the existence of conjugate points. These results arise from a calculation of the complete non-perturbative frequ…
We examine the Hessian potential that derives the flat Minkowski spacetime in $(1+1)$-dimension. The entanglement thermodynamics by the Hessian geometry enables us to obtain the entanglement entropy of a corresponding quantum state by means of holography. We find that the positivity of the entropy leads to the presence of past and future causal cones in the Minkowski spacetime. We also find that the quantum state is equivalent to the thermofield-double state, and then the entropy is proportional to the temperature. The proportionality is consistent with previous holographic works. The present …
It has been known for a long time that vacuum polarization in QED leads to a superluminal low-frequency phase velocity for light propagating in curved spacetime. Assuming the validity of the Kramers-Kronig dispersion relation, this would imply a superluminal wavefront velocity and the violation of causality. Here, we calculate for the first time the full frequency dependence of the refractive index using world-line sigma model techniques together with the Penrose plane wave limit of spacetime in the neighbourhood of a null geodesic. We find that the high-frequency limit of the phase velocity (…
The effective action is derived for a self-interacting theory with a finite fixed $O(2)$ charge at finite temperature in curved spacetime. We obtain the high temperature expansion of the effective action in the weak coupling limit. In the relativistic temperature, we discuss about the phase transition in a homogeneous spacetime.
For a linear Dirac field on a globally hyperbolic static space-time the analytic continuation of its Wightman functions (Green functions) to Schwinger functions and back at zero and finite temperature is shown.
Using the renormalization group (RG) approach and the equivalency between the class of gauge-Higgs-Yukawa models and the gauged Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model, we study the gauged NJL model in curved space-time. The behaviour of the scalar-gravitational coupling constant $ξ(t)$ in both theories is discussed. The RG improved effective potential of gauged NJL model in curved spacetime is found. The curvature at which chiral symmetry in the gauged NJL model is broken is obtained explicitly in a remarkably simple form. The powerful RG improved effective potential formalizm leads to the same result…
Based on lectures delivered at (1) the AMS meeting at USC, Nov. 1992 (2) Conference on Quantum Aspects of Black Holes, ITP, UC- Santa %Barbara, %%June 1993. (3) 25th Summer Institute, Ecole Normale Superieure, % Paris, Aug. 1992. To appear in "Interface Between Mathematics and Physics", Ed. S.-T. Yau. 1--Itroduction to String Theory in Curved Spacetime 2--G/H Coset Conformal Field Theory and String Theory 3--Time, Space and Classification of Non-Compact Cosets 4--Heterotic Strings in Curved Spacetime as gauged WZW Models 5--The Spacetime Manifold and the Geometry 6--Examples in 2D, 3D and 4D
Quasifree states of a linear Klein-Gordon quantum field on globally hyperbolic spacetime manifolds are considered. Using techniques from the theory of pseudodifferential operators and wavefront sets on manifolds a criterion for a state to be an Hadamard state is developed. It is shown that ground- and KMS-states on certain static spacetimes and adiabatic vacuum states on Robertson-Walker spaces are Hadamard states. Finally, the problem of constructing Hadamard states on arbitrary curved spacetimes is solved in principle.
Embedding of a bosonic and/or fermionic p-brane into a generic curved $D$-dimensional spacetime is considered. In contradistinction to the bosonic p-brane case, when there are no constraints on a generic curving whatsoever, the usual superbrane can be embedded into a curved spacetime of a restricted curving only. A generic curving is achieved by extending the odd sector of a superbrane as to transform w.r.t. $\bar{SL}(D,R)$, i.e. $\bar{Diff}(D,R)$ infinite-component spinorial representations. Relevant constructions in the D=3 case are considered.
The renormalization group (RG) is used in order to obtain the RG improved effective potential in curved spacetime. This potential is explicitly calculated for the Yukawa model and for scalar electrodynamics, i.e. theories with several (namely, more than one) mass scales, in a space of constant curvature. Using the $λφ^4$-theory on a general curved spacetime as an example, we show how it is possible to find the RG improved effective Lagrangian in curved spacetime. As specific applications, we discuss the possibility of curvature induced phase transitions in the Yukawa model and the effective eq…
The non-abelian Dirac-Born-Infeld action is used to construct the D2-brane from multiple D0-branes in the curved spacetimes. After choosing the matrix elements as the coordinates of the D0-branes we obtain a simple formula of the Lagrangian for the system in a class of the curved background. Using the formula we first re-examine the system in the flat spacetime and show that, in addition to the fuzzy tube and fuzzy spike which were found in the previous literature, there is the fuzzy wormhole solution. Next, we apply the formula to the system in the geometry of the NS5-branes background. A sol…
We consider the generalized momentum-depending quon algebra in a dynamically evolving curved spacetime and perform a type of analysis similar to that of J.W.Goodison and D.J.Toms. We find that, at least in principle, all kinds of statistics may occur in some regions, i.e. phases in momentum space, depending on Bogoliubov coefficients determined by a specific dynamical model.
We consider quon statistics in a dynamically evolving curved spacetime in which prior to some initial time and subsequent to some later time is flat. By considering the Bogoliubov transformations associated with gravitationally induced particle creation, we find that the consistent evolution of the generalized commutation relations from the first flat region to the second flat region can only occur if $q = \pm 1$.
The renormalization-group improved effective potential ---to leading-log and in the linear curvature approximation--- is constructed for ``finite'' theories in curved spacetime. It is not trivial and displays a quite interesting, exponential-like structure ---in contrast with the case of flat spacetime where it coincides with the classical potential. Several possible cosmological applications, as curvature-induced phase transitions and modifications of the values of the gravitational and cosmological constants, are briefly discussed.
We discuss the phase structure of a higher derivative four-fermion model in four dimensions in curved spacetime in frames of the $\frac{1}{N_c}$-expansion. First, we evaluate in our model the effective potential of two composite scalars in the linear curvature approximation using a local momentum representation in curved spacetime for the higher-derivative propagator which naturally appears. The symmetry breaking phenomenon and phase transition induced by curvature are numerically investigated. A numerical study of the dynamically generated fermionic mass, which depends on the coupling constan…
The Higgs-Yukawa model in curved spacetime (renormalizable in the usual sense) is considered near the critical point, employing the $1/N$--expansion and renormalization group techniques. By making use of the equivalence of this model with the standard NJL model, the effective potential in the linear curvature approach is calculated and the dynamically generated fermionic mass is found. A numerical study of chiral symmetry breaking by curvature effects is presented.
The complete set of solutions of two dimensional classical string theory are constructed for any curved spacetime. They describe folded strings moving in curved spacetime. Surprizing stringy behavior becomes evident at singularities such as black holes.The solutions are given in the form ofa map from the world sheet to target spacetime, where the world sheet has to be divided into lattice -like patches corresponding to different maps. A recursion relation analogous to a transfer matrix connects these maps into a single continuous map. This ``transfer matrix'' encodes the properties of the worl…
We give a simple method to calculate the semiclassical $D$-brane boundary states of the bosonic string propagating in an arbitrary curved spacetime in a perturbative approach in which the metric $g_{AB}$ and the constant antisymmetric Kalb-Ramond field $b_{AB}$ form the general background which is treated exactly. As an important particular case, it is shown that at the first order perturbation theory there are $D$-brane coherent states in the $d$-dimensional {\em AdS} spacetime if certain conditions are fulfilled by the boundary projectors.
In this technical note we introduce a manifestly gauge-invariant and supersymmetric procedure to regularize and renormalize one-loop divergences of chiral multiplets in two-dimensional N=(2,2) theories in curved spacetime. We apply the method, a version of Pauli-Villars regularization, to known examples of supersymmetric localization and demonstrate that the partition functions are renormalized. An accompanying ancillary file, a Mathematica notebook, implements the relevant supergravity transformations.
The phase structure of the $d=3$ Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model in curved spacetime is considered to leading order in the $1/N$--expansion and in the linear curvature approximation. The possibility of a curvature-induced first-order phase transition is investigated numerically. The dynamically generated fermionic mass is calculated for some values of the curvature.
We discuss composite representations of new supersymmetry (SUSY) algebra under nonlinear (NL) SUSY transformations in curved space-time from the viewpoint of nonlinear supersymmetric general relativity (NLSUSY GR)/ SGM scenario. We show in the linearization of NLSUSY how various basic fields in linear SUSY theories/supergravity are expressed as functionals in terms of a vierbein and Nambu-Goldstone fermion fundamental fields in NLSUSY GR.
Using the observed time and spatial intervals defined originally by Einstein and the observation frame in the vierbein formalism, we propose that in curved spacetime, for a wave received in laboratories, the observed frequency is the changing rate of the phase of the wave relative to the local observable time scale and the momentum the changing rate of the phase relative to the local observable spatial length scale. The case of Robertson-Walker universe is especially considered.
With two typical parent actions we have two kinds of dual worlds: i) one of which contains an electric as well as magnetic current, and ii) the other contains (generalized) Chern-Simons terms. All these fields are defined on a curved spacetime of arbitrary (odd) dimensions. A new form of gauge transformations is introduced and plays an essential role in defining the interaction with a magnetic monopole or in defining the generalized Chern-Simons terms.
Theories with a curved momentum space, which became recently of interest in the quantum-gravity literature, can in general violate many apparently robust aspects of our current description of the laws of physics, including relativistic invariance, locality, causality and global momentum conservation. We here explore some aspects of the particularly severe pathologies arising in generic theories with curved momentum space for what concerns causality and momentum conservation. However, we also report results suggesting that when momentum space is maximally symmetric, and the theory is formulated…
Recently, an axially symmetric spacetime with causality violation is appeared in Ref. [1]. There, author presented a type III metric with vanishing expansion, shear and twist. The matter-energy represents a pure radial field with a negative cosmological constant. The spacetime is asymptotically anti-de Sitter space in the radial direction. Actually, this work with different for the metric was already published in Ref. [4]. Therefore, the current paper Ref. [1] is a duplicate one of the previous work.
We investigate the motion of electrically charged test particles in spacetimes with closed timelike curves, a subset of the black hole or wormhole Reissner-Nordström-NUT spacetimes without periodic identification of time. We show that, while in the wormhole case there are closed worldlines inside a potential well, the wordlines of initially distant charged observers moving under the action of the Lorentz force can never close or self-intersect. This means that for these observers causality is preserved, which is an instance of our weak chronology protection criterion.
This is a status report about the ongoing work on the realization of quantum field theory on curved graphene spacetimes that uses Weyl symmetry. The programme is actively pursued from many different perspectives. Here we point to what has been done, and to what needs to be done.
The success of the S-matrix in quantum field theory in Minkowski spacetime naturally demands the extension of the construction of the S-matrix in a general curved spacetime in a covariant manner. However, it is well-known that a global description of the S-matrix may not exist in an arbitrary curved spacetime. Here, we give a local construction of S-matrix in quantum field theory in curved spacetime using Riemann-normal coordinates which mimics the methods, generally used in Minkowski spacetime. Using this construction, the scattering amplitudes and cross-sections of some scattering processes …
Spacetime must be foliable by spacelike surfaces for the quantum mechanics of matter fields to be formulated in terms of a unitarily evolving state vector defined on spacelike surfaces. When a spacetime cannot be foliated by spacelike surfaces, as in the case of spacetimes with closed timelike curves, a more general formulation of quantum mechanics is required. In such generalizations the transition matrix between alternatives in regions of spacetime where states {\it can} be defined may be non-unitary. This paper describes a generalized quantum mechanics whose probabilities consistently obey …
We propose to develop the Kalb-Ramond theory in four-dimensional spacetime at the level of a classical field theory by following the same formal development steps as in Maxwell theory of standard electrodynamics. Solutions of Kalb-Ramond theory in the presence of static sources in various curved spacetimes are then analyzed. A question that we address here is that of a possible Kalb-Ramond polarization in curved spacetimes, like one can encounter a dielectric polarization in ordinary Maxwell electrodynamics in certain types of spacetimes.
In this article we investigated the influence of the gravity induced higher dimensional operators on the issue of vacuum stability in a model containing two interacting scalar fields. As a framework we used the curved spacetime Effective Field Theory (cEFT) applied to the aforementioned system in which one of the scalars is heavy. After integrating out the heavy scalar we used the standard Euclidean approach to the obtained cEFT. Apart from analyzing the influence of standard operators like the non-minimal coupling to gravity and the dimension six contribution to the scalar field potential, we…
We try to constrain the noncommutativity length scale of the theoretical model given in Ref. [1] using the observational data from ACBAR, CBI and five year WMAP. The noncommutativity parameter is not constrained by WMAP data, however ACBAR and CBI data restrict the lower bound of its energy scale to be around 10 TeV. We also derive an expression for the amount of non-causality coming from spacetime noncommutativity for the fields of primordial scalar perturbations that are space-like separated. The amount of causality violation for these field fluctuations are direction dependent.
We revisit the invariance of the curved spacetime Maxwell equations under conformal transformations. Contrary to standard literature, we include the discussion of the four-current, the wave equations for the four-potential and the field, and the behaviour of gauge conditions under the conformal transformation.
A manifestly covariant equation is derived to describe the second order perturbations in topological defects and membranes on arbitrary curved background spacetimes. This, on one hand, generalizes work on macroscopic strings in Minkowski spacetime and introduces a framework for studing in a precise manner membranes behavior near the black hole horizon and on the other hand, introduces a more general framework for examining the stability of topological defects in curved spacetimes.
We show that there exists a duality between the local coordinates and the solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation in curved spacetime in the same sense as in the Minkowski spacetime. However, the duality in curved spacetime does not have the same generality as in flat spacetime and it holds only if the system satisfies certain constraints. We derive these constraints and the basic equations of duality and discuss the implications in the quantum theory.
The Schrodinger picture description of vacuum states in curved spacetime is further developed. General solutions for the vacuum wave functional are given for both static and dynamic (Bianchi type I) spacetimes and for conformally static spacetimes of Robertson-Walker type. The formalism is illustrated for simple cosmological models with time-dependent metrics and the phenomenon of particle creation is related to a special form of the kernel in the vacuum wave functional.
Classical-particle trajectories are calculated for the static Einstein universe without requiring that the 3-space be closed and curved. Freely-moving test particles are found to return to their starting positions because of strong gravitational-field effects. Possible implications for the underlying (quantum) theory of gravity are briefly discussed.
Gravity is not only able to be mimicked in flat spacetimes, but also in curved spacetimes. We study analogue gravity models in curved spacetime by considering the relativistic Gross-Pitaevskii theory and Yang-Mills theory in the fixed background spacetime geometry. The results show that acoustic metrics can be emergent from curved spacetimes yielding a Hadamard product of a real metric-tensor and an analogue metric-tensor. Taking \emph{quantum vortices} as \emph{test particles}, we evaluate their released energy ratio during the "gravitational binding". The $2+1$-dimensional flat Minkowski met…
In a recent paper, general solutions for the vacuum wave functionals in the Schrodinger picture were given for a variety of classes of curved spacetimes. Here, we describe a number of simple examples which illustrate how the presence of spacetime boundaries influences the vacuum wave functional and how physical quantities are independent of the choice of spacetime foliation used in the Schrodinger approach despite the foliation dependence of the wave functionals themselves.
The Hamiltonian formulation of modified dispersion relations (MDRs) allows for their implementation on generic curved spacetimes. In turn it is possible to derive phenomenological effects. I will present how to construct the kappa-Poincare dispersion relation on curved spacetimes, its spherically symmetric realizations, among them the kappa deformation of Schwarzschild spacetime, and its implementation on Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker spacetimes with arbitrary scale factor. In addition we will construct the general first order modifications of the general relativistic dispersion relation…
Derrick's theorem is an important result that decides the existence of soliton configurations in field theories in different dimensions. It is proved using the extremization of finite energy of configurations under the scaling transformation. According to this theorem, the $2+1$ dimension is the critical dimension for the existence of solitons in scalar field theories without the gauge fields. In the present article, Derrick's theorem is extended in a generic curved spacetime in a covariant manner. Moreover, the existence of solitons in conformally flat spacetimes and spherically symmetric spa…
In this work we analyse asymptotically flat, spherically symmetric spacetimes in which an event horizon is present without any trapped surfaces. We identify two types of such spacetimes, each related to the asymptotic behaviour (in time) of one of the two degrees of freedom of the metric. We study the causal structure of both types, showing that one almost always has a Cauchy horizon beyond which it is extendable, while the other is inextendable but has two separate future null infinity regions on either side of the horizon. We also study what energy conditions can be satisfied by the matter a…
We construct a theory of particles moving in curved both momentum space and spacetime, being a generalization of Relative Locality. We find that in order to construct such theory, with desired symmetries, including the general coordinate invariance, we have to use non local position variables. It turns out that free particles move on geodesics and momentum dependent translations of Relative Locality are replaced with momentum dependent geodesic deviations.
Recently, with numerical methods, Hod clarified the validity of Thorne hoop conjecture for spatially regular static charged fluid spheres, which were considered as counterexamples against the hoop conjecture. In this work, we provide an analytical proof on Thorne hoop conjecture in the spatially regular static charged fluid sphere spacetimes.
For n+1 dimensional asymptotically AdS spacetimes which have holographic duals on their n dimensional conformal boundaries, we show that the imposition of causality on the boundary theory is sufficient to prove positivity of mass for the spacetime when n > 2, without the assumption of any local energy condition. We make crucial use of a generalization of the time-delay formula calculated in gr-qc/9404019, which relates the time delay of a bulk null curve with respect to a boundary null geodesic to the Ashtekar-Magnon mass of the spacetime. We also discuss holographic causality for the negative…
A quantum mechanical picture, relating accelerated geodesic deviation to creation of massive particles via quantum tunneling in curved background spacetimes, is presented. The effect is analogous to pair production by an electric field and leads naturally to production of massive particles in de Sitter and superluminal FRW spacetimes. The probability of particle production in de Sitter space per unit volume and time is computed in a leading semiclassical approximation and shown to coincide with the previously obtained expression.
We show that a notion of one-particle state and the corresponding vacuum state exists in general curved backgrounds for spin $\frac{1}{2}$ fields. A curved spacetime can be equipped with a coordinate system in which the metric component $g_{--}=0$. We separate the component of the left-handed massless Dirac field which is annihilated by the null vector $\partial_-$ and compute the corresponding Feynman propagator. We find that the propagating modes are localized on two dimensional subspaces and the Feynman propagator is similar to the Feynman propagator of chiral fermions in two dimensional Mi…
We extend recent work by Elizalde et al. to incorporate curvatures which are not small and backgrounds which are not just $S^2\times R^2, S^1\times S^1 \times R^2$. Some possible problems in their paper is also pointed out.
These notes introduce the subject of quantum field theory in curved spacetime and some of its applications and the questions they raise. Topics include particle creation in time-dependent metrics, quantum origin of primordial perturbations, Hawking effect, the trans-Planckian question, and Hawking radiation on a lattice.
We consider a quantum scalar field with λϕ^4 interaction in curved spacetimes. The quantum effects are taken into account nonperturbatively using the Hartree approximation to the 2PI effective action. Although this approximation has been considered in many previous works, we reconsider it using a consistent nonperturbative renormalization procedure, which we extend to general curved spacetimes. We obtain the renormalized equations for the mean field and for the propagator of the fluctuations, showing explicitly their independence on the arbitrary scale introduced by the regularization scheme. …
Gravity curves spacetime. In regions where the de Broglie wavelength is very small compared to the curvature of spacetime, the wave equations in flat spacetime can be generalized to curved spacetime. The validity of the formulation when the de Broglie wavelength becomes comparable to the curvature is an open question. To test these formulations experimentally, huge energy of the order of the Planck mass would be required. Euclideanized spacetime is used to model thermal systems. In this work, an equivalence between spatial variation of temperature in thermal baths and curvature of Euclideanize…
