Recently, the Lorentzian path integral formulation using the Picard-Lefschetz theory has attracted much attention in quantum cosmology. In this paper, we analyze the tunneling amplitude in quantum mechanics by using the Lorentzian Picard-Lefschetz formulation and compare it with the WKB analysis of the conventional Schrödinger equation. We show that the Picard-Lefschetz Lorentzian formulation is consistent with the WKB approximation for wave-function and the Euclidean path integral formulation utilizing the solutions of the Euclidean constraint equation. We also consider some problems of this Lorentzian Picard-Lefschetz formulation and discuss a simpler semiclassical approximation of the Lorentzian path integral without integrating the lapse function.
There are several exotic tunneling processes that can be realized only by incorporating the effect of gravity. Here, we point out that we encounter difficulties in constructing the WKB wave function, once we try to describe quantum fluctuations around the semi-classical tunneling path. We present examples of pathology in the true vacuum decay/upward tunneling, the false vacuum decay catalyzed by a black hole and the tunneling with black hole/wormhole production.
Unruh radiation is the thermal flux seen by an accelerated observer moving through Minkowski spacetime. In this article we study Unruh radiation as tunneling through a barrier. We use a WKB-like method to obtain the tunneling rate and the temperature of the Unruh radiation. This derivation brings together many topics into a single problem - classical mechanics, relativity, relativistic field theory, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics and mathematical physics. Moreover, this gravitational WKB method helps to highlight the following subtle points: (i) the tunneling rate strictly should be written…
In this Letter we make a critique of, and comparison between, the anomaly method and WKB/tunneling method for obtaining radiation from non-trivial spacetime backgrounds. We focus on Rindler spacetime (the spacetime of an accelerating observer) and the associated Unruh radiation since this is the prototype of the phenomena of radiation from a spacetime, and it is the simplest model for making clear subtle points in the tunneling and anomaly methods. Our analysis leads to the following conclusions: (i) neither the consistent and covariant anomaly methods gives the correct Unruh temperature for R…
We discuss new possible tunneling processes in the presence of gravity. We formulate quantum tunneling using the Wheeler-deWitt canonical quantization and the WKB approximation. The distinctive feature of our formulation is that it accommodates the coexistence of Euclidean and Lorentzian evolution. It opens up a new possibility of quantum tunneling; e.g. a bubble wall itself tunnels the potential barrier pulling the field nearby, where the wall region experiences the Euclidean evolution while the other regions experience the Lorentzian evolution simultaneously. We execute numerical analysis an…
Recent research shows that Hawking radiation (HR) is also possible around the trapping horizon of a wormhole. In this article, we show that the HR of gravitino (spin-$3/2$) particles from the traversable Lorentzian wormholes (TLWH) reveals a negative Hawking temperature (HT). We first introduce the TLWH in the past outer trapping horizon geometry (POTHG). Next, we derive the Rarita-Schwinger equations (RSEs) for that geometry. Then, using both the Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ) ansätz and the WKB approximation in the quantum tunneling method, we obtain the probabilities of the emission/absorption modes.…
Hawking radiation is studied for arbitrary scalars, fermions, and spin-1 bosons, using a tunneling approach, to every order in $\hbar$ but ignoring back-reaction effects. It is shown that the additional quantum terms yield no new contribution to the Hawking temperature. Indeed, it is found that the limit of small $\hbar$ in the standard quantum WKB approximation is replaced by the near-horizon limit in the gravitational WKB approach.
We consider coordinate systems adapted to accelerated observers, construct a generalised Rindler metric and then adopt a specific form of it to compute the semiclassical Unruh temperature, using a WKB approximation within a Hamilton Jacobi analysis in the tunneling picture. Corrections to this temperature are next computed by going beyond the usual WKB approximation. A connection of the corrected Unruh temperature with the Hawking temperature is established. This connection is also explained through the method of Global Embedding Minkowski Spacetime (GEMS).
In the deformed quantum mechanics with a minimal length, one WKB connection formula through a turning point is derived. We then use it to calculate tunnelling rates through potential barriers under the WKB approximation. Finally, the minimal length effects on two examples of quantum tunneling in nuclear and atomic physics are discussed
In this article, we consider the Hawking radiation (HR) of vector (massive spin-1) particles from the traversable Lorentzian wormholes (TLWH) in 3+1 dimensions. We start by providing the Proca equations for the TLWH. Using the Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ)ansätz with the WKB approximation in the quantum tunneling method, we obtain the probabilities of the emission/absorption modes. Then, we derive the tunneling rate of the emitted vector particles and manage to read the standard Hawking temperature of the TLWH. The result obtained represents a negative temperature, which is also discussed.
We reformulate quantum tunneling in a multi-dimensional system where the tunneling sector is non-linearly coupled to oscillators. The WKB wave function is explicitly constructed under the assumption that the system was in the ground state before tunneling. We find that the quantum state after tunneling can be expressed in the language of the conventional in-in formalism. Some implications of the result to cosmology are discussed.
The Wheeler-DeWitt equation for the induced gravity theory is constructed in the minisuperspace approximation, and then solved using the WKB method under three types of boundary condition proposed respectively by Hartle & Hawking (``no boundary''), Linde and Vilenkin (``tunneling from nothing''). It is found that no matter how the gravitational and cosmological ``constants'' vary in the classical models, they will acquire constant values when the universe comes from quantum creation, and that, in particular, the resulting tunneling wave function under the Linde or Vilenkin boundary condition r…
The van Vleck determinant is an ubiquitous object, arising in many physically interesting situations such as: (1) WKB approximations to quantum time evolution operators and Green functions. (2) Adiabatic approximations to heat kernels. (3) One loop approximations to functional integrals. (4) The theory of caustics in geometrical optics and ultrasonics. (5) The focussing and defocussing of geodesic flows in Riemannian manifolds. While all of these topics are interrelated, the present paper is particularly concerned with the last case and presents extensive theoretical developments that aid in t…
Pair-production of magnetic Reissner-Nordström black holes (of charges $\pm q$) is studied in the next-to-leading WKB approximation. We consider generic quantum fluctuations in the corresponding instanton geometry, a detailed study of which suggests that, for sufficiently weak field $B$, the problem can be reduced to that of quantum fluctuations around a single truncated near-extremal Euclidean black hole in thermal equilibrium. Typical one-loop contributions are such that the leading WKB exponent is corrected by a small fraction $\sim \hbar /q^2$. We show that this effect is merely due to a s…
We focus on the HR of massive vector (spin-1) particles tunneling from Schwarzschild BH expressed in the Kruskal-Szekeres (KS) and dynamic Lemaitre (DL) coordinates. Using the Proca equation (PE) together with the Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ) and the WKB methods, we show that the tunneling rate, and its consequence Hawking temperature are well recovered by the quantum tunneling of the massive vector particles.
In this paper, we use the WKB approximation method to approximately solve a deformed Schrodinger-like differential equation: $\left[ -\hbar^{2} \partial_ξ^{2}g^{2}\left( -i\hbarα\partial_ξ\right) -p^{2}\left( ξ\right) \right] ψ\left( ξ\right) =0$, which are frequently dealt with in various effective models of quantum gravity, where the parameter $α$ characterizes effects of quantum gravity. For an arbitrary function $g\left( x\right) $ satisfying several properties proposed in the paper, we find the WKB solutions, the WKB connection formulas through a turning point, the deformed Bohr--Sommerfe…
We consider phonon tunneling in sonic black hole by WKB approximation method without the backreaction, in which the relativistic momentum-energy equation is used. We also study the WKB loop (closed path) integral [B. D. Chowdhury, Pramana70:3-26, 2008] in sonic black hole case and discuss the equivalence of the results of some cases from the two different tunneling probability expression in Painlevé-like coordinates.
In a previous paper [Blado G, Owens C, and Meyers V 2014 Quantum Wells and the Generalized Uncertainty Principle Eur. J. Phys. 35 065011], we showed that quantum gravity effects can be discussed with only a background in non-relativistic quantum mechanics at the undergraduate level by looking at the effect of the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) on the finite and infinite square wells. In this paper, we derive the GUP corrections to the tunneling probability of simple quantum mechanical systems which are accessible to undergraduates (alpha decay, simple models of quantum cosmogenesis an…
Pair-production of magnetic Reissner-Nordström black holes (of charges $\pm q$) was recently studied in the leading WKB approximation. Here, we consider generic quantum fluctuations in the corresponding instanton geometry given by the Euclidean Ernst metric, in order to simulate the behaviour of the one-loop tunneling rate. A detailed study of the Ernst metric suggests that for sufficiently weak field $B$, the problem can be reduced to that of quantum fluctuations around a single near-extremal Euclidean black hole in thermal equilibrium with a heat bath of finite size. After appropriate renorm…
We investigate topology-changing processes in 4-dimensional quantum gravity with a negative cosmological constant. By playing the ``gluing-polytope game" in hyperbolic geometry, we explicitly construct an instanton-like solution without singularity. Because of cusps, this solution is non-compact but has a finite volume. Then we evaluate a topology change amplitude in the WKB approximation in terms of the volume of this solution.
We study Hawking radiation from three-dimensional black holes. For this purpose the emission of charged scalar and charged fermionic particles is investigated from charged BTZ black holes, with and without rotation. We use the quantum tunneling approach incorporating WKB approximation and spacetime symmetries. Another class of black hole which is asymptotic to a Sol three-manifold has also been investigated. This procedure gives us the tunneling probability of outgoing particles, and we compute the temperature of the radiation for these black holes. We also consider the quantum tunneling of pa…
We compute the corrections, using the tunneling formalisim based on a quantum WKB approach, to the Hawking temperature and Bekenstein-Hawking entropy for the Schwarzschild black hole. The results are related to the trace anomaly and are shown to be equivalent to findings inferred from Hawking's original calculation based on path integrals using zeta function regularization. Finally, exploiting the corrected temperature and periodicity arguments we also find the modification to the original Schwarzschild metric which captures the effect of quantum corrections.
A simple spacetime wormhole, which evolves classically from zero throat radius to a maximum value and recontracts, can be regarded as one possible mode of fluctuation in the microscopic ``spacetime foam'' first suggested by Wheeler. The dynamics of a particularly simple version of such a wormhole can be reduced to that of a single quantity, its throat radius; this wormhole thus provides a ``minisuperspace model'' for a structure in Lorentzian-signature foam. The classical equation of motion for the wormhole throat is obtained from the Einstein field equations and a suitable equation of state f…
In this paper we study some aspects of classical and quantum cosmology in the novel-Gauss-Bonnet (nGB) gravity in four space-time dimensions. Starting with a generalised Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson Walker (FLRW) metric respecting homogeneity and isotropicity in arbitrary space-time dimension $D$, we find the action of theory in four spacetime dimension where the limit $D\to4$ is smoothly obtained after an integration by parts. The peculiar rescaling of Gauss-Bonnet coupling by factor of $D-4$ results in a non-trivial contribution to the action. We study the system of equation of motion to fir…
Hawking radiation as a quantum tunneling phenomena from accelerating BTZ black holes is presented in this work. We have calculated the Dirac particle's Hawking radiation from the horizon of the accelerating BTZ black hole. WKB approximation is applied to Dirac equation in the background of three dimensional black holes. This procedure gives us the tunneling probability, which we have used to calculate the Hawking temperature of the background three-dimensional black hole. Our study is consistent with the previous studies in the absence of the acceleration parameter. We have also studied the qu…
We develop the argument that initial real tunneling in quantum gravity be contemplated as a thermodynamical analogous to a black hole condensate in equilibrium with Hawking's radiation in a box. The total entropy is always maximized in the Lorentzian sector of the manifold, and, in this sense, tunneling is predicted.
I consider the problem of reconciling "tunneling" approaches to black-hole radiation with the treatment by quantum field theory in curved space-time. It is not possible to do this completely, but using what appears to be the most direct and natural correspondence, the simplest case of such an approach does not describe a tunneling process but rather a WKB approximation to a two-point function. What it computes is a sort of rescaled Unruh temperature associated with world-lines tracing Killing trajectories near the horizon. This temperature is numerically equal to the Hawking temperature, but a…
We study the Hawking radiation (HR) of scalar and Dirac particles (fermions) emitted from a rotating scalar hair black hole (RSHBH) within the context of three dimensional ($3D$) Einstein gravity using non-minimally coupled scalar field theory. Amalgamating the quantum tunneling approach with the Wentzel--Kramers--Brillouin (WKB) approximation, we obtain the tunneling rates of the outgoing particles across the event horizon. Inserting the resultant tunneling rates into the Boltzmann formula, we then obtain the Hawking temperature ($T_{H}$) of the $3D$ RSHBH.
This paper presents the derivation of Schwinger's gauge invariant result of $Im \cal{L}_{eff}$ upto one loop approximation, for particle production in an uniform electric field through the method of complex trajectory WKB approximation (CWKB). The CWKB proposed by one of the author's \cite{bis:ijtp} looks upon particle production as due to the motion of a particle in complex space-time plane, thereby requiring tunneling paths both in space and time. Recently \cite{srini:iucaa,srini1:iucaa} there have been some efforts to calculate the reflection and transmission co-efficients for particle prod…
We speculate about the spacetime description due to the presence of Lorentzian wormholes (handles in spacetime joining two distant regions or other universes) in quantum gravity. The semiclassical rate of production of these Lorentzian wormholes in Reissner-Nordström spacetimes is calculated as a result of the spontaneous decay of vacuum due to a real tunneling configuration. In the magnetic case it only depends on the field theoretical fine structure constant. We predict that the quantum probability corresponding to the nucleation of such geodesically complete spacetimes should be actually ne…
We study the quantum tunneling of charged massive vector bosons from a charged static and a rotating black string. We apply the standard methods, first we use the WKB approximation and the Hamilton-Jacobi equation, and then we end up with a set of four linear equations. Finally, solving for the radial part by using the determinant of the metric equals zero, the corresponding tunneling rate and the Hawking temperature is recovered in both cases. The tunneling rate deviates from pure thermality and is consistent with an underlying unitary theory.
The tunneling approach to the wave function of the universe has been recently criticized by Bousso and Hawking who claim that it predicts a catastrophic instability of de Sitter space with respect to pair production of black holes. We show that this claim is unfounded. First, we argue that different horizon size regions in de Sitter space cannot be treated as independently created, as they contend. And second, the WKB tunneling wave function is not simply the `inverse' of the Hartle-Hawking one, except in very special cases. Applied to the related problem of pair production of massive particle…
In the Hartle-Hawking ``no boundary'' approach to quantum cosmology, a real tunneling geometry is a configuration that represents a transition from a compact Riemannian spacetime to a Lorentzian universe. I complete an earlier proof that in three spacetime dimensions, such a transition is ``probable,'' in the sense that the required Riemannian geometry yields a genuine maximum of the semiclassical wave function.
We study quantum tunneling of scalar particles from black strings. For this purpose we apply WKB approximation and Hamilton-Jacobi method to solve the Klein-Gordon equation for outgoing trajectories. We find the tunneling probability of outgoing charged and uncharged scalars from the event horizon of black strings, and hence the Hawking temperature for these black configurations.
In minisuperspace quantum cosmology, the Lorentzian path integral formulations of the no-boundary and tunneling proposals have recently been analyzed. But it has been pointed out that the wave function of linearized perturbations around a homogeneous and isotropic background is of an inverse Gaussian form and thus that their correlation functions are divergent. In this paper, we revisit this issue and consider the problem of perturbations in Lorentzian quantum cosmology by modifying the dispersion relation based on trans-Planckian physics. We consider two modified dispersion relations, the gen…
The tunneling wave function of the universe is investigated in a minisuperspace framework of a de Sitter universe with a quantum scalar field, treated as a perturbation. We consider three different approaches to defining the tunneling wave function: (1) tunneling boundary conditions in superspace, (2) Lorentzian path integral, and (3) quantum tunneling from initial universe of a vanishing size. We show that the superspace approach requires Robin boundary conditions for the scalar field modes, the path integral approach requires adding an appropriate boundary term to the scalar field action, an…
We revisit the famous Coleman-de Luccia formalism for decay of false vacuum in gravitational theory. Since the corresponding wave function is time-independent we argue that its instanton's interpretation as the decay rate probability is problematic. We instead propose that such phenomenon can better be described by the Wheeler-de Witt's wave function. To do so, the Hamilton-Jacobi formalism is employed in the WKB approximation. The scalar and gravitational fields can then be treated as a two-dimensional effective metric. For a particular case of dS-to-dS tunneling, we calculated the wave funct…
We consider an equation of motion for Glashow-Weinberg-Salam model and apply the semiclassical Hamilton-Jacobi process and WKB approximation in order to compute the tunneling probability of W-bosons in the background of electromagnetic field to analyze the quantum gravity effects of charged black hole(BH) in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity theory. After this, we examine the quantum gravity influences on the generalized Lagrangian field equation. We make clear that quantum gravity effects leave the remnants on the tunneling radiation becomes non-thermal. Moreover, we analyze the graphical behavio…
We consider the generalisation of quantum tunneling transitions in the WKB approximation to the time-independent functional Schrödinger and Wheeler-DeWitt equations. Following a Lorentzian approach, we compute the transition rates among different scalar field vacua and compare with those performed by Coleman and collaborators using the Euclidean approach. For gravity, we develop a general formalism for computing transition rates in Wheeler's superspace. This is then applied to computing decays in flat space and then to transitions in the presence of gravity. In the latter case we point out the…
We discuss the thermodynamics of the noncommutative inspired Kerr black hole by means of a reformulated Hamilton-Jacobi method and a dimensional reduction technique. In order to investigate the effect of the angular momentum of the tunneling particle, we calculate the wave function to the first order of the WKB ansatz. Then, using a density matrix technique we derive the radiation spectrum from which the radiation temperature can be read out. Our results show that the radiation of this noncommutative inspired black hole corresponds to a modified temperature which involves the effect of noncomm…
Macroscopic quantum tunneling is described using the master equation for the reduced Wigner function of an open quantum system at zero temperature. Our model consists of a particle trapped in a cubic potential interacting with an environment characterized by dissipative and normal and anomalous diffusion coefficients. A representation based on the energy eigenfunctions of the isolated system, i.e. the system uncoupled to the environment, is used to write the reduced Wigner function, and the master equation becomes simpler in that representation. The energy eigenfunctions computed in a WKB appr…
We have studied the Hawking radiation from {\it generalized} rotating and static $(2+1)$-dimensional BTZ black holes. In this regard, we have benefited the quantum tunneling approach with WKB approximation and obtained the tunneling rate of outgoing scalar and spinor particles across the horizons. We have also obtained the Hawking temperature at the horizons corresponding to the emission of these particles. It is shown that the tunneling rate and Hawking temperature of generalized $(2+1)$-dimensional BTZ black holes are different from ordinary $(2+1)$-dimensional BTZ black holes due to the Noe…
By using the minisuperspace model for the interior metric ofstatic black holes, we solve the Wheeler-DeWitt equation to study quantum mechanics of the horizon geometry. Our basic idea is to introduce the gravitational mass and the expansions of null rays as quantum operators. Then, the exact wave function is found as a mass eigenstate, and the radius of the apparent horizon is quantum-mechanically defined. In the evolution of the metric variables, the wave function changes from a WKB solution giving the classical trajectories to a tunneling solution. By virtue of the quantum fluctuations of th…
In a quantum cosmological model consisting of a Euclidean region and a Lorentzian region, Hartle-Hawking's no-bounary wave function, and Linde's wave function and Vilenkin's tunneling wave function are briefly described and compared with each other. We put a particular emphasis on semiclassical gravity from quantum cosmology and compare it with the conventional quantum field theory in curved spacetimes. Finally, we discuss the recent debate on catastrophic particle production in the tunneling universe between Rubakov and Vilenkin within the semiclassical gravity.
We study the behaviour of scalar fields on background geometries which undergo quantum tunneling. The two examples considered are a moving mirror in flat space which tunnels through a potential barrier, and a false vacuum bubble which tunnels to form a black hole. WKB approximations to the Schrodinger and Wheeler-DeWitt equations are made, leading one to solve field equations on the Euclidean metric solution interpolating between the classically allowed geometries. The state of the field after tunneling can then be determined using the method of non-unitary Bogolubov transformations developed …
In the present paper we study the Hawking radiation as a quantum tunneling effect of spin-$1$ particles from a five-dimensional, spherically symmetric, Einstein-Yang-Mills-Gauss-Bonnet (5D EYMGB) black hole. We solve the Proca equation (PE) by applying the WKB approximation and separation of variables via Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ) equation which results in a set of five differential equations, and reproduces in this way, the Hawking temperature. In the second part of this paper, we extend our results beyond the semiclassical approximation. In particular, we derive the logarithmic correction to the …
We consider a wave-function approach to the false vacuum decay with gravity and present a new method to calculate the tunneling amplitude under the WKB approximation. The result agrees with the one obtained by the Euclidean path-integral method, but gives a much clearer interpretation of an instanton (Euclidean bounce solution) that dominates the path integral. In particular, our method is fully capable of dealing with the case of a thick wall with the radius of the bubble comparable to the radius of the instanton, thus surpassing the path-integral method whose use can be justified only in the…
We study quantum tunneling of charged and uncharged scalar particles from the event horizon of Schwarzschild-de Sitter and Reissner-Nordström-de Sitter black holes pierced by an infinitely long spinning cosmic string and a global monopole. In order to find the Hawking temperature and the tunneling probability we solve the Klein-Gordon equation by using the Hamilton-Jacobi method and WKB approximation. We show that Hawking temperature is independent of the presence of topological defects in both cases.
The Wheeler-DeWitt equation is investigated and used to examine a state after a quantum tunneling with gravity. To make arguments definite we treat a discretized version of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation and adopt the WKB method. We expand an Euclidean wave function around an instanton, by using a deviation equation of a vector field tangent to a congruence of instantons. The instanton around which we expand the wave function corresponds to a so-called most probable escape path (MPEP). It is shown that, when the wave function is analytically continued, the corresponding state of physical perturba…
