Space--time torsion contribution to quantum interference phases

From the latest experimental readouts in this context an intriguing discrepancy has been elicited. Indeed, theory and experiment dissent by one per cent, and though this fact could be a consequence of the mounting of the experimental device, it might also embody a difference between the way in which gravity behaves in classical and quantum mechanics. In this work the effects, upon the interference pattern, of space--time torsion will be analyzed heeding its coupling with the spin of the neutron beam. It will be proved that, even with this contribution, there is enough leeway for a further discussion of the validity of the equivalence principle in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics.Comment: Contribution to the Proceedings of the Meeting ''Topics in Mathematical Physics, General Relativity, and Cosmology''. On the Occasion of the 75th Birthday of Jerzy F. Plebanski. CINVESTAV, September, 17th--20th, 200

Gowdy T3T^3 Cosmological Models in N=1 Supergravity

We investigate the canonical quantization of supergravity N=1 in the case of a midisuperspace described by Gowdy $T^3$ cosmological models. The quantum constraints are analyzed and the wave function of the universe is derived explicitly. Unlike the minisuperspace case, we show the existence of physical states in midisuperspace models. The analysis of the wave function of the universe leads to the conclusion that the classical curvature singularity present in the evolution of Gowdy models is removed at the quantum level due to the presence of the Rarita-Schwinger field.Comment: 25 pages and 2 figure

Energy Extraction from Black Holes

In this lecture I give an introduction to the rotational energy extraction of black holes by the electromagnetic Blandford-Znajek process and the generation of relativistic jets. After some basic material on the electrodynamics of black hole magnetospheres, we derive the most important results of Blandford and Znajek by making use of Kerr-Schild coordinates, which are regular on the horizon. In a final part we briefly describe results of recent numerical simulations of accretion flows on rotating black holes, the resulting large-scale outflows, and the formation of collimated relativistic jets with high Lorentz factors.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures,invited lecture given at the III Mexican Meeting on Mathematical and Experimental Physics, September 10-14, 2007 at El Colegio Nacional; to be published by the American Institute of Physic

Noncommutative Solitons

Solitonic objects play a central role in gauge and string theory (as, e.g., monopoles, black holes, D-branes, etc.). Certain string backgrounds produce a noncommutative deformation of the low-energy effective field theory, which allows for new types of solitonic solutions. I present the construction, moduli spaces and dynamics of Moyal-deformed solitons, exemplified in the 2+1 dimensional Yang-Mills-Higgs theory and its Bogomolny system, which is gauge-fixed to an integrable chiral sigma model (the Ward model). Noncommutative solitons for various 1+1 dimensional integrable systems (such as sine-Gordon) easily follow by dimensional and algebraic reduction. Supersymmetric extensions exist as well and are related to twistor string theory.Comment: 16 pages; talk given at the Third Mexican Meeting on Mathematical and Experimental Physics at El Colegio Nacional, Mexico City, 10-14 September 200

Small-Scale Structure of Spacetime: Bounds and Conjectures

This review consists of two parts. The first part establishes certain astrophysical bounds on the smoothness of classical spacetime. Some of the best bounds to date are based on the absence of vacuum Cherenkov radiation in ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays. The second part discusses possible implications of these bounds for the quantum structure of spacetime. One conjecture is that the fundamental length scale of quantum spacetime may be different from the Planck length.Comment: 20 pages; invited talk at the Third Mexican Meeting on Mathematical and Experimental Physics, September 10-14, 2007, El Colegio Nacional, Mexico City; v3: final versio