1,889 research outputs found
Wormholes in spacetimes with cosmological horizons
A generalisation of the asymptotic wormhole boundary condition for the case
of spacetimes with a cosmological horizon is proposed. In particular, we
consider de Sitter spacetime with small cosmological constant. The wave
functions selected by this proposal are exponentially damped in WKB
approximation when the scale factor is large but still much smaller than the
horizon size. In addition, they only include outgoing gravitational modes in
the region beyond the horizon. We argue that these wave functions represent
quantum wormholes and compute the local effective interactions induced by them
in low-energy field theory. These effective interactions differ from those for
flat spacetime in terms that explicitly depend on the cosmological constant.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX 2.O9, no figure
Entropy bounds in terms of the w parameter
In a pair of recent articles [PRL 105 (2010) 041302 - arXiv:1005.1132; JHEP
1103 (2011) 056 - arXiv:1012.2867] two of the current authors have developed an
entropy bound for equilibrium uncollapsed matter using only classical general
relativity, basic thermodynamics, and the Unruh effect. An odd feature of that
bound, S <= A/2, was that the proportionality constant, 1/2, was weaker than
that expected from black hole thermodynamics, 1/4. In the current article we
strengthen the previous results by obtaining a bound involving the (suitably
averaged) w parameter. Simple causality arguments restrict this averaged
parameter to be <= 1. When equality holds, the entropy bound saturates at the
value expected based on black hole thermodynamics. We also add some clarifying
comments regarding the (net) positivity of the chemical potential. Overall, we
find that even in the absence of any black hole region, we can nevertheless get
arbitrarily close to the Bekenstein entropy.Comment: V1: 14 pages. V2: One reference added. V3: This version accepted for
publication in JHE
Quasi-particle creation by analogue black holes
We discuss the issue of quasi-particle production by ``analogue black holes''
with particular attention to the possibility of reproducing Hawking radiation
in a laboratory. By constructing simple geometric acoustic models, we obtain a
somewhat unexpected result: We show that in order to obtain a stationary and
Planckian emission of quasi-particles, it is not necessary to create an
ergoregion in the acoustic spacetime (corresponding to a supersonic regime in
the flow). It is sufficient to set up a dynamically changing flow either
eventually generating an arbitrarily small sonic region v=c, but without any
ergoregion, or even just asymptotically, in laboratory time, approaching a
sonic regime with sufficient rapidity.Comment: 30 pages, 16 figure
Analogue model for quantum gravity phenomenology
So called "analogue models" use condensed matter systems (typically
hydrodynamic) to set up an "effective metric" and to model curved-space quantum
field theory in a physical system where all the microscopic degrees of freedom
are well understood. Known analogue models typically lead to massless minimally
coupled scalar fields. We present an extended "analogue space-time" programme
by investigating a condensed-matter system - in and beyond the hydrodynamic
limit - that is in principle capable of simulating the massive Klein-Gordon
equation in curved spacetime. Since many elementary particles have mass, this
is an essential step in building realistic analogue models, and an essential
first step towards simulating quantum gravity phenomenology. Specifically, we
consider the class of two-component BECs subject to laser-induced transitions
between the components, and we show that this model is an example for Lorentz
invariance violation due to ultraviolet physics. Furthermore our model suggests
constraints on quantum gravity phenomenology in terms of the "naturalness
problem" and "universality issue".Comment: Talk given at 7th Workshop on Quantum Field Theory Under the
Influence of External Conditions (QFEXT 05), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, 5-9
Sep 200
Simulation of Acoustic Black Hole in a Laval Nozzle
A numerical simulation of fluid flows in a Laval nozzle is performed to
observe formations of acoustic black holes and the classical counterpart to
Hawking radiation under a realistic setting of the laboratory experiment. We
determined the Hawking temperature of the acoustic black hole from obtained
numerical data. Some noteworthy points in analyzing the experimental data are
clarified through our numerical simulation.Comment: 26 pages, published versio
Context-Free Path Querying with Structural Representation of Result
Graph data model and graph databases are very popular in various areas such
as bioinformatics, semantic web, and social networks. One specific problem in
the area is a path querying with constraints formulated in terms of formal
grammars. The query in this approach is written as grammar, and paths querying
is graph parsing with respect to given grammar. There are several solutions to
it, but how to provide structural representation of query result which is
practical for answer processing and debugging is still an open problem. In this
paper we propose a graph parsing technique which allows one to build such
representation with respect to given grammar in polynomial time and space for
arbitrary context-free grammar and graph. Proposed algorithm is based on
generalized LL parsing algorithm, while previous solutions are based mostly on
CYK or Earley algorithms, which reduces time complexity in some cases.Comment: Evaluation extende
Modelling gravity on a hyper-cubic lattice
We present an elegant and simple dynamical model of symmetric, non-degenerate
(n x n) matrices of fixed signature defined on a n-dimensional hyper-cubic
lattice with nearest-neighbor interactions. We show how this model is related
to General Relativity, and discuss multiple ways in which it can be useful for
studying gravity, both classical and quantum. In particular, we show that the
dynamics of the model when all matrices are close to the identity corresponds
exactly to a finite-difference discretization of weak-field gravity in harmonic
gauge. We also show that the action which defines the full dynamics of the
model corresponds to the Einstein-Hilbert action to leading order in the
lattice spacing, and use this observation to define a lattice analogue of the
Ricci scalar and Einstein tensor. Finally, we perform a mean-field analysis of
the statistical mechanics of this model.Comment: 5 page
Propagation in the atmosphere of ultrahigh-energy charmed hadrons
Charmed mesons may be produced when a primary cosmic ray or the leading
hadron in an air shower collide with an atmospheric nucleon. At energies \ge
10^8 GeV their decay length becomes larger than 10 km, which implies that they
tend to interact in the air instead of decaying. We study the collisions of
long-lived charmed hadrons in the atmosphere. We show that (\Lambda_c,D)-proton
diffractive processes and partonic collisions of any q^2 where the charm quark
is an spectator have lower inelasticity than (p,\pi)-proton collisions. In
particular, we find that a D meson deposits in each interaction just around 55%
of the energy deposited by a pion. On the other hand, collisions involving the
valence c quark (its annihilation with a sea cbar quark in the target or
c-quark exchange in the t channel) may deposit most of D meson energy, but
their frequency is low (below 0.1% of inelastic interactions). As a
consequence, very energetic charmed hadrons may keep a significant fraction of
their initial energy after several hadronic interactions, reaching much deeper
in the atmosphere than pions or protons of similar energy.Comment: 13 pages, version to appear in PR
Sensitivity of Hawking radiation to superluminal dispersion relations
We analyze the Hawking radiation process due to collapsing configurations in
the presence of superluminal modifications of the dispersion relation. With
such superluminal dispersion relations, the horizon effectively becomes a
frequency-dependent concept. In particular, at every moment of the collapse,
there is a critical frequency above which no horizon is experienced. We show
that, as a consequence, the late-time radiation suffers strong modifications,
both quantitative and qualitative, compared to the standard Hawking picture.
Concretely, we show that the radiation spectrum becomes dependent on the
measuring time, on the surface gravities associated with different frequencies,
and on the critical frequency. Even if the critical frequency is well above the
Planck scale, important modifications still show up.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures. Extensive paragraph added in conclusions to
clarify obtained result
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