12,380 research outputs found
On Higher Derivatives as Constraints in Field Theory: a Geometric Perspective
We formalize geometrically the idea that the (de Donder) Hamiltonian
formulation of a higher derivative Lagrangian field theory can be constructed
understanding the latter as a first derivative theory subjected to constraints.Comment: 7 page
Critical phenomena of thick branes in warped spacetimes
We have investigated the effects of a generic bulk first-order phase
transition on thick Minkowski branes in warped geometries. As occurs in
Euclidean space, when the system is brought near the phase transition an
interface separating two ordered phases splits into two interfaces with a
disordered phase in between. A remarkable and distinctive feature is that the
critical temperature of the phase transition is lowered due to pure geometrical
effects. We have studied a variety of critical exponents and the evolution of
the transverse-traceless sector of the metric fluctuations.Comment: revtex4, 4 pages, 4 figures, some comments added, typos corrected,
published in PR
Noise Kernel in Stochastic Gravity and Stress Energy Bi-Tensor of Quantum Fields in Curved Spacetimes
The noise kernel is the vacuum expectation value of the (operator-valued)
stress-energy bi-tensor which describes the fluctuations of a quantum field in
curved spacetimes. It plays the role in stochastic semiclassical gravity based
on the Einstein-Langevin equation similar to the expectation value of the
stress-energy tensor in semiclassical gravity based on the semiclassical
Einstein equation. According to the stochastic gravity program, this two point
function (and by extension the higher order correlations in a hierarchy) of the
stress energy tensor possesses precious statistical mechanical information of
quantum fields in curved spacetime and, by the self-consistency required of
Einstein's equation, provides a probe into the coherence properties of the
gravity sector (as measured by the higher order correlation functions of
gravitons) and the quantum nature of spacetime. It reflects the low and medium
energy (referring to Planck energy as high energy) behavior of any viable
theory of quantum gravity, including string theory. It is also useful for
calculating quantum fluctuations of fields in modern theories of structure
formation and for backreaction problems in cosmological and black holes
spacetimes.
We discuss the properties of this bi-tensor with the method of
point-separation, and derive a regularized expression of the noise-kernel for a
scalar field in general curved spacetimes. One collorary of our finding is that
for a massless conformal field the trace of the noise kernel identically
vanishes. We outline how the general framework and results derived here can be
used for the calculation of noise kernels for Robertson-Walker and
Schwarzschild spacetimes.Comment: 22 Pages, RevTeX; version accepted for publication in PR
Effective Field Theory Approach to String Gas Cosmology
We derive the 4D low energy effective field theory for a closed string gas on
a time dependent FRW background. We examine the solutions and find that
although the Brandenberger-Vafa mechanism at late times no longer leads to
radion stabilization, the radion rolls slowly enough that the scenario is still
of interest. In particular, we find a simple example of the string inspired
dark matter recently proposed by Gubser and Peebles.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures, comments adde
Adiabatic decaying vacuum model for the universe
We study a model that the entropy per particle in the universe is constant.
The sources for the entropy are the particle creation and a lambda decaying
term. We find exact solutions for the Einstein field equations and show the
compatibilty of the model with respect to the age and the acceleration of the
universe.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
Black Hole Formation with an Interacting Vacuum Energy Density
We discuss the gravitational collapse of a spherically symmetric massive core
of a star in which the fluid component is interacting with a growing vacuum
energy density. The influence of the variable vacuum in the collapsing core is
quantified by a phenomenological \beta-parameter as predicted by dimensional
arguments and the renormalization group approach. For all reasonable values of
this free parameter, we find that the vacuum energy density increases the
collapsing time but it cannot prevent the formation of a singular point.
However, the nature of the singularity depends on the values of \beta. In the
radiation case, a trapped surface is formed for \beta<1/2 whereas for
\beta>1/2, a naked singularity is developed. In general, the critical value is
\beta=1-2/3(1+\omega), where the \omega-parameter describes the equation of
state of the fluid component.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
Stochastic semiclassical fluctuations in Minkowski spacetime
The semiclassical Einstein-Langevin equations which describe the dynamics of
stochastic perturbations of the metric induced by quantum stress-energy
fluctuations of matter fields in a given state are considered on the background
of the ground state of semiclassical gravity, namely, Minkowski spacetime and a
scalar field in its vacuum state. The relevant equations are explicitly derived
for massless and massive fields arbitrarily coupled to the curvature. In doing
so, some semiclassical results, such as the expectation value of the
stress-energy tensor to linear order in the metric perturbations and particle
creation effects, are obtained. We then solve the equations and compute the
two-point correlation functions for the linearized Einstein tensor and for the
metric perturbations. In the conformal field case, explicit results are
obtained. These results hint that gravitational fluctuations in stochastic
semiclassical gravity have a ``non-perturbative'' behavior in some
characteristic correlation lengths.Comment: 28 pages, RevTeX, no figure
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