Energy-Momentum Tensor and Particle Creation in the de Sitter Universe

For a quantum field in a curved background the choice of the vacuum state is crucial. We exhibit a vacuum state in which the expectation values of the energy and pressure allow an intuitive interpretation. We apply this general result to the de Sitter universe.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, revtex. To appear in the proceedings of the 8th Marcel Grossmann Meetin

Quantum Gravity Without Ghosts

An outline is given of a recently discovered technique for building a quantum effective action that is completely independent of gauge-fixing choices and ghost determinants. One makes maximum use of the geometry and fibre-bundle structure of the space of field histories and introduces a set of nonlocal composite fields: the geodesic normal fields based on Vilkovisky's connection on the space of histories. The closed-time-path formalism of Schwinger, Bakshi, Mahantappa {\it et al} can be adapted for these fields, and a set of gauge-fixing-independent dynamical equations for their expectation values (starting from given initial conditions) can be computed. An obvious application for such equations is to the study of the formation and radiative decay of black holes, and to other back-reaction problems.Comment: This is a paper submitted to the Gravity Research Foundation Essay Competition of 1998 that received Honorable Mentio

Large Scale Features of Rotating Forced Turbulence

Large scale features of a randomly isotropically forced incompressible and unbounded rotating fluid are examined in perturbation theory. At first order in both the random force amplitude and the angular velocity we find two types of modifications to the fluid equation of motion. The first correction transforms the molecular shear viscosity into a (rotation independent) effective viscosity. The second perturbative correction leads to a new large scale non-dissipative force proportional to the fluid angular velocity in the slow rotation regime. This effective force does no net work and alters the dispersion relation of inertial waves propagating in the fluid. Both dynamically generated corrections can be identified with certain components of the most general axisymmetric ``viscosity tensor'' for a Newtonian fluid.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX, and accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Instrumented activity and semiotic mediation: two frames to describe the conjecture construction process as curricular organizer

We document part of the process through which conjectures produced by students, with the aid of the dynamic geometry software Cabri, when they solve proposed geometric problems, become a curriculum organizer in the classroom. We first focus on characterizing students’ instrumented activity recurring to utilization schema (Rabardel, 1995, in Bartolini Bussi and Mariotti, 2008), and then describe the teacher’s content management through which the ideas produced by the students become key elements of knowledge construction

Analyzing the proving activity of a group of three students

We present an analysis and outline an evaluation of the proving activity of a group of three university level students when solving a geometrical problem whose solution required the formulation of a conjecture and its justification within a specific theoretical system. To carry out the analysis, we used the model presented by Boero, Douek, Morselli and Pedemonte (2010) that centers on the arguments and rational behavior. Our analysis indicates that the student‘s proving activity is close to the one we used as a reference

Cosmological Horizon Modes and Linear Response in de Sitter Spacetime

Linearized fluctuations of quantized matter fields and the spacetime geometry around de Sitter space are considered in the case that the matter fields are conformally invariant. Taking the unperturbed state of the matter to be the de Sitter invariant Bunch-Davies state, the linear variation of the stress tensor about its self-consistent mean value serves as a source for fluctuations in the geometry through the semi-classical Einstein equations. This linear response framework is used to investigate both the importance of quantum backreaction and the validity of the semi-classical approximation in cosmology. The full variation of the stress tensor, delta T^a_b contains two kinds of terms: (1) those that depend explicitly upon the linearized metric variation delta g_{cd} through the [T^a_b, T^{cd}] causal response function; and (2) state dependent variations, independent of delta g_{cd}. For perturbations of the first kind, the criterion for the validity of the semi-classical approximation in de Sitter space is satisfied for fluctuations on all scales well below the Planck scale. The perturbations of the second kind contain additional massless scalar degrees of freedom associated with changes of state of the fields on the cosmological horizon scale. These scalar degrees of freedom arise necessarily from the local auxiliary field form of the effective action associated with the trace anomaly, are potentially large on the horizon scale, and therefore can lead to substantial non-linear quantum backreaction effects in cosmology.Comment: 62 pages, 4 figures v.2 is amended to match the published version in Phys. Rev. D: Eqs. (6.13)-(6.14) for the quadratic action added, two references added, several minor typos correcte

Dynamic geometry, implication and abduction: a case study

In this paper we illustrate the role of dynamic geometry as an environment that propitiates the use of empirical explorations to favor learning to prove. This is possible thanks to abductive processes, related to the establishment of implications that university students of a plane geometry course carry out when, supported by a dynamic geometry program, they solve a problem in which they must discover a geometric fact, formulate a conjecture and prove it

La función cultural de los museos en San Salvador

La función cultural de los museos en San Salvador. Los resultados. Referencias Bibliografícas.En Kóot, enero 2010, año 1, N°1, p. 25-32Universidad Tecnológica de El Salvado