4,608 research outputs found
Quantum Coherence in Two Dimensions
The formation and evaporation of two dimensional black holes are discussed.
It is shown that if the radiation in minimal scalars has positive energy, there
must be a global event horizon or a naked singularity. The former would imply
loss of quantum coherence while the latter would lead to an even worse
breakdown of predictability. CPT invariance would suggest that there ought to
be past horizons as well. A way in which this could happen with wormholes is
described.Comment: 11 pages, DAMTP-R93/15, CALT-68-1861, Tex, 3 appended uuencoded
figure
Red-shifts near black holes
A simple ordinary differential equation is derived governing the red-shifts
of wave-fronts propagating through a non-stationary spherically symmetric
space-time. Approach to an event horizon corresponds to approach to a fixed
point; in general, the phase portrait of the equation illuminates the
qualitative features of the geometry. In particular, the asymptotics of the
red-shift as a horizon is approached, a critical ingredient of Hawking's
prediction of radiation from black holes, are easily brought out. This
asympotic behavior has elements in common with the universal behavior near
phase transitions in statistical physics. The validity of the Unruh vacuum for
the Hawking process can be understood in terms of this universality. The
concept of surface gravity is extended to to non-stationary spherically
symmetric black holes. Finally, it is shown that in the non-stationary case,
Hawking's predicted flux of radiation from a black hole would be modified.Comment: 20 pages, plain Tex, IOP macros, 4 eps figures, accepted by CQ
Conformal Invariance of Black Hole Temperature
It is shown that the surface gravity and temperature of a stationary black
hole are invariant under conformal transformations of the metric that are the
identity at infinity. More precisely, we find a conformal invariant definition
of the surface gravity of a conformal Killing horizon that agrees with the
usual definition(s) for a true Killing horizon and is proportional to the
temperature as defined by Hawking radiation. This result is reconciled with the
intimate relation between the trace anomaly and the Hawking effect, despite the
{\it non}invariance of the trace anomaly under conformal transformations.Comment: 8 pages, plain LaTeX, NSF-ITP-93-9
Generalized entropy and Noether charge
We find an expression for the generalized gravitational entropy of Hawking in
terms of Noether charge. As an example, the entropy of the Taub-Bolt spacetime
is calculated.Comment: 6 pages, revtex, reference correcte
Quantum Coherence and Closed Timelike Curves
Various calculations of the matrix have shown that it seems to be non
unitary for interacting fields when there are closed timelike curves. It is
argued that this is because there is loss of quantum coherence caused by the
fact that part of the quantum state circulates on the closed timelike curves
and is not measured at infinity. A prescription is given for calculating the
superscattering matrix on space times whose parameters can be
analytically continued to obtain a Euclidean metric. It is illustrated by a
discussion of a spacetime in with two disks in flat space are identified. If
the disks have an imaginary time separation, this corresponds to a heat bath.
An external field interacting with the heat bath will lose quantum coherence.
One can then analytically continue to an almost real separation of the disks.
This will give closed timelike curves but one will still get loss of quantum
coherence.Comment: 13 page
Mass and charge fluctuations and black hole entropy
The effects of thermal fluctuations of the mass (horizon area) and electric
charge, on the entropy of non-rotating charged {\it macroscopic} black holes,
are analyzed using a grand canonical ensemble. Restricting to Gaussian
fluctuations around equilibrium, and assuming a power law type of relation
between the black hole mass, charge and horizon area, characterized by two real
positive indices, the grand canonical entropy is shown to acquire a logarithmic
correction with a positive coefficient proportional to the sum of the indices.
However, the root mean squared fluctuations of mass and charge relative to the
mean values of these quantities turn out to be independent of the details of
the assumed mass-area relation. We also comment on possible cancellation
between log (area) corrections arising due to {\it fixed area} quantum
spacetime fluctuations and that due to thermal fluctuations of the area and
other quantities.Comment: 8 pages revtex, no figure
Misner String Entropy
I show that gravitational entropy can be ascribed to spacetimes containing
Misner strings (the gravitational analogues of Dirac strings), even in the
absence of any other event horizon (or bolt) structures. This result follows
from an extension of proposals for evaluating the stress-energy of a
gravitational system which are motivated by the AdS/CFT correspondence.Comment: revtex, 5 pages, references added, typo correcte
Hawking-Unruh effect and the entanglement of two-mode squeezed states in Riemannian spacetime
We consider the system of free scalar field, which is assumed to be a
two-mode squeezed state from an inertial point of view. This setting allows the
use of entanglement measure for continuous variables, which can be applied to
discuss free and bound entanglement from the point of view from non-inertial
observer.Comment: Phys. Lett. A, accepted for publicatio
Comment on "Absence of trapped surfaces and singularities in cylindrical collapse"
Recently, the gravitational collapse of an infinite cylindrical thin shell of
matter in an otherwise empty spacetime with two hypersurface orthogonal Killing
vectors was studied by Gon\c{c}alves [Phys. Rev. {\bf D65}, 084045 (2002).]. By
using three "alternative" criteria for trapped surfaces, the author claimed to
have shown that {\em they can never form either outside or on the shell,
regardingless of the matter content for the shell, except at asymptotical
future null infinite}.
Following Penrose's original idea, we first define trapped surfaces in
cylindrical spacetimes in terms of the expansions of null directions orthogonal
to the surfaces, and then show that the first criterion used by Gon\c{c}alves
is incorrect. We also show that his analysis of non-existence of trapped
surfaces in vacuum is incomplete. To confirm our claim, we present an example
that is a solution to the vacuum Einstein field equations and satisfies all the
regular conditions imposed by Gon\c{c}alves. After extending the solution to
the whole spacetime, we show explicitly that trapped surfaces exist in the
extended region.Comment: latex, 2 figures, the last version to appear in Phys. Rev.
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