Entropy of Localized States and Black Hole Evaporation

We call a state "vacuum-bounded" if every measurement performed outside a specified interior region gives the same result as in the vacuum. We compute the maximum entropy of a vacuum-bounded state with a given energy for a one-dimensional model, with the aid of numerical calculations on a lattice. The maximum entropy is larger than it would be for rigid wall boundary conditions by an amount $\delta S$ which for large energies is less than or approximately $(1/6) ln (L_in T)$, where L_in is the length of the interior region. Assuming that the state resulting from the evaporation of a black hole is similar to a vacuum-bounded state, and that the similarity between vacuum-bounded and rigid-wall-bounded problems extends from 1 to 3 dimensions, we apply these results to the black hole information paradox. We conclude that large amounts of information cannot be emitted in the final explosion of a black hole.Comment: 27 pages, ReVTeX, 5 postscript figures using epsf. Miscellaneous cleanups, one section rewritten for clarit

BRST Analysis of Physical Fields and States for 4D Quantum Gravity on R x S^3

We consider the background-free quantum gravity based on conformal gravity with the Riegert-Wess-Zumino action, which is formulated in terms of a conformal field theory. Employing the $R \times S^3$ background in practice, we construct the nilpotent BRST operator imposing diffeomorphism invariance. Physical fields and states are analyzed, which are given only by real primary scalars with a definite conformal weight. With attention to the presence of background charges, various significant properties, such as the state-operator correspondence and the norm structure, are clarified with some examples.Comment: 29 pages, several descriptions written using CFT terminology are adde

Geodesics in the static Mallett spacetime

Mallett has exhibited a cylindrically symmetric spacetime containing closed timelike curves produced by a light beam circulating around a line singularity. I analyze the static version of this spacetime obtained by setting the intensity of the light to zero. Some null geodesics can escape to infinity, but all timelike geodesics in this spacetime originate and terminate at the singularity. Freely falling matter originally at rest quickly attains relativistic velocity inward and is destroyed at the singularity.Comment: 5 page

Inferring Microscopic Kinetic Rates from Stationary State Distributions.

We present a principled approach for estimating the matrix of microscopic transition probabilities among states of a Markov process, given only its stationary state population distribution and a single average global kinetic observable. We adapt Maximum Caliber, a variational principle in which the path entropy is maximized over the distribution of all possible trajectories, subject to basic kinetic constraints and some average dynamical observables. We illustrate the method by computing the solvation dynamics of water molecules from molecular dynamics trajectories

Philosophical Implications of Inflationary Cosmology

Recent developments in cosmology indicate that every history having a nonzero probability is realized in infinitely many distinct regions of spacetime. Thus, it appears that the universe contains infinitely many civilizations exactly like our own, as well as infinitely many civilizations that differ from our own in any way permitted by physical laws. We explore the implications of this conclusion for ethical theory and for the doomsday argument. In the infinite universe, we find that the doomsday argument applies only to effects which change the average lifetime of all civilizations, and not those which affect our civilization alone.Comment: 25 pages; v2: revised version to appear in British Journal for the Philosophy of Scienc

BRST Invariant Higher Derivative Operators in 4D Quantum Gravity based on CFT

We continue the study of physical fields for the background free 4D quantum gravity based on the Riegert-Wess-Zumino action, developed in Phys. Rev. D {\bf 85} (2012) 024028. The background free model is formulated in terms of a certain conformal field theory on M^4 in which conformal symmetry arises as gauge symmetry, namely diffeomorphism invariance. In this paper, we construct the physical field operator corresponding to any integer power of Ricci scalar curvature in the context of the BRST quantization. We also discuss how to define the correlation function and its physical meanings.Comment: 22 pages, minor typo corrected, published versio