23 research outputs found
Holographic Lovelock Gravities and Black Holes
We study holographic implications of Lovelock gravities in AdS spacetimes.
For a generic Lovelock gravity in arbitrary spacetime dimensions we formulate
the existence condition for asymptotically AdS black holes. We consider small
fluctuations around these black holes and determine the constraint on Lovelock
parameters by demanding causality of the boundary theory. For the case of cubic
Lovelock gravity in seven spacetime dimensions we compute the holographic Weyl
anomaly and determine the three point functions of the stress energy tensor in
the boundary CFT. Remarkably, these correlators happen to satisfy the same
relation as the one imposed by supersymmetry. We then compute the energy flux;
requiring it to be positive is shown to be completely equivalent to requiring
causality of the finite temperature CFT dual to the black hole. These
constraints are not stringent enough to place any positive lower bound on the
value of viscosity. Finally, we conjecture an expression for the energy flux
valid for any Lovelock theory in arbitrary dimensions.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figure, harvmac, references added, calculation of
viscosity/entropy ratio include
Loop Quantum Gravity
The problem of finding the quantum theory of the gravitational field, and
thus understanding what is quantum spacetime, is still open. One of the most
active of the current approaches is loop quantum gravity. Loop quantum gravity
is a mathematically well-defined, non-perturbative and background independent
quantization of general relativity, with its conventional matter couplings. The
research in loop quantum gravity forms today a vast area, ranging from
mathematical foundations to physical applications. Among the most significative
results obtained are: (i) The computation of the physical spectra of
geometrical quantities such as area and volume; which yields quantitative
predictions on Planck-scale physics. (ii) A derivation of the
Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy formula. (iii) An intriguing physical
picture of the microstructure of quantum physical space, characterized by a
polymer-like Planck scale discreteness. This discreteness emerges naturally
from the quantum theory and provides a mathematically well-defined realization
of Wheeler's intuition of a spacetime ``foam''. Long standing open problems
within the approach (lack of a scalar product, overcompleteness of the loop
basis, implementation of reality conditions) have been fully solved. The weak
part of the approach is the treatment of the dynamics: at present there exist
several proposals, which are intensely debated. Here, I provide a general
overview of ideas, techniques, results and open problems of this candidate
theory of quantum gravity, and a guide to the relevant literature.Comment: Review paper written for the electronic journal `Living Reviews'. 34
page
Quantum gravitational corrections for spinning particles
We calculate the quantum corrections to the gauge-invariant gravitational potentials of spinning particles in flat space, induced by loops of both massive and massless matter fields of various types. While the corrections to the Newtonian potential induced by massless conformal matter for spinless particles are well-known, and the same corrections due to massless minimally coupled scalars [Class. Quant. Grav. 27 (2010) 245008], massless non-conformal scalars [Phys. Rev. D 87 (2013) 104027] and massive scalars, fermions and vector bosons [Phys. Rev. D 91 (2015) 064047] have been recently derived, spinning particles receive additional corrections which are the subject of the present work. We give both fully analytic results valid for all distances from the particle, and present numerical results as well as asymptotic expansions. At large distances from the particle, the corrections due to massive fields are exponentially suppressed in comparison to the corrections from massless fields, as one would expect. However, a surprising result of our analysis is that close to the particle itself, on distances comparable to the Compton wavelength of the massive fields running in the loops, these corrections can be enhanced with respect to the massless case
Quantum Gravity in 2+1 Dimensions: The Case of a Closed Universe
In three spacetime dimensions, general relativity drastically simplifies,
becoming a ``topological'' theory with no propagating local degrees of freedom.
Nevertheless, many of the difficult conceptual problems of quantizing gravity
are still present. In this review, I summarize the rather large body of work
that has gone towards quantizing (2+1)-dimensional vacuum gravity in the
setting of a spatially closed universe.Comment: 61 pages, draft of review for Living Reviews; comments, criticisms,
additions, missing references welcome; v2: minor changes, added reference
Stochastic Gravity: Theory and Applications
Whereas semiclassical gravity is based on the semiclassical Einstein equation
with sources given by the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of
quantum fields, stochastic semiclassical gravity is based on the
Einstein-Langevin equation, which has in addition sources due to the noise
kernel. In the first part, we describe the fundamentals of this new theory via
two approaches: the axiomatic and the functional. In the second part, we
describe three applications of stochastic gravity theory. First, we consider
metric perturbations in a Minkowski spacetime, compute the two-point
correlation functions of these perturbations and prove that Minkowski spacetime
is a stable solution of semiclassical gravity. Second, we discuss structure
formation from the stochastic gravity viewpoint. Third, we discuss the
backreaction of Hawking radiation in the gravitational background of a black
hole and describe the metric fluctuations near the event horizon of an
evaporating black holeComment: 100 pages, no figures; an update of the 2003 review in Living Reviews
in Relativity gr-qc/0307032 ; it includes new sections on the Validity of
Semiclassical Gravity, the Stability of Minkowski Spacetime, and the Metric
Fluctuations of an Evaporating Black Hol
Holographic Calculations of Renyi Entropy
We extend the approach of Casini, Huerta and Myers to a new calculation of
the Renyi entropy of a general CFT in d dimensions with a spherical entangling
surface, in terms of certain thermal partition functions. We apply this
approach to calculate the Renyi entropy in various holographic models. Our
results indicate that in general, the Renyi entropy will be a complicated
nonlinear function of the central charges and other parameters which
characterize the CFT. We also exhibit the relation between this new thermal
calculation and a conventional calculation of the Renyi entropy where a twist
operator is inserted on the spherical entangling surface. The latter insight
also allows us to calculate the scaling dimension of the twist operators in the
holographic models.Comment: 71 pages, 6 figure
Constrained superfields on metastable anti-D3-branes
We study the effect of brane polarization on the supersymmetry
transformations of probe anti-D3-branes at the tip of a Klebanov-Strassler
throat geometry. As is well known, the probe branes can polarize into
NS5-branes and decay to a supersymmetric state by brane-flux annihilation. The
effective potential has a metastable minimum as long as the number of
anti-D3-branes is small compared to the number of flux quanta. We study the
reduced four-dimensional effective NS5-brane theory and show that in the
metastable minimum supersymmetry is non-linearly realized to leading order, as
expected for spontaneously broken supersymmetry. However, a strict decoupling
limit of the higher order corrections in terms of a standard nilpotent
superfield does not seem to exist. We comment on the possible implications of
these results for more general low-energy effective descriptions of inflation
or de Sitter vacua.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figure. v2: fixed typos, matches published versio