53 research outputs found
Dynamics in Stationary, Non-Globally Hyperbolic Spacetimes
Classically, the dynamics in a non-globally hyperbolic spacetime is ill
posed. Previously, a prescription was given for defining dynamics in static
spacetimes in terms of a second order operator acting on a Hilbert space
defined on static slices. The present work extends this result by giving a
similar prescription for defining dynamics in stationary spacetimes obeying
certain mild assumptions. The prescription is defined in terms of a first order
operator acting on a different Hilbert space from the one used in the static
prescription. It preserves the important properties of the earlier one: the
formal solution agrees with the Cauchy evolution within the domain of
dependence, and smooth data of compact support always give rise to smooth
solutions. In the static case, the first order formalism agrees with second
order formalism (using specifically the Friedrichs extension). Applications to
field quantization are also discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure, AMSLaTeX; v2: expanded discussion of field
quantization, new Proposition 3.1, revised Theorem 4.2, corrected typos, and
updated reference
Naked Singularity and Thunderbolt
We consider quantum theoretical effects of the sudden change of the boundary
conditions which mimics the occurrence of naked singularities. For a simple
demonstration, we study a massless scalar field in -dimensional
Minkowski spacetime with finite spatial interval. We calculate the vacuum
expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor and explicitly show that
singular wave or {\em thunderbolt} appears along the Cauchy horizon. The
thunderbolt possibly destroys the Cauchy horizon if its backreaction on the
geometry is taken into account, leading to quantum restoration of the global
hyperbolicity. The result of the present work may also apply to the situation
that a closed string freely oscillating is traveling to a brane and changes
itself to an open string pinned-down by the ends satisfying the Dirichlet
boundary conditions on the brane.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, references added, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Stability in Designer Gravity
We study the stability of designer gravity theories, in which one considers
gravity coupled to a tachyonic scalar with anti-de Sitter boundary conditions
defined by a smooth function W. We construct Hamiltonian generators of the
asymptotic symmetries using the covariant phase space method of Wald et al.and
find they differ from the spinor charges except when W=0. The positivity of the
spinor charge is used to establish a lower bound on the conserved energy of any
solution that satisfies boundary conditions for which has a global minimum.
A large class of designer gravity theories therefore have a stable ground
state, which the AdS/CFT correspondence indicates should be the lowest energy
soliton. We make progress towards proving this, by showing that minimum energy
solutions are static. The generalization of our results to designer gravity
theories in higher dimensions involving several tachyonic scalars is discussed.Comment: 29 page
Quantum singularity of Levi-Civita spacetimes
Quantum singularities in general relativistic spacetimes are determined by
the behavior of quantum test particles. A static spacetime is quantum
mechanically singular if the spatial portion of the wave operator is not
essentially self-adjoint. Here Weyl's limit point-limit circle criterion is
used to determine whether a wave operator is essentially self-adjoint. This
test is then applied to scalar wave packets in Levi-Civita spacetimes to help
elucidate the physical properties of the spacetimes in terms of their metric
parameters
Who's Afraid of Naked Singularities?
To probe naked spacetime singularities with waves rather than with particles
we study the well-posedness of initial value problems for test scalar fields
with finite energy so that the natural function space of initial data is the
Sobolev space. In the case of static and conformally static spacetimes we
examine the essential self-adjointness of the time translation operator in the
wave equation defined in the Hilbert space. For some spacetimes the classical
singularity becomes regular if probed with waves while stronger classical
singularities remain singular. If the spacetime is regular when probed with
waves we may say that the spacetime is `globally hyperbolic.'Comment: 25 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.
Can the Acceleration of Our Universe Be Explained by the Effects of Inhomogeneities?
No. It is simply not plausible that cosmic acceleration could arise within
the context of general relativity from a back-reaction effect of
inhomogeneities in our universe, without the presence of a cosmological
constant or ``dark energy.'' We point out that our universe appears to be
described very accurately on all scales by a Newtonianly perturbed FLRW metric.
(This assertion is entirely consistent with the fact that we commonly encounter
.) If the universe is accurately described by a
Newtonianly perturbed FLRW metric, then the back-reaction of inhomogeneities on
the dynamics of the universe is negligible. If not, then it is the burden of an
alternative model to account for the observed properties of our universe. We
emphasize with concrete examples that it is {\it not} adequate to attempt to
justify a model by merely showing that some spatially averaged quantities
behave the same way as in FLRW models with acceleration. A quantity
representing the ``scale factor'' may ``accelerate'' without there being any
physically observable consequences of this acceleration. It also is {\it not}
adequate to calculate the second-order stress energy tensor and show that it
has a form similar to that of a cosmological constant of the appropriate
magnitude. The second-order stress energy tensor is gauge dependent, and if it
were large, contributions of higher perturbative order could not be neglected.
We attempt to clear up the apparent confusion between the second-order stress
energy tensor arising in perturbation theory and the ``effective stress energy
tensor'' arising in the ``shortwave approximation.''Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure, several footnotes and references added, version
accepted for publication in CQG;some clarifying comments adde
Investigating Off-shell Stability of Anti-de Sitter Space in String Theory
We propose an investigation of stability of vacua in string theory by
studying their stability with respect to a (suitable) world-sheet
renormalization group (RG) flow. We prove geometric stability of (Euclidean)
anti-de Sitter (AdS) space (i.e., ) with respect to the simplest
RG flow in closed string theory, the Ricci flow. AdS space is not a fixed point
of Ricci flow. We therefore choose an appropriate flow for which it is a fixed
point, prove a linear stability result for AdS space with respect to this flow,
and then show this implies its geometric stability with respect to Ricci flow.
The techniques used can be generalized to RG flows involving other fields. We
also discuss tools from the mathematics of geometric flows that can be used to
study stability of string vacua.Comment: 29 pages, references added in this version to appear in Classical and
Quantum Gravit
Gravity in the 3+1-Split Formalism I: Holography as an Initial Value Problem
We present a detailed analysis of the 3+1-split formalism of gravity in the
presence of a cosmological constant. The formalism helps revealing the intimate
connection between holography and the initial value formulation of gravity. We
show that the various methods of holographic subtraction of divergences
correspond just to different transformations of the canonical variables, such
that the initial value problem is properly set up at the boundary. The
renormalized boundary energy momentum tensor is a component of the Weyl tensor.Comment: 28 pages; v2: minor improvements, references adde
On the uniqueness and global dynamics of AdS spacetimes
We study global aspects of complete, non-singular asymptotically locally AdS
spacetimes solving the vacuum Einstein equations whose conformal infinity is an
arbitrary globally stationary spacetime. It is proved that any such solution
which is asymptotically stationary to the past and future is itself globally
stationary.
This gives certain rigidity or uniqueness results for exact AdS and related
spacetimes.Comment: 18pp, significant revision of v
On the Resolution of the Time-Like Singularities in Reissner-Nordstrom and Negative-Mass Schwarzschild
Certain time-like singularities are shown to be resolved already in classical
General Relativity once one passes from particle probes to scalar waves. The
time evolution can be defined uniquely and some general conditions for that are
formulated. The Reissner-Nordstrom singularity allows for communication through
the singularity and can be termed "beam splitter" since the transmission
probability of a suitably prepared high energy wave packet is 25%. The high
frequency dependence of the cross section is w^{-4/3}. However, smooth
geometries arbitrarily close to the singular one require a finite amount of
negative energy matter. The negative-mass Schwarzschild has a qualitatively
different resolution interpreted to be fully reflecting. These 4d results are
similar to the 2d black hole and are generalized to an arbitrary dimension d>4.Comment: 47 pages, 5 figures. v2: See end of introduction for an important
note adde
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