18,242 research outputs found
Decoherence of Macroscopic Closed Systems within Newtonian Quantum Gravity
A theory recently proposed by the author aims to explain decoherence and the
thermodynamical behaviour of closed systems within a conservative, unitary,
framework for quantum gravity by assuming that the operators tied to the
gravitational degrees of freedom are unobservable and equating physical entropy
with matter-gravity entanglement entropy. Here we obtain preliminary results on
the extent of decoherence this theory predicts. We treat first a static state
which, if one were to ignore quantum gravitational effects, would be a quantum
superposition of two spatially displaced states of a single classically well
describable ball of uniform mass density in empty space. Estimating the quantum
gravitational effects on this system within a simple Newtonian approximation,
we obtain formulae which predict e.g. that as long as the mass of the ball is
considerably larger than the Planck mass, such a would-be-coherent static
superposition will actually be decohered whenever the separation of the centres
of mass of the two ball-states excedes a small fraction (which decreases as the
mass of the ball increases) of the ball radius. We then obtain a formula for
the quantum gravitational correction to the would-be-pure density matrix of a
non-relativistic many-body Schroedinger wave function and argue that this
formula predicts decoherence between configurations which differ (at least) in
the "relocation" of a cluster of particles of Planck mass. We estimate the
entropy of some simple model closed systems, finding a tendency for it to
increase with "matter-clumping" suggestive of a link with existing
phenomenological discussions of cosmological entropy increase.Comment: 11 pages, plain TeX, no figures. Accepted for publication as a
"Letter to the Editor" in "Classical and Quantum Gravity
Continuity of symplectically adjoint maps and the algebraic structure of Hadamard vacuum representations for quantum fields on curved spacetime
We derive for a pair of operators on a symplectic space which are adjoints of
each other with respect to the symplectic form (that is, they are sympletically
adjoint) that, if they are bounded for some scalar product on the symplectic
space dominating the symplectic form, then they are bounded with respect to a
one-parametric family of scalar products canonically associated with the
initially given one, among them being its ``purification''. As a typical
example we consider a scalar field on a globally hyperbolic spacetime governed
by the Klein-Gordon equation; the classical system is described by a symplectic
space and the temporal evolution by symplectomorphisms (which are
symplectically adjoint to their inverses). A natural scalar product is that
inducing the classical energy norm, and an application of the above result
yields that its ``purification'' induces on the one-particle space of the
quantized system a topology which coincides with that given by the two-point
functions of quasifree Hadamard states. These findings will be shown to lead to
new results concerning the structure of the local (von Neumann)
observable-algebras in representations of quasifree Hadamard states of the
Klein-Gordon field in an arbitrary globally hyperbolic spacetime, such as local
definiteness, local primarity and Haag-duality (and also split- and type
III_1-properties). A brief review of this circle of notions, as well as of
properties of Hadamard states, forms part of the article.Comment: 42 pages, LaTeX. The Def. 3.3 was incomplete and this has been
corrected. Several misprints have been removed. All results and proofs remain
unchange
The thermal and two-particle stress-energy must be ill-defined on the 2-d Misner space chronology horizon
We show that an analogue of the (four dimensional) image sum method can be
used to reproduce the results, due to Krasnikov, that for the model of a real
massless scalar field on the initial globally hyperbolic region IGH of
two-dimensional Misner space there exist two-particle and thermal Hadamard
states (built on the conformal vacuum) such that the (expectation value of the
renormalised) stress-energy tensor in these states vanishes on IGH. However, we
shall prove that the conclusions of a general theorem by Kay, Radzikowski and
Wald still apply for these states. That is, in any of these states, for any
point b on the Cauchy horizon and any neighbourhood N of b, there exists at
least one pair of non-null related points (x,x'), with x and x' in the
intersection of IGH with N, such that (a suitably differentiated form of) its
two-point function is singular. (We prove this by showing that the two-point
functions of these states share the same singularities as the conformal vacuum
on which they are built.) In other words, the stress-energy tensor in any of
these states is necessarily ill-defined on the Cauchy horizon.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX, RevTeX, no figure
Brick Walls and AdS/CFT
We discuss the relationship between the bulk-boundary correspondence in
Rehren's algebraic holography (and in other 'fixed-background' approaches to
holography) and in mainstream 'Maldacena AdS/CFT'. Especially, we contrast the
understanding of black-hole entropy from the viewpoint of QFT in curved
spacetime -- in the framework of 't Hooft's 'brick wall' model -- with the
understanding based on Maldacena AdS/CFT. We show that the brick-wall
modification of a Klein Gordon field in the Hartle-Hawking-Israel state on
1+2-Schwarzschild AdS (BTZ) has a well-defined boundary limit with the same
temperature and entropy as the brick-wall-modified bulk theory. One of our main
purposes is to point out a close connection, for general AdS/CFT situations,
between the puzzle raised by Arnsdorf and Smolin regarding the relationship
between Rehren's algebraic holography and mainstream AdS/CFT and the puzzle
embodied in the 'correspondence principle' proposed by Mukohyama and Israel in
their work on the brick-wall approach to black hole entropy. Working on the
assumption that similar results will hold for bulk QFT other than the Klein
Gordon field and for Schwarzschild AdS in other dimensions, and recalling the
first author's proposed resolution to the Mukohyama-Israel puzzle based on his
'matter-gravity entanglement hypothesis', we argue that, in Maldacena AdS/CFT,
the algebra of the boundary CFT is isomorphic only to a proper subalgebra of
the bulk algebra, albeit (at non-zero temperature) the (GNS) Hilbert spaces of
bulk and boundary theories are still the 'same' -- the total bulk state being
pure, while the boundary state is mixed (thermal). We also argue from the
finiteness of its boundary (and hence, on our assumptions, also bulk) entropy
at finite temperature, that the Rehren dual of the Maldacena boundary CFT
cannot itself be a QFT and must, instead, presumably be something like a string
theory.Comment: 54 pages, 3 figures. Arguments strengthened in the light of B.S. Kay
`Instability of Enclosed Horizons' arXiv:1310.739
The effect of radiative cooling on scaling laws of X-ray groups and clusters
We have performed cosmological simulations in a ΛCDM cosmology with and without radiative cooling in order to study the effect of cooling on the cluster scaling laws. Our simulations consist of 4.1 million particles each of gas and dark matter within a box size of 100 h-1 Mpc, and the run with cooling is the largest of its kind to have been evolved to z = 0. Our cluster catalogs both consist of over 400 objects and are complete in mass down to ~1013 h-1 M☉. We contrast the emission-weighted temperature-mass (Tew-M) and bolometric luminosity-temperature (Lbol-Tew) relations for the simulations at z = 0. We find that radiative cooling increases the temperature of intracluster gas and decreases its total luminosity, in agreement with the results of Pearce et al. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of these effects flattens the slope of the Tew-M relation and steepens the slope of the Lbol-Tew relation. Inclusion of radiative cooling in the simulations is sufficient to reproduce the observed X-ray scaling relations without requiring excessive nongravitational energy injection
Generating quantum states through spin chain dynamics
Spin chains can realise perfect quantum state transfer between the two ends
via judicious choice of coupling strengths. In this paper, we study what other
states can be created by engineering a spin chain. We conclude that, up to
local phases, all single excitation quantum states with support on every site
of the chain can be created. We pay particular attention to the generation of
W-states that are superposed over every site of the chain.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur
The economic optimisation of the main parameters of the 3-GeV electron booster synchrotron for DIAMOND
Divergences in the Effective Action for Acausal Spacetimes
The 1--loop effective Lagrangian for a massive scalar field on an arbitrary
causality violating spacetime is calculated using the methods of Euclidean
quantum field theory in curved spacetime. Fields of spin 1/2, spin 1 and
twisted field configurations are also considered. In general, we find that the
Lagrangian diverges to minus infinity at each of the nth polarised
hypersurfaces of the spacetime with a structure governed by a DeWitt-Schwinger
type expansion.Comment: 17 pages, Late
Universal topological phase of 2D stabilizer codes
Two topological phases are equivalent if they are connected by a local
unitary transformation. In this sense, classifying topological phases amounts
to classifying long-range entanglement patterns. We show that all 2D
topological stabilizer codes are equivalent to several copies of one universal
phase: Kitaev's topological code. Error correction benefits from the
corresponding local mappings.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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