111 research outputs found
Do static sources outside a Schwarzschild black hole radiate?
We show that static sources coupled to a massless scalar field in
Schwarzschild spacetime give rise to emission and absorption of zero-energy
particles due to the presence of Hawking radiation. This is in complete analogy
with the description of the bremsstrahlung by a uniformly accelerated charge
from the coaccelerated observers' point of view. The response rate of the
source is found to coincide with that in Minkowski spacetime as a function of
its proper acceleration. This result may be viewed as restoration of the
equivalence principle by the Hawking effect.Comment: 13 page
Fermion Helicity Flip in Weak Gravitational Fields
The helicity flip of a spin- Dirac particle
interacting gravitationally with a scalar field is analyzed in the context of
linearized quantum gravity. It is shown that massive fermions may have their
helicity flipped by gravity, in opposition to massless fermions which preserve
their helicity.Comment: RevTeX 3.0, 8 pages, 3 figures (available upon request), Preprint
IFT-P.013/9
Note on the point-splitting procedure to evaluate vacuum fluctuation in certain cylindrically symmetric backgrounds
We revisit two-point function approaches used to study vacuum fluctuation in
wedge-shaped regions and conical backgrounds. Appearance of divergent integrals
is discussed and circumvented. The issue is considered in the context of a
massless scalar field in cosmic string spacetime.Comment: REVTeX file, 7 page
The Fulling-Davies-Unruh Effect is Mandatory: The Proton's Testimony
We discuss the decay of accelerated protons and illustrate how the
Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect is indeed mandatory to maintain the consistency of
standard Quantum Field Theory. The confidence level of the Fulling-Davies-Unruh
effect must be the same as that of Quantum Field Theory itself.Comment: Awarded "honorable mention" by Gravity Research Foundation in the
2002 Essay competitio
From quantum to classical instability in relativistic stars
It has been shown that gravitational fields produced by realistic
classical-matter distributions can force quantum vacuum fluctuations of some
nonminimally coupled free scalar fields to undergo a phase of exponential
growth. The consequences of this unstable phase to the background spacetime
have not been addressed so far due to known difficulties concerning
backreaction in semiclassical gravity. It seems reasonable to believe, however,
that the quantum fluctuations will "classicalize" when they become large
enough, after which backreaction can be treated in the general-relativistic
context. Here we investigate the emergence of a classical regime out of the
quantum field evolution during the unstable phase. By studying the appearance
of classical correlations and loss of quantum coherence, we show that by the
time backreaction becomes important the system already behaves classically.
Consequently, the gravity-induced instability leads naturally to initial
conditions for the eventual classical description of the backreaction. Our
results give support to previous analyses which treat classically the
instability of scalar fields in the spacetime of relativistic stars, regardless
whether the instability is triggered by classical or quantum perturbations.Comment: 16 pages. Minor changes to match the published versio
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