Global Existence of Solutions of the Semiclassical Einstein Equation for Cosmological Spacetimes

We study the solutions of the semiclassical Einstein equation in flat cosmological spacetimes driven by a massive conformally coupled scalar field. In particular, we show that it is possible to give initial conditions at finite time to get a state for the quantum field which gives finite expectation values for the stress-energy tensor. Furthermore, it is possible to control this expectation value by means of a global estimate on regular cosmological spacetimes. The obtained estimates permit to write a theorem about the existence and uniqueness of the local solutions encompassing both the spacetime metric and the matter field simultaneously. Finally, we show that one can always extend local solutions up to a point where the scale factor becomes singular or the Hubble function reaches a critical value $H_c = 180\pi/G$, which both correspond to a divergence of the scalar curvature, namely a spacetime singularity.Comment: 20 pages; corrected reference

Influence of quantum matter fluctuations on geodesic deviation

We study the passive influence of quantum matter fluctuations on the expansion parameter of a congruence of timelike geodesics in a semiclassical regime. In particular, we show that, the perturbations of this parameter can be considered to be elements of the algebra of matter fields at all perturbative order. Hence, once a quantum state for matter is chosen, it is possible to explicitly evaluate the behavior of geometric fluctuations. After introducing the formalism necessary to treat similar problems, in the last part of the paper, we estimate the approximated probability of having a geodesic collapse in a flat spacetime due to those fluctuations.Comment: 21 pages, published version, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 47 (2014) 37520

Interplay of Boltzmann equation and continuity equation for accelerated electrons in solar flares

During solar flares a large amount of electrons are accelerated within the plasma present in the solar atmosphere. Accurate measurements of the motion of these electrons start becoming available from the analysis of hard X-ray imaging-spectroscopy observations. In this paper, we discuss the linearized perturbations of the Boltzmann kinetic equation describing an ensemble of electrons accelerated by the energy release occurring during solar flares. Either in the limit of high energy or at vanishing background temperature such an equation reduces to a continuity equation equipped with an extra force of stochastic nature. This stochastic force is actually described by the well known energy loss rate due to Coulomb collision with ambient particles, but, in order to match the collision kernel in the linearized Boltzmann equation it needs to be treated in a very specific manner. In the second part of the paper the derived continuity equation is solved with some hyperbolic techniques, and the obtained solution is written in a form suitable to be compared with data gathered by hard X-ray imaging-spectroscopy telescopes. Finally, a first validation of the model with NASA Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager spectrometer measurements is provided.Comment: submitted to SIAM/ASA Journal on Uncertainty Quantificatio

Holography and Conformal Symmetry near black hole horizons

We show here how it is possible to build a QFT on the horizon of a Schwarzschild-like spacetime. That theory, found by restricting bulk quantum elds on the horizon, is equivalent to QFT on the bulk. That fact is called Holography. Moreover the hidden conformal symmetry (SL(2;R)) found for the bulk theory becomes manifest on the horizon in terms of some of its dieomorphisms. Then the extension of group of the generator of that symmetry to the Virasoro algebra is discussed

State independence for tunneling processes through black hole horizons and Hawking radiation

Tunneling processes through black hole horizons have recently been investigated in the framework of WKB theory discovering interesting interplay with the Hawking radiation. In this paper we instead adopt the point of view proper of QFT in curved spacetime, namely, we use a suitable scaling limit technique to obtain the leading order of the correlation function related with some tunneling process through a Killing horizon. The computation is done for certain large class of reference quantum states for scalar fields. In the limit of sharp localization either on the external side or on opposite sides of the horizon, the quantum correlation functions appear to have thermal nature, where in both cases the characteristic temperature is the Hawking one. Our approach is valid for every stationary charged rotating non extremal black hole, however, since the computation is completely local, it covers the case of a Killing horizon which just temporarily exists in some finite region too. These results give a strong support to the idea that the Hawking radiation, which is detected at future infinity and needs some global structures to be defined, is actually related to a local phenomenon taking place even for local geometric structures (local Killing horizons) existing just for a while.Comment: 19 pages, one figure, some comments added, minor errors corrected, accepted for publication in Communications in Mathematical Physic

Hadamard States From Light-like Hypersurfaces

This book provides a rather self-contained survey of the construction of Hadamard states for scalar field theories in a large class of notable spacetimes, possessing a (conformal) light-like boundary. The first two sections focus on explaining a few introductory aspects of this topic and on providing the relevant geometric background material. The notions of asymptotically flat spacetimes and of expanding universes with a cosmological horizon are analysed in detail, devoting special attention to the characterization of asymptotic symmetries. In the central part of the book, the quantization of a real scalar field theory on such class of backgrounds is discussed within the framework of algebraic quantum field theory. Subsequently it is explained how it is possible to encode the information of the observables of the theory in a second, ancillary counterpart, which is built directly on the conformal (null) boundary. This procedure, dubbed bulk-to-boundary correspondence, has the net advantage of allowing the identification of a distinguished state for the theory on the boundary, which admits a counterpart in the bulk spacetime which is automatically of Hadamard form. In the last part of the book, some applications of these states are discussed, in particular the construction of the algebra of Wick polynomials. This book is aimed mainly, but not exclusively, at a readership with interest in the mathematical formulation of quantum field theory on curved backgrounds.Comment: 106 pages, 2 figures, to appear in SpringerBriefs in Mathematical Physics, references adde

The Casimir effect from the point of view of algebraic quantum field theory

We consider a region of Minkowski spacetime bounded either by one or by two parallel, infinitely extended plates orthogonal to a spatial direction and a real Klein-Gordon field satisfying Dirichlet boundary conditions. We quantize these two systems within the algebraic approach to quantum field theory using the so-called functional formalism. As a first step we construct a suitable unital *-algebra of observables whose generating functionals are characterized by a labelling space which is at the same time optimal and separating and fulfils the F-locality property. Subsequently we give a definition for these systems of Hadamard states and we investigate explicit examples. In the case of a single plate, it turns out that one can build algebraic states via a pull-back of those on the whole Minkowski spacetime, moreover inheriting from them the Hadamard property. When we consider instead two plates, algebraic states can be put in correspondence with those on flat spacetime via the so-called method of images, which we translate to the algebraic setting. For a massless scalar field we show that this procedure works perfectly for a large class of quasi-free states including the Poincar\'e vacuum and KMS states. Eventually Wick polynomials are introduced. Contrary to the Minkowski case, the extended algebras, built in globally hyperbolic subregions can be collected in a global counterpart only after a suitable deformation which is expressed locally in terms of a *-isomorphism. As a last step, we construct explicitly the two-point function and the regularized energy density, showing, moreover, that the outcome is consistent with the standard results of the Casimir effect.Comment: 45 pages, section 2 improved, typos correcte

Rigorous construction and Hadamard property of the Unruh state in Schwarzschild spacetime

The discovery of the radiation properties of black holes prompted the search for a natural candidate quantum ground state for a massless scalar field theory on Schwarzschild spacetime, here considered in the Eddington-Finkelstein representation. Among the several available proposals in the literature, an important physical role is played by the so-called Unruh state which is supposed to be appropriate to capture the physics of a black hole formed by spherically symmetric collapsing matter. Within this respect, we shall consider a massless Klein-Gordon field and we shall rigorously and globally construct such state, that is on the algebra of Weyl observables localised in the union of the static external region, the future event horizon and the non-static black hole region. Eventually, out of a careful use of microlocal techniques, we prove that the built state fulfils, where defined, the so-called Hadamard condition; hence, it is perturbatively stable, in other words realizing the natural candidate with which one could study purely quantum phenomena such as the role of the back reaction of Hawking's radiation. From a geometrical point of view, we shall make a profitable use of a bulk-to-boundary reconstruction technique which carefully exploits the Killing horizon structure as well as the conformal asymptotic behaviour of the underlying background. From an analytical point of view, our tools will range from Hormander's theorem on propagation of singularities, results on the role of passive states, and a detailed use of the recently discovered peeling behaviour of the solutions of the wave equation in Schwarzschild spacetime.Comment: 63 pages, 3 figure

On Quantum Spacetime and the horizon problem

In the special case of a spherically symmetric solution of Einstein equations coupled to a scalar massless field, we examine the consequences on the exact solution imposed by a semiclassical treatment of gravitational interaction when the scalar field is quantized. In agreement with the work of Doplicher, Fredenhagen and Roberts (DFR), imposing the principle of gravitational stability against localization of events, we find that the region where an event is localized, or where initial conditions can be assigned, has a minimal extension, of the order of the Planck length. This conclusion, though limited to the case of spherical symmetry, is more general than that of DFR, since it does not require the use of the notion of energy through the Heisenberg Principle, nor of any approximation as the linearized Einstein equations. We shall then describe the influence of this minimal length scale in a cosmological model, namely a simple universe filled with radiation, which is effectively described by a conformally coupled scalar field in a conformal KMS state. Solving the backreaction, a power law inflation scenario appears close to the initial singularity. Furthermore, the initial singularity becomes light like and thus the standard horizon problem is avoided in this simple model. This indication goes in the same direction as those drawn at a heuristic level from a full use of the principle of gravitational stability against localization of events, which point to a background dependence of the effective Planck length, through which a-causal effects may be transmitted.Comment: 26 pages. v3: several discussions and clarifications added, misprints correcte

Local causal structures, Hadamard states and the principle of local covariance in quantum field theory

In the framework of the algebraic formulation, we discuss and analyse some new features of the local structure of a real scalar quantum field theory in a strongly causal spacetime. In particular we use the properties of the exponential map to set up a local version of a bulk-to-boundary correspondence. The bulk is a suitable subset of a geodesic neighbourhood of any but fixed point p of the underlying background, while the boundary is a part of the future light cone having p as its own tip. In this regime, we provide a novel notion for the extended *-algebra of Wick polynomials on the said cone and, on the one hand, we prove that it contains the information of the bulk counterpart via an injective *-homomorphism while, on the other hand, we associate to it a distinguished state whose pull-back in the bulk is of Hadamard form. The main advantage of this point of view arises if one uses the universal properties of the exponential map and of the light cone in order to show that, for any two given backgrounds M and M' and for any two subsets of geodesic neighbourhoods of two arbitrary points, it is possible to engineer the above procedure such that the boundary extended algebras are related via a restriction homomorphism. This allows for the pull-back of boundary states in both spacetimes and, thus, to set up a machinery which permits the comparison of expectation values of local field observables in M and M'.Comment: 42 pages, xy package is used, typos corrected, clarifications adde