Black holes, quantum information, and unitary evolution

The unitary crisis for black holes indicates an apparent need to modify local quantum field theory. This paper explores the idea that quantum mechanics and in particular unitarity are fundamental principles, but at the price of familiar locality. Thus, one should seek to parameterize unitary evolution, extending the field theory description of black holes, such that their quantum information is transferred to the external state. This discussion is set in a broader framework of unitary evolution acting on Hilbert spaces comprising subsystems. Here, various constraints can be placed on the dynamics, based on quantum information-theoretic and other general physical considerations, and one can seek to describe dynamics with "minimal" departure from field theory. While usual spacetime locality may not be a precise concept in quantum gravity, approximate locality seems an important ingredient in physics. In such a Hilbert space approach an apparently "coarser" form of localization can be described in terms of tensor decompositions of the Hilbert space of the complete system. This suggests a general framework in which to seek a consistent description of quantum gravity, and approximate emergence of spacetime. Other possible aspects of such a framework -- in particular symmetries -- are briefly discussed.Comment: 39 pages, 5 figures. v2: refs added, very minor clarifications v3: few small changes to agree with published version v4: corrected sign in eq. 3.3

Bulk shape of brane-world black holes

We propose a method to extend into the bulk asymptotically flat static spherically symmetric brane-world metrics. We employ the multipole (1/r) expansion in order to allow exact integration of the relevant equations along the (fifth) extra coordinate and make contact with the parameterized post-Newtonian formalism. We apply our method to three families of solutions previously appeared as candidates of black holes in the brane world and show that the shape of the horizon is very likely a flat ``pancake'' for astrophysical sources.Comment: 10 pages, MPLA style, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MPL

The screwworm eradication data system archives

The archives accumulated during 1 year of operation of the Satellite Temperature-Monitoring System during development of the Screwworm Eradication Data System are reported. Brief descriptions of all the kinds of tapes, as well as their potential uses, are presented. Reference is made to other documents that explain the generation of these data

Nonlocality vs. complementarity: a conservative approach to the information problem

A proposal for resolution of the information paradox is that "nice slice" states, which have been viewed as providing a sharp argument for information loss, do not in fact do so as they do not give a fully accurate description of the quantum state of a black hole. This however leaves an information *problem*, which is to provide a consistent description of how information escapes when a black hole evaporates. While a rather extreme form of nonlocality has been advocated in the form of complementarity, this paper argues that is not necessary, and more modest nonlocality could solve the information problem. One possible distinguishing characteristic of scenarios is the information retention time. The question of whether such nonlocality implies acausality, and particularly inconsistency, is briefly addressed. The need for such nonlocality, and its apparent tension with our empirical observations of local quantum field theory, may be a critical missing piece in understanding the principles of quantum gravity.Comment: 11 pages of text and figures, + references. v2 minor text. v3 small revisions to match final journal versio

Braneworlds and Dark Energy

In the Randall-Sundrum scenario, we analyse the dynamics of an AdS5 braneworld when conformal matter fields propagate in five dimensions. We show that conformal fields of weight -4 are associated with stable geometries which describe the dynamics of inhomogeneous dust, generalized dark radiation and homogeneous polytropic dark energy on a spherically symmetric 3-brane embedded in the compact AdS5 orbifold. We discuss aspects of the radion stability conditions and of the localization of gravity in the vicinity of the brane.Comment: 12 pages, latex, 3 eps figures. Talk given at the Seventh Workshop on Quantum Field Theory under the Influence of External Conditions, IEEC, CSIC and University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, 5-9 September 2005. Revised version published in the workshop proceedings, J. Phys. A: Mathematical and General. Typos corrected and some changes introduced for clarit

Dynamics of warped compactifications and the shape of the warped landscape

The dynamics of warped/flux compactifications is studied, including warping effects, providing a firmer footing for investigation of the "landscape." We present a general formula for the four-dimensional potential of warped compactifications in terms of ten-dimensional quantities. This allows a systematic investigation of moduli-fixing effects and potentials for mobile branes. We provide a necessary criterion, "slope-dominance," for evading "no-go" results for de Sitter vacua. We outline the ten-dimensional derivation of the non-perturbative effects that should accomplish this in KKLT examples, and outline a systematic discussion of their corrections. We show that potentials for mobile branes receive generic contributions inhibiting slow-roll inflation. We give a linearized analysis of general scalar perturbations of warped IIB compactifications, revealing new features for both time independent and dependent moduli, and new aspects of the kinetic part of the four-dimensional effective action. The universal Kahler modulus is found_not_ to be a simple scaling of the internal metric, and a prescription is given for defining holomorphic Kahler moduli, including warping effects. In the presence of mobile branes, this prescription elucidates couplings between bulk and brane fields. Our results are thus relevant to investigations of the existence of de Sitter vacua in string theory, and of their phenomenology, cosmology, and statistics.Comment: (80 pages; two appendices; harvmac. v3: minor corrections, and references added. v4: argument that pure Kahler deformations are flat.

REAM intensity modulator-enabled 10Gb/s colorless upstream transmission of real-time optical OFDM signals in a single-fiber-based bidirectional PON architecture

Reflective electro-absorption modulation-intensity modulators (REAM-IMs) are utilized, for the first time, to experimentally demonstrate colorless ONUs in single-fiber-based, bidirectional, intensity-modulation and direct-detection (IMDD), optical OFDM PONs (OOFDM-PONs) incorporating 25km SSMFs and OLT-side-seeded CW optical signals. The colorlessness of the REAM-IMs is characterized, based on which optimum REAM-IM operating conditions are identified. In the aforementioned PON architecture, 10Gb/s colorless upstream transmissions of end-to-end realtime OOFDM signals are successfully achieved for various wavelengths within the entire C-band. Over such a wavelength window, corresponding minimum received optical powers at the FEC limit vary in a range as small as <0.5dB. In addition, experimental measurements also indicate that Rayleigh backscattering imposes a 2.8dB optical power penalty on the 10Gb/s over 25km upstream OOFDM signal transmission. Furthermore, making use of on-line adaptive bit and power loading, a linear trade-off between aggregated signal line rate and optical power budget is observed, which shows that, for the present PON system, a 10% reduction in signal line rate can improve the optical power budget by 2.6dB. © 2012 Optical Society of America

Quantum information transfer and models for black hole mechanics

General features of information transfer between quantum subsystems, via unitary evolution, are investigated, with applications to the problem of information transfer from a black hole to its surroundings. A particularly direct form of quantum information transfer is "subspace transfer," which can be characterized by saturation of a subadditivity inequality. We also describe more general unitary quantum information transfer, and categorize different models for black hole evolution. Evolution that only creates paired excitations inside/outside the black hole is shown not to extract information, but information-transferring models exist both in the "saturating" and "non-saturating" category. The former more closely capture thermodynamic behavior; the latter generically have enhanced energy flux, beyond that of Hawking.Comment: 31 pages, harvmac. v2: nomenclature change, minor added explanation. v3: small corrections/rewordings; improved figure; version to match publication in PR

Braneworlds, Conformal Fields and the Gravitons

We investigate the dynamics of Randall-Sundrum AdS5 braneworlds with 5-dimensional conformal matter fields. In the scenario with a compact fifth dimension the class of conformal fields with weight -4 is associated with exact 5-dimensional warped geometries which are stable under radion field perturbations and describe on the brane the dynamics of inhomogeneous dust, generalized dark radiation and homogeneous polytropic dark energy. We analyse the graviton mode flutuations around this class of background solutions and determine their mass eigenvalues and wavefunctions from a Sturm-Liouville problem. We show that the localization of gravity is not sharp enough for large mass hierarchies to be generated. We also discuss the physical bounds imposed by experiments in particle physics, in astrophysics and in precise measurements of the low energy gravitational interaction.Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages, 2 figures. Based on talk given in the Second International Conference on Quantum Theories and the Renormalization Group in Gravity and Cosmology, CSIC and University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 11-15 July 2006. Submitted to be published in the Conference Proceedings, J. Phys. A: Math. Ge