Background Geometry Research Articles

A Reduced Order Cut Finite Element method for geometrically parametrized steady and unsteady Navier–Stokes problems

We focus on steady and unsteady Navier–Stokes flow systems in a reduced-order modeling framework based on Proper Orthogonal Decomposition within a levelset geometry description and discretized by an unfitted mesh Finite Element Method. This work extends the approaches of [1–3] to nonlinear CutFEM discretization. We construct and investigate a unified and geometry independent reduced basis which overcomes many barriers and complications of the past, that may occur whenever geometrical morphings are taking place. By employing a geometry independent reduced basis, we are able to avoid remeshing and transformation to reference configurations, and we are able to handle complex geometries. This combination of a fixed background mesh in a fixed extended background geometry with reduced order techniques appears beneficial and advantageous in many industrial and engineering applications, which could not be resolved efficiently in the past.

Firewall from Effective Field Theory

For an effective field theory in the background of an evaporating black hole with spherical symmetry, we consider non-renormalizable interactions and their relevance to physical effects. The background geometry is determined by the semi-classical Einstein equation for an uneventful horizon where the vacuum energy–momentum tensor is small for freely falling observers. Surprisingly, after Hawking radiation appears, the transition amplitude from the Unruh vacuum to certain multi-particle states grows exponentially with time for a class of higher-derivative operators after the collapsing matter enters the near-horizon region, despite the absence of large curvature invariants. Within the scrambling time, the uneventful horizon transitions towards a firewall, and eventually the effective field theory breaks down.

Linearized propagation equations for metric fluctuations in a general (non-vacuum) background geometry

The linearized dynamical equation for metric perturbations in a fully general, non-vacuum, background geometry is obtained from the Hamilton variational principle applied to the action up to second order. We specialize our results to the case of traceless and transverse metric fluctuations, and we discuss how the intrinsic properties of the matter stress tensor can affect (and modify) the process of gravity wave propagation even in most conventional geometric scenarios, like (for instance) those described by a FLRW metric background. We provide explicit examples for fluid, scalar field and electromagnetic field sources.

Curved space equilibration versus flat space thermalization: A short review

We discuss equilibration process in expanding Universes as compared to the thermalization process in Minkowski spacetime. The final goal is to answer the following question: Is the equilibrium reached before the rapid expansion stops and quantum effects have a negligible effect on the background geometry or stress–energy fluxes in a highly curved early Universe have strong effects on the expansion rate and the equilibrium is reached only after the drastic decrease of the spacetime curvature? We argue that consideration of more generic non-invariant states in theories with invariant actions is a necessary ingredient to understand quantum field dynamics in strongly curved backgrounds. We are talking about such states in which correlation functions are not functions of such isometry invariants as geodesic distances, while having correct UV behavior. The reason to consider such states is the presence of IR secular memory effects for generic time-dependent backgrounds, which are totally absent in equilibrium. These effects strongly affect the destiny of observables in highly curved spacetimes.

High-resolution spectral information enables phenotyping of leaf epicuticular wax in wheat

BackgroundEpicuticular wax (EW) is the first line of defense in plants for protection against biotic and abiotic factors in the environment. In wheat, EW is associated with resilience to heat and drought stress, however, the current limitations on phenotyping EW restrict the integration of this secondary trait into wheat breeding pipelines. In this study we evaluated the use of light reflectance as a proxy for EW load and developed an efficient indirect method for the selection of genotypes with high EW density.ResultsCuticular waxes affect the light that is reflected, absorbed and transmitted by plants. The narrow spectral regions statistically associated with EW overlap with bands linked to photosynthetic radiation (500 nm), carotenoid absorbance (400 nm) and water content (~ 900 nm) in plants. The narrow spectral indices developed predicted 65% (EWI-13) and 44% (EWI-1) of the variation in this trait utilizing single-leaf reflectance. However, the normalized difference indices EWI-4 and EWI-9 improved the phenotyping efficiency with canopy reflectance across all field experimental trials. Indirect selection for EW with EWI-4 and EWI-9 led to a selection efficiency of 70% compared to phenotyping with the chemical method. The regression model EWM-7 integrated eight narrow wavelengths and accurately predicted 71% of the variation in the EW load (mg·dm−2) with leaf reflectance, but under field conditions, a single-wavelength model consistently estimated EW with an average RMSE of 1.24 mg·dm−2 utilizing ground and aerial canopy reflectance.ConclusionsOverall, the indices EWI-1, EWI-13 and the model EWM-7 are reliable tools for indirect selection for EW based on leaf reflectance, and the indices EWI-4, EWI-9 and the model EWM-1 are reliable for selection based on canopy reflectance. However, further research is needed to define how the background effects and geometry of the canopy impact the accuracy of these phenotyping methods.

Time-dependent quantum correlations in two-dimensional expanding spacetime

In expanding universes, the entanglement entropy must be time-dependent because the background geometry changes with time. For understanding time evolution of quantum correlations, we take into account two distinct holographic models, the dS boundary model and the braneworld model. In this work, we focus on two-dimensional expanding universes for analytic calculation and comparison. Although two holographic models realize expanding universes in totally different ways, we show that they result in the qualitatively same time-dependence for eternal inflation. We further investigate the time-dependent correlations in the radiation-dominated era of the braneworld model. Intriguingly, the holographic result reveals that a thermal system in the expanding universe is dethermalized after a critical time characterized by the subsystem size.

Holographic DC conductivity for backreacted NLED in massive gravity

In this work a holographic model with the charge current dual to a general non-linear electrodynamics (NLED) is discussed in the framework of massive gravity. Massive graviton can break the diffeomorphism invariance in the bulk and generates momentum dissipation in the dual boundary theory. The expression of DC conductivities in a finite magnetic field are obtained, with the backreaction of NLED field on the background geometry. General transport properties in various limits are presented, and then we turn to the three of specific NLED models: the conventional Maxwell electrodynamics, the Maxwell-Chern-Simons electrodynamics, and the Born-Infeld electrodynamics, to study the parameter-dependence of in-plane resistivities. Two mechanisms leading to the Mott-insulating behaviors and negative magneto-resistivities are revealed at zero temperature, and the role played by the massive gravity coupling parameters are discussed.

Holographic axion model: A simple gravitational tool for quantum matter

This is a complete and exhaustive review on the so-called holographic axion model -- a bottom-up holographic system characterized by the presence of a set of shift symmetric scalar bulk fields whose profiles are taken to be linear in the spatial coordinates. This simple model implements the breaking of translational invariance of the dual field theory by retaining the homogeneity of the background geometry and therefore allowing for controllable and fast computations. The usages of this model are very vast and they are a proof of the spectacular versatility of the framework. In this review, we touch upon all the up-to-date aspects of this model from its connection with massive gravity and effective field theories, to its role in modeling momentum dissipation and elastic properties ending with all the phenomenological features and its hydrodynamic description. In summary, this is a complete guide to one of the most used model in Applied Holography and a must-read for any researcher entering this field.

Dilatonic states near holographic phase transitions

The spectrum of bound states of special strongly coupled confining field theories might include a parametrically light dilaton, associated with the formation of enhanced condensates that break (approximate) scale invariance spontaneously. It has been suggested in the literature that such a state may arise in connection with the theory being close to the unitarity bound in holographic models. We extend these ideas to cases where the background geometry is non-AdS, and the gravity description of the dual confining field theory has a top-down origin in supergravity. We exemplify this programme by studying the circle compactification of Romans six-dimensional half-maximal supergravity. We uncover a rich space of solutions, many of which were previously unknown in the literature. We compute the bosonic spectrum of excitations, and identify a tachyonic instability in a region of parameter space for a class of regular background solutions. A tachyon only exists along an energetically disfavoured (unphysical) branch of solutions of the gravity theory; we find evidence of a first-order phase transition that separates this region of parameter space from the physical one. Along the physical branch of regular solutions, one of the lightest scalar particles is approximately a dilaton, and it is associated with a condensate in the underlying theory. Yet, because of the location of the phase transition, its mass is not parametrically small, and it is, coincidentally, the next-to-lightest scalar bound state, rather than the lightest one.

Remarks on the thermofield double state in 4D black hole background

Recently it was shown that there is an anomalous singularity of propagators in spacetimes with horizons for thermal states with non--canonical temperatures. In this paper we extend these observations to the situation when the background geometry is given by the four--dimensional Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes. Namely, we demonstrate that the two-point function in the free scalar field theory acquires anomalous singularity when the two points are located on the horizon. This singularity is anomalous in the sense that the coefficient before the divergent term in the two-point function differs from the canonical one and depends explicitly on the temperature of the state. As it was previously shown, it leads to the explosive behavior of the regularised stress-energy tensor on the horizon when the temperature of the state does not coincide with the canonical temperature of the horizon.

Cosmological fluctuations on the light cone

In studying temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background Weinberg has noted that some ease of calculation and insight can be achieved by looking at the structure of the perturbed light cone on which the perturbed photons propagate. In his approach Weinberg worked in a specific gauge and specialized to fluctuations around the standard Robertson-Walker cosmological model with vanishing spatial three-curvature. In this paper we generalize this analysis by providing a gauge invariant treatment in which no choice of gauge is made, and by considering geometries with non-vanishing spatial three-curvature. By using the scalar, vector, tensor fluctuation basis we find that the relevant gauge invariant combinations that appear in the light cone temperature fluctuations have no explicit dependence on the spatial curvature even if the spatial curvature of the background geometry is nonvanishing. We find that a not previously considered, albeit not too consequential, temperature fluctuation at the observer has to be included in order to enforce gauge invariance. As well as working with comoving time we also work with conformal time in which a background metric of any given spatial three-curvature can be written as a time-dependent conformal factor (the comoving time expansion radius as written in conformal time) times a static Robertson-Walker geometry of the same spatial three-curvature. For temperature fluctuations on the light cone this conformal factor drops out identically. Thus the gauge invariant combinations that appear in the photon temperature fluctuations have no explicit dependence on either the conformal factor or the spatial three-curvature at all.

Unitarity and Information in Quantum Gravity: A Simple Example

In approaches to quantum gravity, where smooth spacetime is an emergent approximation of a discrete Planckian fundamental structure, any effective smooth field theoretical description would miss part of the fundamental degrees of freedom and thus break unitarity. This is applicable also to trivial gravitational field (low energy) idealizations realized by the use of Minkowski background geometry which, as with any other spacetime geometry, corresponds, in the fundamental description, to infinitely many different and closely degenerate discrete microstates. The existence of such microstates provides a large reservoir q-bit for information to be coded at the end of black hole evaporation and thus opens the way to a natural resolution of the black hole evaporation information puzzle. In this paper we show that these expectations can be made precise in a simple quantum gravity model for cosmology motivated by loop quantum gravity. Concretely, even when the model is fundamentally unitary, when microscopic degrees of freedom irrelevant to low-energy cosmological observers are suitably ignored, pure states in the effective description evolve into mixed states due to decoherence with the Planckian microscopic structure. Moreover, in the relevant physical regime these hidden degrees of freedom do not carry any “energy” and thus realize, in a fully quantum gravitational context, the idea (emphasized before by Unruh and Wald) that decoherence can take place without dissipation, now in a concrete gravitational model strongly motivated by quantum gravity. All this strengthens the perspective of a quite conservative and natural resolution of the black hole evaporation puzzle where information is not destroyed but simply degraded (made unavailable to low-energy observers) into correlations with the microscopic structure of the quantum geometry at the Planck scale.

No-boundary wave function, Wheeler-DeWitt equation, and path integral analysis of the bouncing quantum cosmology

Bouncing models are alternatives to inflationary cosmology that replace the initial big bang singularity by a ``bouncing'' phase. A deeper understanding of the initial conditions of the universe, in these scenarios, requires knowledge of quantum aspects of bouncing models. In this work, we propose two classes of bouncing models that can be studied with great analytical ease and hence, provide a test bed for investigating more profound problems in quantum cosmology of bouncing universes. Our model's two key ingredients enable us to do straightforward analytical calculations: (i) a convenient parametrization of the minisuperspace of FRLW spacetimes and (ii) two distinct choices of the effective perfect fluids that source the background geometry of the bouncing universe. We study the quantum cosmology of these models using both the Wheeler-de Witt equations and the path integral approach. In particular, we found a bouncing model analogue of the no-boundary wave function and presented a Lorentzian path integral representation for the same. We also discuss the introduction of real scalar perturbations.

The large-c Virasoro identity block is a semi-classical Liouville correlator

It will be shown analytically that the light sector of the identity block of a mixed heavy-light correlator in the large central charge limit is given by a correlation function of light operators on an effective background geometry. This geometry is generated by the presence of the heavy operators. It is shown that this background geometry is a solution to the Liouville equation of motion sourced by corresponding heavy vertex operators and subsequently that the light sector of the identity block matches the Liouville correlation function in the semi-classical limit. This method effectively captures the spirit of Einstein gravity as a theory of dynamical geometry in AdS/CFT. The reason being that Liouville theory is closely related to semi-classical asymptotically AdS3 gravity.

Analytic study of superradiant stability of Kerr\u2013Newman black holes under charged massive scalar perturbation

The superradiant stability of a Kerr–Newman black hole and charged massive scalar perturbation is investigated. We treat the black hole as a background geometry and study the equation of motion of the scalar perturbation. From the radial equation of motion, we derive the effective potential experienced by the scalar perturbation. By a careful analysis of this effective potential, it is found that when the inner and outer horizons of Kerr–Newman black hole satisfy frac{r_-}{r_+}leqslant frac{1}{3} and the charge-to-mass ratios of scalar perturbation and black hole satisfy frac{q}{mu }frac{Q}{ M}>1 , the Kerr–Newman black hole and scalar perturbation system is superradiantly stable.

Gravitational waves in Brans\u2013Dicke theory with a cosmological constant

Weak field gravitational wave solutions are investigated in Brans–Dicke (BD) theory in the presence of a cosmological constant. In this setting the background geometry is not flat but asymptotically de-Sitter. We investigate the linearised field equations, and their gravitational wave solutions in a certain gauge choice. We will show that this theory leads to massless scalar waves as in original BD theory and in contrast to massive BD theory. The effects of these waves on free particles and their polarization properties are studied extensively and effects of the cosmological constant is analyzed in these phenomena in detail. The energy flux of these waves are also discussed in this background. By analyzing this flux, we obtain a critical distance where the waves cannot propagate further, which extends Cosmic no Hair Conjecture (CNC) to BD theory with a cosmological constant.

Localization of the gauged linear sigma model for KK5-branes

Abstract We study quantum aspects of the target space of the non-linear sigma model, which is a low-energy effective theory of the gauged linear sigma model (GLSM). As such, we especially compute the exact sphere partition function of the GLSM for KK$5$-branes whose background geometry is a Taub–NUT space, using the supersymmetric localization technique on the Coulomb branch. From the sphere partition function, we distill the world-sheet instanton effects. In particular, we show that, concerning the single-centered Taub–NUT space, instanton contributions exist only if the asymptotic radius of the $S^1$ fiber in the Taub–NUT space is zero.

The magnetic effect on a strongly correlated system with two currents near the quantum critical point from holography

Abstract We study the magnetic effect in a strongly interacting system with two conserved currents near the quantum critical point (QCP). For this purpose, we introduce the hyper-scaling violation geometry with the black hole. Considering the perturbation near the background geometry, we compute the transport coefficients using holographic methods. We calculated the magneto-transport for general QCP and discuss the special point $(z,\theta)=(3/2,1)$, where the data of Dirac material have previously been well described.

Partition functions of the tensionless string

We consider string theory on AdS3× S3× \U0001d54b4 in the tensionless limit, with one unit of NS-NS flux. This theory is conjectured to describe the symmetric product orbifold CFT. We consider the string on different Euclidean backgrounds such as thermal AdS3, the BTZ black hole, conical defects and wormhole geometries. In simple examples we compute the full string partition function. We find it to be independent of the precise bulk geometry, but only dependent on the geometry of the conformal boundary. For example, the string partition function on thermal AdS3 and the conical defect with a torus boundary is shown to agree, thus giving evidence for the equivalence of the tensionless string on these different background geometries. We also find that thermal AdS3 and the BTZ black hole are dual descriptions and the vacuum of the BTZ black hole is mapped to a single long string winding many times asymptotically around thermal AdS3. Thus the system yields a concrete example of the string-black hole transition. Consequently, reproducing the boundary partition function does not require a sum over bulk geometries, but rather agrees with the string partition function on any bulk geometry with the appropriate boundary. We argue that the same mechanism can lead to a resolution of the factorization problem when geometries with disconnected boundaries are considered, since the connected and disconnected geometries give the same contribution and we do not have to include them separately.

How Does the Planck Scale Affect Qubits?

Gedanken experiments in quantum gravity motivate generalised uncertainty relations (GURs) implying deviations from the standard quantum statistics close to the Planck scale. These deviations have been extensively investigated for the non-spin part of the wave function, but existing models tacitly assume that spin states remain unaffected by the quantisation of the background in which the quantum matter propagates. Here, we explore a new model of nonlocal geometry in which the Planck-scale smearing of classical points generates GURs for angular momentum. These, in turn, imply an analogous generalisation of the spin uncertainty relations. The new relations correspond to a novel representation of SU(2) that acts nontrivially on both subspaces of the composite state describing matter-geometry interactions. For single particles, each spin matrix has four independent eigenvectors, corresponding to two 2-fold degenerate eigenvalues ħ±(ħ+β)/2, where β is a small correction to the effective Planck’s constant. These represent the spin states of a quantum particle immersed in a quantum background geometry and the correction by β emerges as a direct result of the interaction terms. In addition to the canonical qubits states, |0⟩=|↑⟩ and |1⟩=|↓⟩, there exist two new eigenstates in which the spin of the particle becomes entangled with the spin sector of the fluctuating spacetime. We explore ways to empirically distinguish the resulting "geometric" qubits, |0′⟩ and |1′⟩, from their canonical counterparts.