General Covariance Research Articles

On the beta -decay of the accelerated proton and neutrino oscillations: a three-flavor description with CP violation

The (inverse) beta -decay of uniformly accelerated protons (prightarrow n+ e^{+}+nu _e) has been recently analyzed in the context of two-flavor neutrino mixing and oscillations. It has been shown that the decay rates as measured by an inertial and comoving observer are in agreement, provided that: (i) the thermal nature of the accelerated vacuum (Unruh effect) is taken into account; (ii) the asymptotic behavior of neutrinos is described through flavor (rather than mass) eigenstates; (iii) the Unruh radiation is made up of oscillating neutrinos. Here we extend the above considerations to a more realistic scenario including three generations of Dirac neutrinos. By following the outlined recipe, we find that the equality between the two rates still holds true, confirming that mixing is perfectly consistent with the General Covariance of Quantum Field Theory. Notably, we prove that the analysis of CP violation in neutrino oscillations provides a further solid argument for flavor states as fundamental representation of asymptotic neutrino states. Our approach is finally discussed in comparison with the other treatments appeared in literature.

Relativistic kinetic gases as direct sources of gravity

We propose a new model for the description of a gravitating multi particle system, viewed as a kinetic gas. The properties of the, colliding or non-colliding, particles are encoded into a so called one-particle distribution function, which is a density on the space of allowed particle positions and velocities, i.e. on the tangent bundle of the spacetime manifold. We argue that an appropriate theory of gravity, describing the gravitational field generated by a kinetic gas, must also be modeled on the tangent bundle. The most natural mathematical framework for this task is Finsler spacetime geometry. Following this line of argumentation, we construct a coupling between the kinetic gas and a recently proposed Finsler geometric extension of general relativity. Additionally, we explicitly show how the coordinate invariance of the action of the kinetic gas leads to a novel formulation of conservation of the energy-momentum distribution of the gas on the tangent bundle.

Planck-scale-deformed relativistic symmetries and diffeomorphisms in momentum space

We study the implications of a change of coordinatization of momentum space for theories with curved momentum space. We of course find that after a passive diffeomorphism the theory yields the same physical predictions, as one would expect considering that a simple reparametrization should not change physics. However, it appears that general momentum-space covariance (invariance under active diffeomorphisms of momentum space) cannot be enforced, and within a given set of prescriptions on how the theory should encode momentum-space metric and affine connection the physical predictions do depend on the momentum space background. These conclusions find support in some general arguments and in our quantitative analysis of a much-studied toy model with maximally-symmetric (curved) momentum space.

A change of perspective: switching quantum reference frames via a perspective-neutral framework

Treating reference frames fundamentally as quantum systems is inevitable in quantum gravity and also in quantum foundations once considering laboratories as physical systems. Both fields thereby face the question of how to describe physics relative to quantum reference systems and how the descriptions relative to different such choices are related. Here, we exploit a fruitful interplay of ideas from both fields to begin developing a unifying approach to transformations among quantum reference systems that ultimately aims at encompassing both quantum and gravitational physics. In particular, using a gravity inspired symmetry principle, which enforces physical observables to be relational and leads to an inherent redundancy in the description, we develop a perspective-neutral structure, which contains all frame perspectives at once and via which they are changed. We show that taking the perspective of a specific frame amounts to a fixing of the symmetry related redundancies in both the classical and quantum theory and that changing perspective corresponds to a symmetry transformation. We implement this using the language of constrained systems, which naturally encodes symmetries. Within a simple one-dimensional model, we recover some of the quantum frame transformations of \cite{Giacomini:2017zju}, embedding them in a perspective-neutral framework. Using them, we illustrate how entanglement and classicality of an observed system depend on the quantum frame perspective. Our operational language also inspires a new interpretation of Dirac and reduced quantized theories within our model as perspective-neutral and perspectival quantum theories, respectively, and reveals the explicit link between them. In this light, we suggest a new take on the relation between a `quantum general covariance' and the diffeomorphism symmetry in quantum gravity.

De Sitter duality and logarithmic decay of dark energy

We investigate infrared dynamics of four-dimensional Einstein gravity in de Sitter space. We set up a general framework to investigate dynamical scaling relations in quantum/classical gravitational theories. The conformal mode dependence of Einstein gravity is renormalized to the extent that general covariance is not manifest. We point out that the introduction of an inflaton is necessary as a counterterm. We observe and postulate a duality between quantum effects in Einstein gravity and classical evolutions in an inflation (or quintessence) model. The effective action of Einstein gravity can be constructed as an inflation model with manifest general covariance. We show that $g=G_N H^2/\pi$: the only dimensionless coupling of the Hubble parameter $H^2$ and the Newton's coupling $G_N$ in Einstein gravity is screened by the infrared fluctuations of the conformal mode. We evaluate the one-loop $\beta$ function of $g$ with respect to the cosmic time $\log Ht$ as $\beta(g)=-(1/2)g^2$, i.e., $g$ is asymptotically free toward the future. The exact $\beta$ function with the backreaction of $g$ reveals the existence of the ultraviolet fixed point. It indicates that the de Sitter expansion stared at the Planck scale with a minimal entropy $S=2$. We have identified the de Sitter entropy $1/g$ with the von Neumann entropy of the conformal zero mode. The former evolves according to the screening of $g$ and the Gibbons-Hawking formula. The latter is found to increase by diffusion in the stochastic process at the horizon in a consistent way. Our Universe is located very close to the fixed point $g=0$ with a large entropy. We discuss possible physical implications of our results such as logarithmic decay of dark energy.

Gravity as Entanglement. Entanglement as Gravity

A generalized and unifying viewpoint to both general relativity and quantum mechanics and information is investigated. It may be described as a generaliztion of the concept of reference frame from mechanics to thermodynamics, or from a reference frame linked to an element of a system, and thus, within it, to another reference frame linked to the whole of the system or to any of other similar systems, and thus, out of it. Furthermore, the former is the viewpoint of general relativity, the latter is that of quantum mechanics and information. Ciclicity in the manner of Nicolas Cusanus (Nicolas of Cusa) is complemented as a fundamental and definitive property of any totality, e.g. physically, that of the universe. It has to contain its externality within it somehow being namely the totality. This implies a seemingly paradoxical (in fact, only to common sense rather logically and mathematically) viewpoint for the universe to be repesented within it as each one quant of action according to the fundamental Planck constant. That approach implies the unification of gravity and entanglement correspondiing to the former or latter class of reference frames. An invariance, more general than Einstein's general covariance is to be involved as to both classes of reference frames unifying them. Its essence is the unification of the discrete and cotnitinuous (smooth). That idea underlies implicitly quantum mechanics for Bohr's principle that it study the system of quantum microscopic entities and the macroscopic apparatus desribed uniformly by the smmoth equations of classical physics.

ON DIMENSION OF TETRADS IN EffECTIVE GRAVITY

Two different sources of emergent gravity lead to the inverse square of length dimension of metric field, $[g_{\mu\nu}]=1/[l]^2$, as distinct from the conventional dimensionless metric, $[g_{\mu\nu}]=1$, for $c = 1$. In both scenarios all the physical quantities, which obey diffeomorphism invariance, such as the Newton constant, the scalar curvature, the cosmological constant, particle masses, fermionic and scalar bosonic fields, etc., are dimensionless.

Endpoint Lebesgue estimates for weighted averages on polynomial curves

We establish optimal Lebesgue estimates for a class of generalized Radon transforms defined by averaging functions along polynomial-like curves. The presence of an essentially optimal weight allows us to prove uniform estimates, wherein the Lebesgue exponents are completely independent of the curves and the operator norms depend only on the polynomial degree. Moreover, our weighted estimates possess rather strong diffeomorphism invariance properties, allowing us to obtain uniform bounds for averages on curves satisfying natural nilpotency and nonoscillation hypotheses.

Improving the condition number of estimated covariance matrices

High dimensional error covariance matrices and their inverses are used to weight the contribution of observation and background information in data assimilation procedures. As observation error covariance matrices are often obtained by sampling methods, estimates are often degenerate or ill-conditioned, making it impossible to invert an observation error covariance matrix without the use of techniques to reduce its condition number. In this paper, we present new theory for two existing methods that can be used to ‘recondition’ any covariance matrix: ridge regression and the minimum eigenvalue method. We compare these methods with multiplicative variance inflation, which cannot alter the condition number of a matrix, but is often used to account for neglected correlation information. We investigate the impact of reconditioning on variances and correlations of a general covariance matrix in both a theoretical and practical setting. Improved theoretical understanding provides guidance to users regarding method selection, and choice of target condition number. The new theory shows that, for the same target condition number, both methods increase variances compared to the original matrix, with larger increases for ridge regression than the minimum eigenvalue method. We prove that the ridge regression method strictly decreases the absolute value of off-diagonal correlations. Theoretical comparison of the impact of reconditioning and multiplicative variance inflation on the data assimilation objective function shows that variance inflation alters information across all scales uniformly, whereas reconditioning has a larger effect on scales corresponding to smaller eigenvalues. We then consider two examples: a general correlation function, and an observation error covariance matrix arising from interchannel correlations. The minimum eigenvalue method results in smaller overall changes to the correlation matrix than ridge regression but can increase off-diagonal correlations. Data assimilation experiments reveal that reconditioning corrects spurious noise in the analysis but underestimates the true signal compared to multiplicative variance inflation.

Frames, Erasures, and Signal Estimation with Stochastic Models

Frame properties and conditions are determined that would minimize the error in signal reconstruction or estimation in the presence of noise and erasures. The special focus here is on stochastic models. These include estimating a random signal with zero mean and a general covariance matrix, minimizing the mean-squared error (MSE) when the frame coefficients are erased according to some a priori probability distribution in the presence of random noise, and also studying the use of stochastic frames in estimating a random signal. In estimating a random signal from noisy coefficients, when a frame coefficient is lost or erased, it is established that the MSE is minimized under certain geometric relationships between the frame vectors and the signal. When the coefficients are erased according to some a priori distribution, conditions are found for the norms of the frame vectors in terms of the probability distribution of the erasure so that the MSE is minimized. Results obtained here also show how using stochastic frames can lead to more flexibility in design and greater control on the MSE.

Estimation of a multiplicative correlation structure in the large dimensional case

We propose a Kronecker product model for correlation or covariance matrices in the large dimensional case. The number of parameters of the model increases logarithmically with the dimension of the matrix. We propose a minimum distance (MD) estimator based on a log-linear property of the model, as well as a one-step estimator, which is a one-step approximation to the quasi-maximum likelihood estimator (QMLE). We establish rates of convergence and central limit theorems (CLT) for our estimators in the large dimensional case. A specification test and tools for Kronecker product model selection and inference are provided. In a Monte Carlo study where a Kronecker product model is correctly specified, our estimators exhibit superior performance. In an empirical application to portfolio choice for S&P500 daily returns, we demonstrate that certain Kronecker product models are good approximations to the general covariance matrix.

Noether charge and black hole entropy in teleparallel gravity

The Noether charge associated to diffeomorphism invariance in teleparallel gravity is derived. It is shown that the latter yields the ADM mass of an asymptotically flat spacetime. The black hole entropy is then investigated based on Wald's prescription that relies on the Noether charge. It is shown that, like in general relativity, the surface gravity can be factored out from such a charge. Consequently, the similarity with the first law of thermodynamics implied by such an approach in general relativity does show up also in teleparallel gravity. It is found that, based on the expression of the first law of black hole mechanics, which is preserved in teleparallel gravity, entropy can thus be extracted from such a Noether charge. The resulting entropy can very naturally be expressed as a {\it volume integral}, though. As such, it is shown that the conformal issue that plagues the entropy-area law within general relativity does not arise in teleparallel gravity based on Wald's approach. The physics behind these features is discussed.

Implications of a frame dependent dark energy for the spacetime metric, cosmography, and effective Hubble constant

In earlier papers we showed that a frame dependent effective action motivated by the postulates of three-space general coordinate invariance and Weyl scaling invariance exactly mimics a cosmological constant in Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) spacetimes, but alters the linearized equations governing scalar perturbations around a spatially flat FRW background metric. Here we analyze the implications of a frame dependent dark energy for the spacetime cosmological metric within both a perturbative and a non-perturbative framework. Both methods of calculation give a one-parameter family of cosmologies which are in close correspondence to one another, and which contain the standard FRW cosmology as a special case. We discuss the application of this family of cosmologies to the standard cosmological distance measures and to the effective Hubble parameter, with special attention to the current tension between determinations of the Hubble constant at late time, and the Hubble value obtained through the cosmic microwave background (CMB) angular fluctuation analysis.

Gravitational lensing beyond geometric optics: II. Metric independence

Typical applications of gravitational lensing use the properties of electromagnetic or gravitational waves to infer the geometry through which those waves propagate. Nevertheless, the optical fields themselves - as opposed to their interactions with material bodies - encode very little of that geometry: It is shown here that any given configuration is compatible with a very large variety of spacetime metrics. For scalar fields in geometric optics, or observables which are not sensitive to the detailed polarization content of electromagnetic or gravitational waves, seven of the ten metric components are essentially irrelevant. With polarization, five components are irrelevant. In the former case, this result together with diffeomorphism invariance allows essentially any geometric-optics configuration associated with a particular spacetime to be embedded into any other spacetime, at least in finite regions. Going beyond the geometric-optics approximation breaks some of this degeneracy, although much remains even then. Overall, high-frequency wave propagation is shown to be insensitive to compositions of certain conformal, Kerr-Schild, and related transformations of the background metric. One application is that new solutions for scalar, electromagnetic, and gravitational waves may be generated from old ones. In one example described here, the high-frequency scattering of a plane wave by a point mass is computed by transforming a plane wave in flat spacetime.

Fakeons, unitarity, massive gravitons, and the cosmological constant

We give a simple proof of perturbative unitarity in gauge theories and quantum gravity using a special gauge that allows us to separate the physical poles of the free propagators, which are quantized by means of the Feynman prescription, from the poles that belong to the gauge-trivial sector, which are quantized by means of the fakeon prescription. The proof applies to renormalizable theories, including the ultraviolet complete theory of quantum gravity with fakeons formulated recently, as well as low-energy (nonrenormalizable) theories. We clarify a number of subtleties related to the study of scattering processes in the presence of a cosmological constant Λ. The scattering ampli- tudes, defined by expanding the metric around flat space, obey the optical theorem up to corrections due to Λ, which are negligible for all practical purposes. Problems of interpretation would arise if such corrections became important. In passing, we obtain local, unitary (and “almost” renormalizable) theories of massive gravitons and gauge fields, which violate gauge invariance and general covariance explicitly.

The short-distance behavior of an Abelian Proca model based on a one-parameter extension of the covariant Heisenberg algebra

Recently, a one-parameter extension of the covariant Heisenberg algebra with the extension parameter [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] is a non-negative constant parameter which has a dimension of [Formula: see text] in a [Formula: see text]-dimensional globally flat spacetime has been presented which is a covariant generalization of the Kempf–Mangano algebra [see G. P. de Brito, P. I. C. Caneda, Y. M. P. Gomes, J. T. Guaitolini Junior and V. Nikoofard, Adv. High Energy Phys. 2017, 4768341 (2017) and A. Kempf and G. Mangano, Phys. Rev. D 55, 7909 (1997)]. The Abelian Proca model is reformulated from the viewpoint of the above one-parameter extension of the covariant Heisenberg algebra. It is shown that the free space solutions of the above modified Proca model describe two massive vector particles with different effective masses [Formula: see text] where [Formula: see text] is the characteristic length scale in our model. In addition, the Feynman propagator in momentum space for the modified Abelian Proca model is calculated analytically. Our numerical estimations show that the maximum value of [Formula: see text] in a four-dimensional spacetime is near the electroweak length scale, i.e. [Formula: see text]. We show that in the infrared/large-distance domain, the modified Proca model behaves like an Abelian massive Lee–Wick model which has been presented by Accioly and his co-workers in A. Accioly, J. Helayel-Neto, G. Correia, G. Brito, J. de Almeida and W. Herdy, Phys. Rev. D 93, 105042 (2016). The short-distance behavior of the modified Proca model is studied in the massless limit and the explicit forms of the inhomogeneous infinite derivative Maxwell equation and the infinite derivative Poisson equation are obtained. Finally, note that in the low-energy limit [Formula: see text], the results of this paper are compatible with the results of the usual Proca model.

The Riemann Curvature Tensor and Higgs Scalar Field within CAM Theory

The composition algebra based methodology (CAM) (Wolk in Pap Phys 9:090002, 2017, Phys Scr 94:025301, 2019, Adv Appl Clifford Algebras 27(4):3225, 2017, J Appl Math Phys 6:1537, 2018, Phys Scr 94:105301, 2019) has previously been shown to generate the pre-Higgs Standard Model Lagrangian. In this paper the symmetry of general covariance is incorporated into CAM. The Riemann curvature tensor thereby arises, from which gravity-field Lagrangians are constructed. A Higgs-like scalar field coupled to the spacetime metric tensor also manifests.

Neutrino oscillations in Unruh radiation

The study of the decay of an accelerated proton recently provided a “theoretical proof” of the Unruh effect. On the basis of general covariance of Quantum Field Theory, indeed, it was found that the decay rates in the inertial and comoving frames do coincide only when the thermal nature of the accelerated vacuum is taken into account. Such an analysis was then extended to the case with mixed neutrinos. In this paper, we show that, by further embedding neutrino oscillations in the above framework, the requirement of general covariance necessarily entails the use of flavor neutrinos as asymptotic states, as well as the occurrence of neutrino oscillations in the Unruh thermal bath.

The physical significance of geometrothermodynamic metrics

In geometrothermodynamics (GTD), to study the geometric properties of the equilibrium space, three thermodynamic metrics have been proposed so far. These metrics are obtained by using the condition of Legendre invariance and can be computed explicitly once a thermodynamic potential is specified as fundamental equation. We use the remaining diffeomorphism invariance in the phase and equilibrium spaces to show that the components of the GTD-metrics can be interpreted as the second moment of the fluctuation of a new thermodynamic potential. This result establishes a direct connection between GTD and fluctuation theory. In this way, the diffeomorphism invariance of GTD allows us to introduce new thermodynamic coordinates and new thermodynamic potentials, which are not related by means of Legendre transformations to the fundamental thermodynamic potentials.

A hidden constraint on the Hamiltonian formulation of relativistic worldlines

Gauge theories with general covariance are particularly reluctant to quantization. We discuss the example of the Hamiltonian formulation of the relativistic point particle that, despite its apparent simplicity, is of crucial importance since a number of point particle systems can be cast into this form on a higher dimensional Rindler background, as recently pointed out by Hojman. It is shown that this system can be equipped with a hidden local, symmetry generating, constraint which on the one hand does not bother the classical evolution and on the other hand simplifies the realization of the path integral quantization. Even though the positive impact of the hidden symmetry is more evident in the Lagrangian version of the theory, it is still present through the suggested Hamiltonian constraint.