Wightman Functions Research Articles

Hyperbolic vacua in Minkowski space

Families of Lorentz, but not Poincare, invariant vacua are constructed for a massless scalar field in 4D Minkowski space. These are generalizations of the Rindler vacuum with a larger symmetry group. Explicit expressions are given as squeezed excitations of the Poincare vacuum. The effective reduced vacua on the 3D hyperbolic de Sitter slices are the well-known de Sitter α-vacua with antipodal singularities in the Wightman function. Several special interesting cases are discussed.

Induced current by a cosmic string and a brane in high-dimensional AdS spacetime

In this paper we investigate the bosonic current induced by a brane and a magnetic flux running along the idealized cosmic string in a (D+1)\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$(D+1)$$\\end{document}-dimensional anti-de Sitter (AdS) background. We consider the brane is parallel to the AdS boundary and the cosmic string is orthogonal to them. Moreover, we assume that on the brane the charged bosonic field obeys the Robin boundary condition. The brane divides the space into two regions with different properties of the vacuum state. We show that the only nonzero component of the current density is along the azimuthal direction in both regions. In order to develop this analysis we calculate, for both regions, the positive frequency Wightman functions. Both functions present a part associated with the AdS in presence of a cosmic string only, and the other part induced by the brane. In this paper we consider only the contributions induced by the brane. We show that in both regions the azimuthal current densities are odd functions of the magnetic flux along the string. Different analytic and numerical analysis are performed and an application of our results is provided for the Randall-Sundrum braneworld model with a single brane.

A smooth horizon without a smooth horizon

Recent observations on type III algebras in AdS/CFT raise the possibility that smoothness of the black hole horizon is an emergent feature of the large-N limit. In this paper, we present a bulk model for the finite-N mechanism underlying this transition. We quantize a free scalar field on a BTZ black hole with a Planckian stretched horizon placed as a Dirichlet boundary for the field. This is a tractable model for the stretched horizon that does not ignore the angular directions, and it defines a black hole vacuum which has similarities to (but is distinct from) the Boulware state. Using analytic approximations for the normal modes, we first improve upon ’t Hooft’s brick wall calculation: we are able to match both the entropy and the temperature, exactly. Emboldened by this, we compute the boundary Wightman function of the scalar field in a typical pure state built on our stretched horizon vacuum, at an energy sliver at the mass of the black hole. A key result is that despite the manifest lack of smoothness, this single-sided pure state calculation yields precisely the Hartle-Hawking thermal correlator associated to the smooth horizon, in the small-GN limit. At finite GN, there are variance corrections that are suppressed as Oe−SBH/2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{O}\\left({e}^{-{S}_{BH}/2}\\right) $$\\end{document}. They become important at late times and resolve Maldacena’s information paradox. Highly excited typical pure states on the stretched horizon vacuum are therefore models for black hole microstates, while the smooth horizon describes the thermal state. We note that heavy excited states on the stretched horizon are better defined than the vacuum itself. These results suggest that complementarity in the bulk EFT could arise from a UV complete bulk description in which the black hole interior is not manifest.

Vacuum Effects Induced by a Plate in de Sitter Spacetime in the Presence of a Cosmic String

In this paper, we investigate the vacuum expectation values of the field squared and the energy–momentum tensor associated to a charged massive scalar quantum field in a (1+D)-dimensional de Sitter spacetime induced by a plate (flat boundary) and a carrying-magnetic-flux cosmic string. In our analysis, we admit that the flat boundary is perpendicular to the string, and the scalar field obeys the Robin boundary condition on the plate. In order to develop this analysis, we obtain the complete set of normalized positive-energy solutions of the Klein–Gordon equation compatible with the model setup. Having obtained these bosonic modes, we construct the corresponding Wightman function. The latter is given by the sum of two terms: one associated with the boundary-free spacetime, and the other induced by the flat boundary. Although we have imposed the Robin boundary condition on the field, we apply our formalism considering specifically the Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. The corresponding parts have opposite signs. Because the analysis of bosonic vacuum polarization in boundary-free de Sitter space and in the presence of a cosmic string, in some sense, has been developed in the literature, here we are mainly interested in the calculations of the effects induced by the boundary. In this way, closed expressions for the corresponding expectation values are provided, as well as their asymptotic behavior in different limiting regions. We show that the conical topology due to the cosmic string enhances the boundary-induced vacuum polarization effects for both field squared and the energy–momentum tensor, compared to the case of a boundary in pure de Sitter spacetime. Moreover, the presence of a cosmic string and boundary induces non-zero stress along the direction normal to the boundary. The corresponding vacuum force acting on the boundary is also investigated.

Wightman function and stochastic gravity noise kernel in impulsive plane wave spacetimes

Wightman function and stochastic gravity noise kernel in impulsive plane wave spacetimes

Spinors in (Anti-)de Sitter Space

We explore analytical aspects of correlators involving Dirac spinors in d + 1-dimensional de Sitter space. Adapting the formalism of Sleight and Taronna, we show how to relate processes involving fermions in the in-in formalism to equivalent Witten diagrams in (complexified) Euclidean anti-de Sitter space. We exemplify the method for a fermion-exchange diagram. We establish a positive spectral decomposition over the principal series of the Wightman function of two spinors, showing the consequences of unitarity.

An integer basis for celestial amplitudes

We present a discrete basis of solutions of the massless Klein-Gordon equation in 3 + 1 Minkowski space which transform as \U0001d530\U0001d529(2, ℂ) Lorentz/conformal primaries and descendants, and whose elements all have integer conformal dimension. We show that the basis is complete in the sense that the Wightman function can be expressed as a quadratic sum over the basis elements.

Vacuum polarization induced by a cosmic string and a brane in AdS spacetime

In this paper we investigate the vacuum polarization effects associated to a charged quantum massive scalar field on a (D+1)-dimensional anti-de Sitter background induced by a magnetic-flux-carrying cosmic string in the braneworld model context. We consider the brane parallel to the anti-de Sitter boundary and the cosmic string orthogonal to them. Moreover, we assume that the field obeys the Robin boundary condition on the brane. Because the brane divides the space into two regions with different properties of the quantum vacuum, we calculate the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the field squared and the energy–momentum tensor (EMT) in each region. To develop these analyses, we have constructed the positive frequency Wightman function for both regions. The latter is decomposed in a part associated with the anti-de Sitter bulk in the presence of a cosmic string only, and the other part induced by the brane. The vacuum polarization effects associated with the higher-dimensional anti-de Sitter bulk in the presence of cosmic string have been developed in the literature, and here we are mainly interested in the effects induced by the brane. We show that the VEVs of the field squared and the components of the EMT induced by the cosmic string are finite on the brane. Explicitly, we compare these observables with the corresponding ones induced by the brane only, and show that near the brane the contribution induced by the latter is larger than the one induced by the string; however, for points distant from the brane the situation is reversed. Moreover, some asymptotic expressions for the VEV of the field squared and EMT are provided for specific limiting cases of the physical parameters of the model. Also, an application of our results is given for a cosmic string in the Z_2-symmetric Randall–Sundrum braneworld model with a single brane.

Particle-Hole Transformation in the Continuum and Determinantal Point Processes

Let X be an underlying space with a reference measure sigma . Let K be an integral operator in L^2(X,sigma ) with integral kernel K(x, y). A point process mu on X is called determinantal with the correlation operator K if the correlation functions of mu are given by k^{(n)}(x_1,dots ,x_n)={text {det}}[K(x_i,x_j)]_{i,j=1,dots ,n}. It is known that each determinantal point process with a self-adjoint correlation operator K is the joint spectral measure of the particle density rho (x)=mathcal A^+(x)mathcal A^-(x) (xin X), where the operator-valued distributions mathcal A^+(x), mathcal A^-(x) come from a gauge-invariant quasi-free representation of the canonical anticommutation relations (CAR). If the space X is discrete and divided into two disjoint parts, X_1 and X_2, by exchanging particles and holes on the X_2 part of the space, one obtains from a determinantal point process with a self-adjoint correlation operator K the determinantal point process with the J-self-adjoint correlation operator widehat{K}=KP_1+(1-K)P_2. Here P_i is the orthogonal projection of L^2(X,sigma ) onto L^2(X_i,sigma ). In the case where the space X is continuous, the exchange of particles and holes makes no sense. Instead, we apply a Bogoliubov transformation to a gauge-invariant quasi-free representation of the CAR. This transformation acts identically on the X_1 part of the space and exchanges the creation operators mathcal A^+(x) and the annihilation operators mathcal A^-(x) for xin X_2. This leads to a quasi-free representation of the CAR, which is not anymore gauge-invariant. We prove that the joint spectral measure of the corresponding particle density is the determinantal point process with the correlation operator widehat{K}.

Conformal bootstrap in momentum space at finite volume

In this paper, we Fourier transform the Wightman function concerning energy and angular momentum on the SD−1 spatial slice in radial quantization in D = 2, 3 dimensions. In each case, we use the conformal Ward Identities to solve systematically for the Fourier components. We then use these Fourier components to build conformal blocks for the four-point function in momentum space, giving a finite-volume version of the momentum-space conformal blocks. We check that this construction is consistent with the known result in infinite volume. Our construction may help to find bootstrap equations that can give nontrivial constraints that do not appear in analysis in infinite volume. We show some examples of bootstrap equations and their nontriviality.

Quantum Brownian motion induced by an inhomogeneous tridimensional space and a S1× R3 topological space-time

In this paper we investigate the Quantum Brownian motion of a point particle induced by quantum vacuum fluctuations of a massless scalar field in (3 + 1)-dimensional Minkowski spacetime with distinct conditions (Dirichlet, Neumann, mixed and quasiperiodic). The modes of the field are confined and compactified to a finite length region, which consequently provides a natural measure scale for the system. Useful expressions for the Wightman function have been obtained, which allow us to calculate analytical expressions for the velocity dispersion in all condition cases considered. We also obtain expressions for the velocity dispersion in the short and late time regimes. Finally, we exhibit some graphs in order to show the behavior of the velocity dispersions, discussing important divergencies that are present in our results.

A gravitationally induced decoherence model using Ashtekar variables

We consider the coupling of a scalar field to linearised gravity and derive a relativistic gravitationally induced decoherence model using Ashtekar variables. The model is formulated at the gauge invariant level using suitable geometrical clocks in the relational formalism, broadening existing gauge invariant formulations of decoherence models. For the construction of the Dirac observables we extend the known observable map by a kind of dual map where the role of clocks and constraints is interchanged. We also discuss a second choice of geometrical clocks existing in the ADM literature. Then we apply a reduced phase space quantisation on Fock space and derive the final master equation choosing a Gibbs state for the gravitational environment and using the projection operator technique. The resulting master equation is not automatically of Lindblad type, a starting point sometimes assumed for phenomenological models, but still involves a residual time dependence at the level of the effective operators in the master equation due to the form of the correlation functions that we express in terms of thermal Wightman functions. Furthermore, we discuss why in the model analysed here the application of a second Markov approximation in order to obtain a set of time independent effective system operators is less straightforward than in some of the quantum mechanical models.

Mutual information harvested by uniformly accelerated particle detectors

We investigate the mutual information harvesting protocol for two uniformly accelerated particle detectors. We numerically show that, while a single detector responds as if it is immersed in a thermal bath, the quantum mutual information between two accelerating detectors behaves differently than that of two inertial detectors in a thermal bath. This is due to the fact that while the Wightman function along the trajectory of a single uniformly accelerating detector is the same as that of a detector in a thermal bath, a pair of detectors in the same respective cases will have different Wightman functions.

Decoherence and thermalization of Unruh-DeWitt detector in arbitrary dimensions

We study the decoherence and thermalization of an Unruh-DeWitt detector linearly coupled to the free massless scalar field in flat spacetime with arbitrary dimensions d ≥ 2. The initial state of the detector is chosen to be a pure state consisting of a linear superposition of ground and excited states, and we calculate the time evolution of reduced density matrix of the detector. Using perturbation method, we analytically derive the transition rate of the detector (the rate of change of the diagonal elements in the density matrix) and the decoherence rate (the rate of change of the off-diagonal elements in the density matrix). We find that the results are not the same in odd and even dimensional spacetimes, but the unitarity of the qubit is preserved in both cases. The real part of the decoherence rate is related to the transition rate, while the imaginary part may contain different forms of divergence terms in different dimensions due to the temporal order product operator and the singularities of the Wightman function for quantum field theory. We derive the recurrence formula to obtain the divergence terms in each dimension and analyze the renormalization problem.

Automorphic scalar fields in two-dimensional de Sitter space

We study non-interacting automorphic quantum scalar fields with positive mass in two-dimensional de Sitter space. We find that there are no Hadamard states which are de Sitter invariant except in the periodic case, extending the result of Epstein and Moschella for the anti-periodic case. We construct the two-point Wightman functions for the non-Hadamard de Sitter-invariant states by exploiting the fact that they are functions of the geodesic distance between the two points satisfying an ordinary differential equation. We then examine a certain Hadamard state, which is not de Sitter invariant, and show that it is approximately a thermal state with the Gibbons–Hawking temperature when restricted to a static region of the spacetime.

Unruh-Fulling effect in nonlocal field theory: The role of Unruh decomposition

We investigate the Unruh-Fulling effect in a class of nonlocal field theories by examining both the number operator and Unruh-DeWitt detector methods. Unlike in previous literature, we use Unruh quantization to quantize the matter field. Such choice, as oppose to standard Minkowski decomposition, naturally incorporates the time translational invariance in the positive frequency Wightman function and thus captures the thermal equilibrium of the system. We analyze the Unruh-Fulling effect for a massless real scalar field in both the Lorentz noninvariant and Lorentz invariant nonlocal theories. In Lorentz noninvariant nonlocal theory, the expectation value of number operator and the response function of the detector are modified by an overall multiplicative factor. Whereas in Lorentz invariant nonlocal theory these quantities remain identical to those of the standard Unruh-Fulling effect. The temperature of the thermal bath remains unaltered for both the Lorentz noninvariant and Lorentz invariant nonlocal theories. Therefore, in terms of temperature, the nonlocal Unruh-Fulling effect is universal while it is derived via Unruh quantization, whereas the transition rate may be modified.

Vacuum densities and the Casimir forces for branes orthogonal to the AdS boundary

For a massive scalar field with general curvature coupling we evaluate the Wightman function in the geometry of two parallel branes perpendicular to the AdS boundary. On the separate branes, the field operator is constrained by Robin boundary conditions, in general, with different coefficients. In the region between the branes their contribution to the Wightman function is explicitly separated. By using this decomposition, the brane-induced effects on the vacuum expectation values (VEVs) for the field squared and energy-momentum tensor are investigated. The behavior of those expectation values is studied in various asymptotic regions of the parameters. The vacuum energy-momentum tensor in addition to the diagonal components has a nonzero off-diagonal stress. Depending on the boundary conditions and also on the distance from the branes, the vacuum energy density can be either positive or negative. The Casimir forces acting on the branes have two components. The first one corresponds to the standard normal force and the second one is parallel to the branes and presents the vacuum shear force. Unlike to the problem of parallel plates in the Minkowski bulk, the normal Casimir forces acting on separate branes differ if the boundary conditions on the branes are different. They can be either repulsive or attractive. In a similar way, depending on the coefficients in the boundary conditions, the shear force is directed toward or from the AdS boundary. The separate components may also change their signs as functions of the interbrane separation. At large proper separations between the branes, compared to the AdS curvature radius, both the components of the Casimir forces exhibit a power-law decay. For a massive scalar field this behavior is in contrast to that for the Minkowski bulk, where the decrease is exponential.

Notes on peculiarities of quantum fields in space–times with horizons

We consider a massive scalar field theory on static four-dimensional space–times with horizons. We study the near horizon behavior of the quantum expectation values of the stress–energy tensor (SET) operator for the thermal states with arbitrary temperatures. It turns out that the dependence of the expectation values on the temperature and tensor structure of the SET are different from the usual ones in the Minkowski space–time. Moreover, for non-canonical temperatures these expectation values are divergent on the horizons. We also show that the Wightman functions have additional infrared peculiarities near the horizons.

Unequal time commutators in Friedmann universes: deterministic evolution of massless fields

We analyze minimally coupled massless scalar field in a Friedmann (FRW) universe in conformal co-ordinates to model the evolution of tensor perturbations and study the structure of the Wightman function therein. Using a duality map from a power law FRW universe to the de Sitter universe for such fields we obtain unequal time commutation relations between quantum field variables. We demonstrate that the commutation relations are invariant under state change and/or vacuum state selection. Using such commutators it is then possible to construct out of time ordered commutators (OTOC) in the FRW universes. The OTOCs are supposed to suggest the onset of chaotic behavior during the quantum evolution, we see that in case of Friedmann universes, unlike the scalar perturbations, the causal structure arrests the growth of quantum tensor perturbations for all the relevant epochs of the universe e.g. the de Sitter phase, the radiation dominated and the matter dominated era. Therefore the semi classical results of having a large backreaction and omnipresent noise in certain branches of the Friedmann universes with massless fields such as the tensor perturbations remain robust and stable.

Tensors and spinors in de Sitter space

We construct the Wightman function for symmetric traceless tensors and Dirac fermions in dSd+1 in a coordinate and index free formalism using a d + 2 dimensional ambient space. We expand the embedding space formalism to cover spinor and tensor fields in any even or odd dimension. Our goal is to furnish a self-contained toolkit for the study of fields of arbitrary spin in de Sitter, with applications to cosmological perturbation theory. The construction for spinors is shown in extensive detail. Concise expressions for the action of isometry generators on generic bulk fields, the 2-point function of bulk spinors, and a derivation of the uplift of the spinorial covariant derivative are included.