Expectation Value Of Stress Tensor Research Articles

Thermal stress tensor correlators near lightcone and holography

We consider thermal stress-tensor two-point functions in holographic theories in the near-lightcone regime and analyse them using the operator product expansion (OPE). In the limit we consider only the leading-twist multi-stress tensors contribute and the correlators depend on a particular combination of lightcone momenta. We argue that such correlators are described by three universal functions, which can be holographically computed in Einstein gravity; higher-derivative terms in the gravitational Lagrangian enter the arguments of these functions via the cubic stress-tensor couplings and the thermal stress-tensor expectation value in the dual CFT. We compute the retarded correlators and observe that in addition to the perturbative OPE, which contributes to the real part, there is a non-perturbative contribution to the imaginary part.

The generalized first law for more general matter

In previous work, a first law of generalized entropy was derived from semiclassical gravitational dynamics around thermal setups using an assumed relation between the matter modular Hamiltonian and the gravitational stress tensor. Allowing for non-minimal coupling between curvature and any tensor matter fields, we show however, that the modular Hamiltonian of thermal states is given by the integrated bulk Noether current associated to time translation plus a spacetime boundary term. One generally cannot express this in terms of gravitational stress tensor components. Still, working with the correct expression for the modular Hamiltonian, we are able to recover a first law of generalized entropy, with added benefits over the previous result. Firstly, any Wald-Dong contributions to generalized entropy resulting from non-minimal coupling between matter and curvature are included. Secondly, in gravitational equations of motion, we allow for a non-vanishing stress tensor expectation value in the unperturbed background and state, and account for background field perturbations as part of its variation. Finally, the quantum matter is allowed to contribute nontrivially to asymptotic energy, e.g. as is necessary, even for a minimally coupled Maxwell field, to recover the expected thermodynamic first law of charged black holes.

A holographic description of negative energy states

Using the AdS/CFT duality, we study the expectation value of stress tensor in $2+1$-dimensional quantum critical theories with a general dynamical scaling $z$, and explore various constrains on negative energy density for strongly coupled field theories. The holographic dual theory is the theory of gravity in 3+1-dimensional Lifshitz backgrounds. We adopt a consistent approach to obtain the boundary stress tensor from bulk construction, which satisfies the trace Ward identity associated with Lifshitz scaling symmetry. In particular, the boundary stress tensor, constructed from the gravitational wave deformed Lifshitz geometry, is found up to second order in gravitational wave perturbations. {The result} is compared to its counterpart in free {scalar} field theory at the same order in an expansion of small squeezing parameters. This allows us to relate the boundary values of gravitational waves to the squeezing parameters of squeezed vacuum states. We find that, in both cases with $z=1$, the stress tensor satisfies the averaged null energy condition, and is consistent with the quantum interest conjecture. Moreover, the negative lower bound on null-contracted stress tensor, which is averaged over time-like trajectories along nearly null directions, is obtained. We find a weaker constraint on the magnitude and duration of negative null energy density in strongly coupled field theory as compared with the constraint in free relativistic field theory. The implications are discussed.

A quantum peek inside the black hole event horizon

We solve the Klein-Gordon equation for a scalar field, in the background geometry of a dust cloud collapsing to form a black hole, everywhere in the (1+1) spacetime: that is, both inside and outside the event horizon and arbitrarily close to the curvature singularity. This allows us to determine the regularized stress tensor expectation value, everywhere in the appropriate quantum state (viz., the Unruh vacuum) of the field. We use this to study the behaviour of energy density and the flux measured in local inertial frames for the radially freely falling observer at any given event. Outside the black hole, energy density and flux lead to the standard results expected from the Hawking radiation emanating from the black hole, as the collapse proceeds. Inside the collapsing dust ball, the energy densities of both matter and scalar field diverge near the singularity in both (1+1) and (1+3) spacetime dimensions; but the energy density of the field dominates over that of classical matter. In the (1+3) dimensions, the total energy (of both scalar field and classical matter) inside a small spatial volume around the singularity is finite (and goes to zero as the size of the region goes to zero) but the total energy of the quantum field still dominates over that of the classical matter. Inside the event horizon, but \textit{outside} the collapsing matter, freely falling observers find that the energy density and the flux diverge close to the singularity. In this region, even the integrated energy inside a small spatial volume enclosing the singularity diverges. This result holds in both (1+1) and (1+3) spacetime dimensions with a \emph{milder} divergence for the total energy inside a small region in (1+3) dimensions. These results suggest that the back-reaction effects are significant even in the region \emph{outside the matter but inside the event horizon}, close to the singularity.

Particle creation from the quantum stress tensor

Among the different methods to derive particle creation, finding the quantum stress tensor expectation value gives a covariant quantity which can be used for examining the backreaction issue. However this tensor also includes vacuum polarization in a way that depends on the vacuum chosen. Here we review different aspects of particle creation by looking at energy conservation and at the quantum stress tensor. We show that in the case of general spherically symmetric black holes that have a dynamical horizon, as occurs in a cosmological context, one cannot have pair creation on the horizon because this violates energy conservation. This confirms the results obtained in other ways in a previous paper [J. T. Firouzjaee and G. F. R. Ellis, Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 47, 6 (2015)]. Looking at the expectation value of the quantum stress tensor with three different definitions of the vacuum state, we study the nature of particle creation and vacuum polarization in black hole and cosmological models, and the associated stress-energy tensors. We show that the thermal temperature that is calculated from the particle flux given by the quantum stress tensor is compatible with the temperature determined by the affine null parameter approach. Finally, we show that in the spherically symmetric dynamic case, we can neglect the backscattering term and only consider the s-wave term near the future apparent horizon.

Gravitation from entanglement in holographic CFTs

Entanglement entropy obeys a 'first law', an exact quantum generalization of the ordinary first law of thermodynamics. In any CFT with a semiclassical holographic dual, this first law has an interpretation in the dual gravitational theory as a constraint on the spacetimes dual to CFT states. For small perturbations around the CFT vacuum state, we show that the set of such constraints for all ball-shaped spatial regions in the CFT is exactly equivalent to the requirement that the dual geometry satisfy the gravitational equations of motion, linearized about pure AdS. For theories with entanglement entropy computed by the Ryu-Takayanagi formula $S=A/(4G_N)$, we obtain the linearized Einstein equations. For theories in which the vacuum entanglement entropy for a ball is computed by more general Wald functionals, we obtain the linearized equations for the associated higher-curvature theories. Using the first law, we also derive the holographic dictionary for the stress tensor, given the holographic formula for entanglement entropy. This method provides a simple alternative to holographic renormalization for computing the stress tensor expectation value in arbitrary higher derivative gravitational theories.

Concept of temperature in multi-horizon spacetimes: analysis of Schwarzschild–De Sitter metric

In case of spacetimes with single horizon, there exist several well- established procedures for relating the surface gravity of the horizon to a thermodynamic temperature. Such procedures, however, cannot be extended in a straightforward manner when a spacetime has multiple horizons. In particular, it is not clear whether there exists a notion of global temperature characterizing the multi-horizon spacetimes. We examine the conditions under which a global temperature can exist for a spacetime with two horizons using the example of Schwarzschild–De Sitter (SDS) spacetime. We systematically extend different procedures (like the expectation value of stress tensor, response of particle detectors, periodicity in the Euclidean time etc.) for identifying a temperature in the case of spacetimes with single horizon to the SDS spacetime. This analysis is facilitated by using a global coordinate chart which covers the entire SDS manifold. We find that all the procedures lead to a consistent picture characterized by the following features: (a) In general, SDS spacetime behaves like a non-equilibrium system characterized by two temperatures. (b) It is not possible to associate a global temperature with SDS spacetime except when the ratio of the two surface gravities is rational. (c) Even when the ratio of the two surface gravities is rational, the thermal nature depends on the coordinate chart used. There exists a global coordinate chart in which there is global equilibrium temperature while there exist other charts in which SDS behaves as though it has two different temperatures. The coordinate dependence of the thermal nature is reminiscent of the flat spacetime in Minkowski and Rindler coordinate charts. The implications are discussed.

Short distance and initial state effects in inflation: Stress tensor and decoherence

We present a consistent low energy effective field theory framework for parameterizing the effects of novel short distance physics in inflation, and their possible observational signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background. We consider the class of general homogeneous, isotropic initial states for quantum scalar fields in Robertson-Walker (RW) spacetimes, subject to the requirement that their ultraviolet behavior be consistent with renormalizability of the covariantly conserved stress tensor which couples to gravity. In the functional Schr\"odinger picture such states are coherent, squeezed, mixed states characterized by a Gaussian density matrix. This Gaussian has parameters which approach those of the adiabatic vacuum at large wave number, and evolve in time according to an effective classical Hamiltonian. The one complex parameter family of $\alpha$ squeezed states in de Sitter spacetime does not fall into this UV allowed class, except for the special value of the parameter corresponding to the Bunch-Davies state. We determine the finite contributions to the inflationary power spectrum and stress tensor expectation value of general UV allowed adiabatic states, and obtain quantitative limits on the observability and backreaction effects of some recently proposed models of short distance modifications of the initial state of inflation. For all UV allowed states, the second order adiabatic basis provides a good description of particles created in the expanding RW universe. Due to the absence of particle creation for the massless, minimally coupled scalar field in de Sitter space, there is no phase decoherence in the simplest free field inflationary models. We apply adiabatic regularization to the renormalization of the decoherence functional in cosmology to corroborate this result.

Nonthermal nature of incipient extremal black holes

We examine particle production from spherical bodies collapsing into extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes. Kruskal coordinates become ill-defined in the extremal case, but we are able to find a simple generalization of them that is good in this limit. The extension allows us to calculate the late-time worldline of the center of the collapsing star, thus establishing a correspondence with a uniformly accelerated mirror in Minkowski spacetime. The spectrum of created particles associated with such uniform acceleration is nonthermal, indicating that a temperature is not defined. Moreover, the spectrum contains a constant that depends on the history of the collapsing object. At first sight this points to a violation of the no-hair theorems; however, the expectation value of the stress-energy-momentum tensor is zero and its variance vanishes as a power law at late times. Hence, both the no-hair theorems and the cosmic censorship conjecture are preserved. The power-law decay of the variance is in distinction to the exponential fall-off of a nonextremal black hole. Therefore, although the vanishing of the stress tensor's expectation value is consistent with a thermal state at zero temperature, the incipient black hole does not behave as a thermal object at any time and cannot be regarded as the thermodynamic limit of a nonextremal black hole, regardless of the fact that the final product of collapse is quiescent.

Stress Tensor in De Sitter Space

The Hadamard regularization calculation is carried out to obtain the renormalized stress tensor of scalar fields with respect to the de Sitter invariant vacuum. We discuss how the condition of de Sitter invariance fixes the form of the Hadamard series expansion of the Hadamard elementary function. We obtain the value of the mass scale appearing in the logarithmic term in the Hadamard series expansion. We also compare the renormalized stress tensor of conformally invariant field in the de Sitter invariant and conformal vacua. For the purpose of investigating the role of quantized fields in cosmology, quantum field theory in de Sitter space is an interesting problem because the high symmetry of de Sitter space enables us to obtain the simple exact solution of the field equation. It is also expected to give fruitful information on the inflationary model of the early universe. It is one of the most important subjects to obtain the renormal­ ized expectation value of stress tensor of quantized fields with respect to certain vacuum states,. because the particle concept is very obscure in curved space and the renormalized stress tensor acts as the source term in the Einstein equation by con­ sidering the semi-classical back-reaction of quantized fields on the background geome­ try. The problem of how to select a physically meaningful vacuum state, however, remains unsolved. Vacuum states are sometimes characterized by symmetric prop­ erties or coordinatization of the background manifold. The most symmetric vacuum in de Sitter space is the de Sitter invariant one, which was first described by Chernikov and Tagirov 1 ) and have been studied by Schomblond, Spindel,2) Mottola 3 ) and Allen. 4 ) Several authors have evaluated the renormalized stress tensor with respect to the de Sitter invariant vacuum. Bunch and Davies investigated the behaviour of quantized scalar field and evaluated the renormalized stress tensor in de Sitter space with point-splitting regularization. 5 ) Their regularization method was formulated in the Friedmann universe not in the general curved spacetime. 6 ) Thus the subtracted divergent terms can be ambiguous. Dowker and Critchley evaluated the renormal­ ized stress tensor with the zeta function regularization,7) and Birrell and Davies did with the dimensional regularization. 8 ) Since they evaluated only the trace of the stress tensor with the effective Lagrangian, they could not obtain the state-dependent contribution. Allen, Bernard and Folacci applied their Hadamard regularization scheme to the de Sitter invariant vacuum. 9 ),IO) They used the Lagrangian with an additional term to give the limiting value in the flat space limit. There have been many works on this problem, but a few works with straightforward calculation. And the results for massive scalar fields are obscure. It is also still not clear how the

Instability of de Sitter space on short time scales.

We consider the Einstein gravitational field equations coupled to the expectation value of the stress tensor in a real scalar field theory with arbitrary mass and coupling to curvature. We consider small oscillations of the metric and linearize the response of the quantum wave functional and the stress-tensor expectation value. In a small-time approximation we find unstable oscillations for a minimally coupled field and stable oscillations in the case of conformal coupling.

Adiabatic regularisation for scalar fields with arbitrary coupling to the scalar curvature

Adiabatic regularisation is applied to a scalar field propagating in a Robertson-Walker universe with arbitrary coupling to the scalar curvature. Explicit expressions for the expectation value of the quantum stress tensor in an adiabatic vacuum are obtained. This calculation yields the terms which are to be subtracted from the divergent mode-sum expressions for expectation values of the stress tensor to give a finite, renormalised stress tensor. It is shown that the removal of the infinite terms in this subtraction procedure corresponds to the renormalisation of coupling constants in Einstein's equation. A short description is given of the way in which adiabatic regularisation produces a trace anomaly.

Covariant point-splitting regularization for a scalar quantum field in a Robertson-Walker universe with spatial curvature

We evaluate the vacuum stress tensor for a massless scalar quantum field in a general Robertson-Walker background spacetime, and that for a massive field in the special case of the Einstein universe, using covariant point-splitting regularization. A comparison is made with previous partial results of Ford, and Dowker & Critchley. It is shown that the stress tensor expectation value is a local, geometrical object in the massless case, and its explicit form is fixed by using the known value of the conformal anomaly. The existence of a type of vacuum entropy and temperature is demonstrated for the static models with space curvature.