Λ and the Heisenberg Principle

A time dependent “cosmological constant” Λ(t) is conjectured, in terms of the Gaussian curvature of the causal horizon. It is nonvanishing even in Minkowski space because of the lack of informations beyond the light cone. Using the Heisenberg Principle, the corresponding energy of the quantum fluctuations localized on the past or future null horizons is proportional to Λ^1/2. We compute Λ(t) for the (Lorenzian version) of the (conformally flat) Hawking wormhole geometry (written in static spherical Rindler coordinates) and for the de Sitter spacetime. A possible explanation of the Hawking temperature is proposed, in terms of a constant Λ.     

Time Functions as Utilities

Every time function on spacetime gives a (continuous) total preordering of the spacetime events which respects the notion of causal precedence. The problem of the existence of a (semi-)time function on spacetime and the problem of recovering the causal structure starting from the set of time functions are studied. It is pointed out that these problems have an analog in the field of microeconomics known as utility theory. In a chronological spacetime the semi-time functions correspond to the utilities for the chronological relation, while in a K-causal (stably causal) spacetime the time functions correspond to the utilities for the K ⁺ relation (Seifert’s relation). By exploiting this analogy, we are able to import some mathematical results, most notably Peleg’s and Levin’s theorems, to the spacetime framework. As a consequence, we prove that a K-causal (i.e. stably causal) spacetime admits a time function and that the time or temporal functions can be used to recover the K ⁺ (or Seifert) relation which indeed turns out to be the intersection of the time or temporal orderings. This result tells us in which circumstances it is possible to recover the chronological or causal relation starting from the set of time or temporal functions allowed by the spacetime. Moreover, it is proved that a chronological spacetime in which the closure of the causal relation is transitive (for instance a reflective spacetime) admits a semi-time function. Along the way a new proof avoiding smoothing techniques is given that the existence of a time function implies stable causality, and a new short proof of the equivalence between K-causality and stable causality is given which takes advantage of Levin’s theorem and smoothing techniques.     

Higher-dimensional perfect fluids and empty singular boundaries

In order to find out whether empty singular boundaries can arise in higher dimensional Gravity, we study the solution of Einstein’s equations consisting in a (N + 2)-dimensional static and hyperplane symmetric perfect fluid satisfying the equation of state ρ = ηp, being η an arbitrary constant and N ≥ 2. We show that this spacetime has some weird properties. In particular, in the case η > −1, it has an empty (without matter) repulsive singular boundary. We also study the behavior of geodesics and the Cauchy problem for the propagation of massless scalar field in this spacetime. For η > 1, we find that only vertical null geodesics touch the boundary and bounce, and all of them start and finish at z = ∞; whereas non-vertical null as well as all time-like ones are bounded between two planes determined by initial conditions. We obtain that the Cauchy problem for the propagation of a massless scalar field is well-posed and waves are completely reflected at the singularity, if we only demand the waves to have finite energy, although no boundary condition is required.     

Radiation Fields on Schwarzschild Spacetime

In this paper we define the radiation field for the wave equation on the Schwarzschild black hole spacetime. In this context it has two components: the rescaled restriction of the time derivative of a solution to null infinity and to the event horizon. In the process, we establish some regularity properties of solutions of the wave equation on the spacetime. In particular, we prove that the regularity of the solution across the event horizon and across null infinity is determined by the regularity and decay rate of the initial data at the event horizon and at infinity. We also show that the radiation field is unitary with respect to the conserved energy and prove support theorems for each piece of the radiation field.     

Circular orbits in extremal Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime

Circular null geodesic orbits, in extremal Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime, are examined with regard to their stability, and compared with similar orbits in the near-extremal situation. Extremization of the effective potential for null circular orbits shows the existence of a stable circular geodesic in the extremal spacetime, precisely on the event horizon which coincides with the null geodesic generator. Such a null orbit on the horizon is also indicated by the global minimum of the effective potential for circular timelike orbits. This type of geodesic is of course absent in the corresponding near-extremal spacetime, as we show here, testifying to differences between the extremal limit of a generic RN spacetime and the exactly extremal geometry.     

A Higher Dimensional Stationary Rotating Black Hole Must be Axisymmetric

A key result in the proof of black hole uniqueness in 4-dimensions is that a stationary black hole that is “rotating”—i.e., is such that the stationary Killing field is not everywhere normal to the horizon—must be axisymmetric. The proof of this result in 4-dimensions relies on the fact that the orbits of the stationary Killing field on the horizon have the property that they must return to the same null geodesic generator of the horizon after a certain period, P. This latter property follows, in turn, from the fact that the cross-sections of the horizon are two-dimensional spheres. However, in spacetimes of dimension greater than 4, it is no longer true that the orbits of the stationary Killing field on the horizon must return to the same null geodesic generator. In this paper, we prove that, nevertheless, a higher dimensional stationary black hole that is rotating must be axisymmetric. No assumptions are made concerning the topology of the horizon cross-sections other than that they are compact. However, we assume that the horizon is non-degenerate and, as in the 4-dimensional proof, that the spacetime is analytic.     

On the Massive Wave Equation on Slowly Rotating Kerr-AdS Spacetimes

The massive wave equation ${\square_{g}\psi - \alpha \frac{\Lambda}{3}\psi = 0}The massive wave equation \square_gy- a\fracL3y = 0{\square_{g}\psi - \alpha \frac{\Lambda}{3}\psi = 0} is studied on a fixed Kerr-anti de Sitter background (M,g_M,a,L){\left(\mathcal{M},g_{M,a,\Lambda}\right)}. We first prove that in the Schwarzschild case (a = 0), ψ remains uniformly bounded on the black hole exterior provided that a < \frac94{\alpha < \frac{9}{4}}, i.e. the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound holds. Our proof is based on vectorfield multipliers and commutators: The total flux of the usual energy current arising from the timelike Killing vector field T (which fails to be non-negative pointwise) is shown to be non-negative with the help of a Hardy inequality after integration over a spacelike slice. In addition to T, we construct a vectorfield whose energy identity captures the redshift producing good estimates close to the horizon. The argument is finally generalized to slowly rotating Kerr-AdS backgrounds. This is achieved by replacing the Killing vectorfield T = ∂ _t with K=?_t + l?_f{K=\partial_t + \lambda \partial_\phi} for an appropriate λ ~ a, which is also Killing and–in contrast to the asymptotically flat case–everywhere causal on the black hole exterior. The separability properties of the wave equation on Kerr-AdS are not used. As a consequence, the theorem also applies to spacetimes sufficiently close to the Kerr-AdS spacetime, as long as they admit a causal Killing field K which is null on the horizon.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis>-Causality Coincides with Stable Causality

It is proven that K-causality coincides with stable causality, and that in a K-causal spacetime the relation K ⁺ coincides with the Seifert’s relation. As a consequence the causal relation “the spacetime is strongly causal and the closure of the causal relation is transitive” stays between stable causality and causal continuity.     

D-branes from classical macroscopic strings

This paper is a sequel to the series of papers dedicated to model independent analysis of brane-like extended objects in curved backgrounds. In particular, we study cylindrical membranes wrapped around the extra compact dimension of a (D + 1)-dimensional Riemann–Cartan spacetime. The world-sheet equations are obtained from the universally valid conservation equations of the membrane stress–energy and spin tensors. In the limit of small extra dimension, the dimensionally reduced theory is obtained. The narrow membrane becomes an effective string characterized not only by tension and spin, but also by electric and dilaton charges. The boundary of such an effective string has been shown to live in less spacetime dimensions than its interior. Precisely, the string endpoints are trapped by the surfaces orthogonal to the gradient of the effective dilaton field. The string dynamics has been shown to follow from an action functional subject to the Dirichlet boundary conditions. This way, we have succeeded in obtaining a macroscopic D-brane analogue.     

Black-Hole Entropy as Causal Links

We model a black hole spacetime as a causal set and count, with a certain definition, the number of causal links crossing the horizon in proximity to a spacelike or null hypersurface . We find that this number is proportional to the horizon's area on , thus supporting the interpretation of the links as the horizon atoms that account for its entropy. The cases studied include not only equilibrium black holes but ones far from equilibrium.     

Statistical-Mechanical Entropy of Garfinkle-Horowitz-Strominger Black Hole

Taking WKB approximation to solve the scalar field equation in the Garfinkle-Horowitz-Strominger (GHS) black hole spacetime, we can get the classical momenta. Substituting the classical momenta into state density equation corrected by the generalized uncertainty principle, we will obtain the number of quantum states with energy less than ω. It is convergent in the neighborhood of the horizon. Then, it is used to calculate the statistical-mechanical entropy of the scalar field in the GHS black hole spacetime. The calculation shows that the entropy is proportional to the horizon area.     

Cosmological black holes: A black hole in the Einstein-de Sitter universe

As an example of a dynamical cosmological black hole, a spacetime that describes an expanding black hole in the asymptotic background of the Einstein-de Sitter universe is constructed. The black hole is primordial in the sense that it forms ab initio with the big bang singularity and its expanding event horizon is represented by a conformal Killing horizon. The metric representing the black hole spacetime is obtained by applying a time dependent conformal transformation on the Schwarzschild metric, such that the result is an exact solution with a matter content described by a two-fluid source. Physical quantities such as the surface gravity and other effects like perihelion precession, light bending and circular orbits are studied in this spacetime and compared to their counterparts in the gravitational field of the isolated Schwarzschild black hole. No changes in the structure of null geodesics are recorded, but significant differences are obtained for timelike geodesics, particularly an increase in the perihelion precession and the non-existence of circular timelike orbits. The solution is expressed in the Newman-Penrose formalism.     

Correction to Entropy of Schwarzschild Black Hole by Modified Dispersion Relation

Taking WKB approximation to solve the scalar field equation in the Schwarzschild black hole spacetime, we can get the classical momenta. Substituting the classical momenta into state density equation corrected by the modified dispersion relation, we will obtain the number of quantum states with energy less than ω. Then, it is used to calculate the statistical-mechanical entropy of the scalar field in the Schwarzschild black hole spacetime. By taking exact method, we obtained the leader term of entropy which is proportional to the event horizon area and correction terms take the forms of ln A, A ⁻¹ln A, A ⁻¹ and so on.     

Symmetric hyperbolic systems for a large class of fields in arbitrary dimension

Symmetric hyperbolic systems of equations are explicitly constructed for a general class of tensor fields by considering their structure as r-fold forms. The hyperbolizations depend on 2r−1 arbitrary timelike vectors. The importance of the so-called “superenergy” tensors, which provide the necessary symmetric positive matrices, is emphasized and made explicit. Thereby, a unified treatment of many physical systems is achieved, as well as of the sometimes called “higher order” systems. The characteristics of these symmetric hyperbolic systems are always physical, and directly related to the null directions of the superenergy tensor, which are in particular principal null directions of the tensor field solutions. Generic energy estimates and inequalities are presented too. Examples are included, in particular a mixed gravitational-scalar field system at the level of the Bianchi equations.     

Quantum Out-States Holographically Induced by Asymptotic Flatness: Invariance under Spacetime Symmetries, Energy Positivity and Hadamard Property

This paper continues the analysis of the quantum states introduced in previous works and determined by the universal asymptotic structure of four-dimensional asymptotically flat vacuum spacetimes at null infinity M. It is now focused on the quantum state λ _M , of a massless conformally coupled scalar field propagating in M. λ _M is “holographically” induced in the bulk by the universal BMS-invariant state λ defined on the future null infinity of M. It is done by means of the correspondence between observables in the bulk and those on the boundary at future null infinity discussed in previous papers. This induction is possible when some requirements are fulfilled, in particular whenever the spacetime M and the associated unphysical one, M͂, are globally hyperbolic and M admits future time infinity i ⁺. λ _M coincides with Minkowski vacuum if M is Minkowski spacetime. It is now proved that, in the general case of a curved spacetime M, the state λ _M enjoys the following further remarkable properties:

Quantum Field Theory on Spacetimes with a Compactly Generated Cauchy Horizon

We prove two theorems which concern difficulties in the formulation of the quantum theory of a linear scalar field on a spacetime, , with a compactly generated Cauchy horizon. These theorems demonstrate the breakdown of the theory at certain base points of the Cauchy horizon, which are defined as ‘past terminal accumulation points’ of the horizon generators. Thus, the theorems may be interpreted as giving support to Hawking's ‘Chronology Protection Conjecture’, according to which the laws of physics prevent one from manufacturing a ’time machine‘. Specifically, we prove: Theorem 1. There is no extension to of the usual field algebra on the initial globally hyperbolic region which satisfies the condition of F-locality at any base point. In other words, any extension of the field algebra must, in any globally hyperbolic neighbourhood of any base point, differ from the algebra one would define on that neighbourhood according to the rules for globally hyperbolic spacetimes. Theorem 2. The two-point distribution for any Hadamard state defined on the initial globally hyperbolic region must (when extended to a distributional bisolution of the covariant Klein-Gordon equation on the full spacetime) be singular at every base point x in the sense that the difference between this two point distribution and a local Hadamard distribution cannot be given by a bounded function in any neighbourhood (in M × M) of (x,x). In consequence of Theorem 2, quantities such as the renormalized expectation value of φ² or of the stress-energy tensor are necessarily ill-defined or singular at any base point. The proof of these theorems relies on the ‘Propagation of Singularities’ theorems of Duistermaat and H?rmander. Received: 14 March 1996/Accepted: 11 June 1996     

Positivity of General Superenergy Tensors

Several of the most important results in general relativity require or assume positivity properties of certain tensors. The positive energy theorem and the singularity theorems make assumptions about the energy-momentum tensor and Ricci tensor respectively. Positivity of the Bel–Robinson tensor is needed in the proof of the global stability of Minkowski spacetime. Senovilla has recently presented a procedure of how to construct a superenergy tensor from any tensor. For a Maxwell field or a scalar field the procedure yields the usual energy-momentum tensor, for the Weyl tensor and the Riemann tensor one obtains the Bel–Robinson tensor and Bel tensor respectively. In general, by considering any tensor as an r-fold n ₁,…,n _r )-form, one constructs a rank 2r superenergy tensor from it. By using spinor methods, we prove that the contraction of any such superenergy tensor with 2r future-pointing vectors is non-negative. We refer to this as the dominant superenergy property and it generalizes several previous positivity results obtained for certain tensors as well as it provides a unified way of treating them. Some more examples are given and applications discussed. Received: 21 December 1998 / Accepted: 5 May 1999     

Cosmological Horizons and Reconstruction of Quantum Field Theories

As a starting point, we state some relevant geometrical properties enjoyed by the cosmological horizon of a certain class of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker backgrounds. Those properties are generalised to a larger class of expanding spacetimes M admitting a geodesically complete cosmological horizon common to all co-moving observers. This structure is later exploited in order to recast, in a cosmological background, some recent results for a linear scalar quantum field theory in spacetimes asymptotically flat at null infinity. Under suitable hypotheses on M, encompassing both the cosmological de Sitter background and a large class of other FRW spacetimes, the algebra of observables for a Klein-Gordon field is mapped into a subalgebra of the algebra of observables constructed on the cosmological horizon. There is exactly one pure quasifree state λ on which fulfills a suitable energy-positivity condition with respect to a generator related with the cosmological time displacements. Furthermore λ induces a preferred physically meaningful quantum state λ _M for the quantum theory in the bulk. If M admits a timelike Killing generator preserving , then the associated self-adjoint generator in the GNS representation of λ _M has positive spectrum (i.e., energy). Moreover λ _M turns out to be invariant under every symmetry of the bulk metric which preserves the cosmological horizon. In the case of an expanding de Sitter spacetime, λ _M coincides with the Euclidean (Bunch-Davies) vacuum state, hence being Hadamard in this case. Remarks on the validity of the Hadamard property for λ _M in more general spacetimes are presented. Dedicated to Professor Klaus Fredenhagen on the occasion of his 60th birthday.