Stability and instability of relativistic electrons in classical electromagnetic fields

The stability of matter composed of electrons and static nuclei is investigated for a relativistic dynamics for the electrons given by a suitably projected Dirac operator and with Coulomb interactions. In addition there is an arbitrary classical magnetic field of finite energy. Despite the previously known facts that ordinary nonrelativistic matter with magnetic fields, or relativistic matter without magnetic fields, is already unstable when a, the fine structure constant, is too large, it is noteworthy that the combination of the two is still stableprovided the projection onto the positive energy states of the Dirac operator, whichdefines the electron, is chosen properly. A good choice is to include the magnetic field in the definition. A bad choice, which always leads to instability, is the usual one in which the positive energy states are defined by the free Dirac operator. Both assertions are proved here. This paper is dedicated to Bernard Jancovici on the occasion of his 65th birthday.     

Noncommutative Circle Bundles and New Dirac Operators

We study spectral triples over noncommutative principal U(1) bundles. Basing on the classical situation and the abstract algebraic approach, we propose an operatorial definition for a connection and compatibility between the connection and the Dirac operator on the total space and on the base space of the bundle. We analyze in details the example of the noncommutative three-torus viewed as a U(1) bundle over the noncommutative two-torus and find all connections compatible with an admissible Dirac operator. Conversely, we find a family of new Dirac operators on the noncommutative tori, which arise from the base-space Dirac operator and a suitable connection.     

The Spectral Action Principle

We propose a new action principle to be associated with a noncommutative space . The universal formula for the spectral action is where is a spinor on the Hilbert space, is a scale and a positive function. When this principle is applied to the noncommutative space defined by the spectrum of the standard model one obtains the standard model action coupled to Einstein plus Weyl gravity. There are relations between the gauge coupling constants identical to those of SU(5) as well as the Higgs self-coupling, to be taken at a fixed high energy scale. Received: 1 October 1996 / Accepted: 15 November 1996     

Asymptotic safety in Einstein gravity and scalar-fermion matter

Within the functional renormalization group approach we study the effective quantum field theory of Einstein gravity and one self-interacting scalar coupled to N(f) Dirac fermions. We include in our analysis the matter anomalous dimensions induced by all the interactions and analyze the highly nonlinear beta functions determining the renormalization flow. We find the existence of a nontrivial fixed point structure both for the gravity and the matter sector, besides the usual Gaussian matter one. This suggests that asymptotic safety could be realized in the gravitational sector and in the standard model. Nontriviality in the Higgs sector might involve gravitational interactions.     

Noncommutative closed Friedman universe

Heller et al. (J Math Phys 46:122501, 2005; Int J Theor Phys 46:2494, 2007) proposed a model unifying general relativity and quantum mechanics based on a noncommutative algebra defined on a groupoid having the frame bundle over space–time as its base space. The generalized Einstein equation is assumed in the form of the eigenvalue equation of the Einstein operator on a module of derivations of the algebra . No matter sources are assumed. The closed Friedman world model, when computed in this formalism, exhibits two interesting properties. First, generalized eigenvalues of the Einstein operator reproduce components of the perfect fluid energy-momentum tensor for the usual Friedman model together with the corresponding equation of state. One could say that, in this case, matter is produced out of pure (noncommutative) geometry. Second, owing to probabilistic properties of the model, in the noncommutative regime (on the Planck level) singularities are irrelevant. They emerge in the process of transition to the usual space–time geometry. These results are briefly discussed.     

Supersymmetric QCD and Noncommutative Geometry

We derive supersymmetric quantum chromodynamics from a noncommutative manifold, using the spectral action principle of Chamseddine and Connes. After a review of the Einstein?CYang?CMills system in noncommutative geometry, we establish in full detail that it possesses supersymmetry. This noncommutative model is then extended to give a theory of quarks, squarks, gluons and gluinos by constructing a suitable noncommutative spin manifold (i.e. a spectral triple). The particles are found at their natural place in a spectral triple: the quarks and gluinos as fermions in the Hilbert space, the gluons and squarks as the (bosonic) inner fluctuations of a (generalized) Dirac operator by the algebra of matrix-valued functions on a manifold. The spectral action principle applied to this spectral triple gives the Lagrangian of supersymmetric QCD, including supersymmetry breaking (negative) mass terms for the squarks. We find that these results are in good agreement with the physics literature.     

String Geometry and the Noncommutative Torus

We construct a new gauge theory on a pair of d-dimensional noncommutative tori. The latter comes from an intimate relationship between the noncommutative geometry associated with a lattice vertex operator algebra ? and the noncommutative torus. We show that the tachyon algebra of ? is naturally isomorphic to a class of twisted modules representing quantum deformations of the algebra of functions on the torus. We construct the corresponding real spectral triples and determine their Morita equivalence classes using string duality arguments. These constructions yield simple proofs of the O(d,d;ℤ) Morita equivalences between d-dimensional noncommutative tori and give a natural physical interpretation of them in terms of the target space duality group of toroidally compactified string theory. We classify the automorphisms of the twisted modules and construct the most general gauge theory which is invariant under the automorphism group. We compute bosonic and fermionic actions associated with these gauge theories and show that they are explicitly duality-symmetric. The duality-invariant gauge theory is manifestly covariant but contains highly non-local interactions. We show that it also admits a new sort of particle-antiparticle duality which enables the construction of instanton field configurations in any dimension. The duality non-symmetric on-shell projection of the field theory is shown to coincide with the standard non-abelian Yang–Mills gauge theory minimally coupled to massive Dirac fermion fields. Received: 26 October 1998/ Accepted: 9 April 1999     

Chirality and Dirac operator on noncommutative sphere

We give a derivation of the Dirac operator on the noncommutative 2-sphere within the framework of the bosonic fuzzy sphere and define Connes' triple. It turns out that there are two different types of spectra of the Dirac operator and correspondingly there are two classes of quantized algebras. As a result we obtain a new restriction on the Planck constant in Berezin's quantization. The map to the local frame in noncommutative geometry is also discussed.     

Stability of Semiclassical Gravity Solutions with Respect to Quantum Metric Fluctuations

We discuss the stability of semiclassical gravity solutions with respect to small quantum corrections by considering the quantum fluctuations of the metric perturbations around the semiclassical solution. We call the attention to the role played by the symmetrized 2-point quantum correlation function for the metric perturbations, which can be naturally decomposed into two separate contributions: intrinsic and induced fluctuations. We show that traditional criteria on the stability of semiclassical gravity are incomplete because these criteria based on the linearized semiclassical Einstein equation can only provide information on the expectation value and the intrinsic fluctuations of the metric perturbations. By contrast, the framework of stochastic semiclassical gravity provides a more complete and accurate criterion because it contains information on the induced fluctuations as well. The Einstein–Langevin equation therein contains a stochastic source characterized by the noise kernel (the symmetrized 2-point quantum correlation function of the stress tensor operator) and yields stochastic correlation functions for the metric perturbations which agree, to leading order in the large N limit, with the quantum correlation functions of the theory of gravity interacting with N matter fields. These points are illustrated with the example of Minkowski space-time as a solution to the semiclassical Einstein equation, which is found to be stable under both intrinsic and induced fluctuations.     

Exact solutions of noncommutative vacuum Einstein field equations and plane-fronted gravitational waves

We construct a class of exact solutions of the noncommutative Einstein field equations in the vacuum, which are noncommutative analogues of the plane-fronted gravitational waves in classical gravity.     

Axial anomalies of Lifshitz fermions

We compute the axial anomaly of a Lifshitz fermion theory with anisotropic scaling z = 3 which is minimally coupled to geometry in 3+1 space‐time dimensions. We find that the result is identical to the relativistic case using path integral methods. An independent verification is provided by showing with spectral methods that the η‐invariant of the Dirac and Lifshitz fermion operators in three dimensions are equal. Thus, by the integrated form of the anomaly, the index of the Dirac operator still accounts for the possible breakdown of chiral symmetry in non‐relativistic theories of gravity. We apply this framework to the recently constructed gravitational instanton backgrounds of Hořava–Lifshitz theory and find that the index is non‐zero provided that the space‐time foliation admits leaves with harmonic spinors. Using Hitchin's construction of harmonic spinors on Berger spheres, we obtain explicit results for the index of the fermion operator on all such gravitational instanton backgrounds with SU(2) × U(1) isometry. In contrast to the instantons of Einstein gravity, chiral symmetry breaking becomes possible in the unimodular phase of Hořava–Lifshitz theory arising at λ = 1/3 provided that the volume of space is bounded from below by the ratio of the Ricci to Cotton tensor couplings raised to the third power. Some other aspects of the anomalies in non‐relativistic quantum field theories are also discussed.     

General models of Einstein gravity with a non-Newtonian weak-field limit

We investigate Einstein theories of gravity, coupled to a scalar field j{\varphi} and point-like matter, which are characterized by a scalar field-dependent matter coupling function e^H(j){e^{H(\varphi)}} . We show that under mild constraints on the form of the potential for the scalar field, there are a broad class of Einstein-like gravity models—characterized by the asymptotic behavior of H—which allow for a non-Newtonian weak-field limit with the gravitational potential behaving for large distances as ln r. The Newtonian term GM/r appears only as sub-leading. We point out that this behavior is also shared by gravity models described by f (R) Lagrangians. The relevance of our results for the building of infrared modified theories of gravity and for modified Newtonian dynamics is also discussed.     

Carnot-Carathéodory Metric and Gauge Fluctuation in Noncommutative Geometry

Gauge fields have a natural metric interpretation in terms of horizontal distance. The latest, also called Carnot-Carathéodory or subriemannian distance, is by definition the length of the shortest horizontal path between points, that is to say the shortest path whose tangent vector is everywhere horizontal with respect to the gauge connection. In noncommutative geometry all the metric information is encoded within the Dirac operator D. In the classical case, i.e. commutative, Connes’s distance formula allows to extract from D the geodesic distance on a riemannian spin manifold. In the case of a gauge theory with a gauge field A, the geometry of the associated U(n)-vector bundle is described by the covariant Dirac operator D+A. What is the distance encoded within this operator? It was expected that the noncommutative geometry distance d defined by a covariant Dirac operator was intimately linked to the Carnot-Carathéodory distance dh defined by A. In this paper we make precise this link, showing that the equality of d and d _H strongly depends on the holonomy of the connection. Quite interestingly we exhibit an elementary example, based on a 2 torus, in which the noncommutative distance has a very simple expression and simultaneously avoids the main drawbacks of the riemannian metric (no discontinuity of the derivative of the distance function at the cut-locus) and of the subriemannian one (memory of the structure of the fiber).     

Quantum holonomy theory

We present quantum holonomy theory, which is a non‐perturbative theory of quantum gravity coupled to fermionic degrees of freedom. The theory is based on a ‐algebra that involves holonomy‐diffeo‐morphisms on a 3‐dimensional manifold and which encodes the canonical commutation relations of canonical quantum gravity formulated in terms of Ashtekar variables. Employing a Dirac type operator on the configuration space of Ashtekar connections we obtain a semi‐classical state and a kinematical Hilbert space via its GNS construction. We use the Dirac type operator, which provides a metric structure over the space of Ashtekar connections, to define a scalar curvature operator, from which we obtain a candidate for a Hamilton operator. We show that the classical Hamilton constraint of general relativity emerges from this in a semi‐classical limit and we then compute the operator constraint algebra. Also, we find states in the kinematical Hilbert space on which the expectation value of the Dirac type operator gives the Dirac Hamiltonian in a semi‐classical limit and thus provides a connection to fermionic quantum field theory. Finally, an almost‐commutative algebra emerges from the holonomy‐diffeomorphism algebra in the same limit.     

One-Loop β Functions of a Translation-Invariant Renormalizable Noncommutative Scalar Model

In this paper we explain how to define “lower dimensional” volumes of any compact Riemannian manifold as the integrals of local Riemannian invariants. For instance we give sense to the area and the length of such a manifold in any dimension. Our reasoning is motivated by an idea of Connes and involves in an essential way noncommutative geometry and the analysis of Dirac operators on spin manifolds. However, the ultimate definitions of the lower dimensional volumes do not involve noncommutative geometry or spin structures at all.      

非对易相空间中的狄拉克振子的能级和Wigner函数

非对易几何、弦论和圈量子引力理论的发展,使非对易空间受到越来越多的关注.非对易量子理论不同于平常的量子理论,它是弦尺度下的特殊的物理效应,处理非对易量子力学问题需要特殊方法.本文首先介绍了Moyal方程与Wigner函数,利用Moyal-Weyl乘法与Bopp变换将H(x,p)变换成^H(^x,^p),考虑坐标—坐标、动量—动量的非对易性,实现对非对易相空间中星乘本征方程的求解.并利用非对易相空间量子力学的代数关系,讨论了非对易相空间中狄拉克振子的Wigner函数和能级,研究结果发现非对易相空间中狄拉克振子的能级明显依赖于非对易参数.     

Letter: An Einstein-Like Theory of Gravity with a Non-Newtonian Weak-Field Limit

We propose a model describing Einstein gravity coupled to a scalar field with an exponential potential. We show that the weak-field limit of the model has static solutions given by a gravitational potential behaving for large distances as ln & ThinSpace;r. The Newtonian term GM/r appears only as subleading. Our model can be used to give a phenomenological explanation of the rotation curves of the galaxies without postulating the presence of dark matter. This can be achieved only by giving up the Einstein equivalence principle at galactic scales.     

Dirac Operator on the Podleś Sphere

The spectral problem for the Dirac operator on the Podle sphere is discussed and solved in one of its possible formulations. The standard constructions for the Dirac operator on classical symmetric spaces and the spectrum of the Dirac operator on the classical two-dimensional sphere are recalled. The problem of defining a spinor structure on a quantum space is discussed and the definitions of a classical spinor structure and Dirac operator according to Ðurdevich are sketched. The Dirac operator for the Podles´ quantum sphere treated as a quotient space of SU(2) is constructed using the Woronowicz left-covariant calculus over this quantum group. The spectrum of the operator is obtained. Disagreement of its asymptotic behavior with Connes' axiom of noncommutative spectral geometry is stressed.     

Can the equivalence principle survive quantization?

It is well known that Einstein gravity is non-renormalizable; however a generalized approach is proposed that leads to Einstein gravity after renormalization. This then implies that at least one candidate for quantum gravity treats all matter on an equal footing with regard to the gravitational behaviour. Harsh constraints are also placed on any anti-matter gravity theory if one does not wish to violate the conservation of energy. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

On Spin Structures and Dirac Operators on the Noncommutative Torus

We find and classify possible equivariant spin structures with Dirac operators on the noncommutative torus, proving that, similarly as in the classical case, the spectrum of the Dirac operator depends on the spin structure.