Gravitational four-fermion interaction on the Planck scale

The four-fermion gravitational interaction is induced by torsion, and gets essential on the Planck scale. On this scale, the axial–axial contribution dominates strongly the discussed interaction. The energy–momentum tensor, generated by this contribution, is analyzed, as well as stability of the problem with respect to compression. The trace of this energy–momentum tensor can be negative.     

Plane waves in noncommutative fluids

We study the dynamics of the noncommutative fluid in the Snyder space perturbatively at the first order in powers of the noncommutative parameter. The linearized noncommutative fluid dynamics is described by a system of coupled linear partial differential equations in which the variables are the fluid density and the fluid potentials. We show that these equations admit a set of solutions that are monochromatic plane waves for the fluid density and two of the potentials and a linear function for the third potential. The energy–momentum tensor of the plane waves is calculated.     

Interacting Field Theories in Robertson-Walker Spacetimes: Analytic Approximations

The renormalization of a scalar field theory with a quartic self-coupling via adiabatic regularization in a Robertson-Walker spacetime is discussed. The adiabatic counterterms are presented in a way that is most conducive to numerical computations. A variation of the adiabatic regularization method is presented which leads to analytic approximations for the energy–momentum tensor of the quantum field and the quantum contribution to the effective mass of the mean field. Conservation of the energy–momentum tensor for the field is discussed and it is shown that the part of the energy–momentum tensor which depends only on the mean field is not conserved but the full renormalized energy–momentum tensor is conserved, as expected and required by the semiclassical Einstein's equation. It is also shown that if the analytic approximations are used the resulting approximate energy–momentum tensor is conserved. This allows a self-consistent backreaction calculation to be performed using the analytic approximations. The usefulness of the approximations is discussed.     

Algebraic structure of general electromagnetic fields and energy flow

The algebraic structures of a general electromagnetic field and its energy–momentum tensor in a stationary space–time are analyzed. The explicit form of the reference frame in which the energy of the field appears at rest is obtained in terms of the eigenvectors of the electromagnetic tensor and the existing Killing vector. The case of a stationary electromagnetic field is also studied and a comparison is made with the standard short-wave approximation. The results can be applied to the general case of a structured light beams, in flat or curved spaces. Bessel beams are worked out as example.     

Electromagnetic momentum conservation in media

That static electric and magnetic fields can store momentum may be perplexing, but is necessary to ensure total conservation of momentum. Simple situations in which such field momentum is transferred to nearby bodies and point charges have often been considered for pedagogical purposes, normally assuming vacuum surroundings. If dielectric media are involved, however, the analysis becomes more delicate, not least since one encounters the electromagnetic energy–momentum problem in matter, the ‘Abraham–Minkowski enigma’, of what the momentum is of a photon in matter. We analyze the momentum balance in three nontrivial examples obeying azimuthal symmetry, showing how the momentum conservation is satisfied as the magnetic field decays and momentum is transferred to bodies present. In the last of the examples, that of point charge outside a dielectric sphere in an infinite magnetic field, we find that not all of the field momentum is transferred to the nearby bodies; a part of the momentum appears to vanish as momentum flux towards infinity. We discuss this and other surprising observations which can be attributed to the assumption of magnetic fields of infinite extent. We emphasize how formal arguments of conserved quantities cannot determine which energy–momentum tensor is more “correct”, and each of our conservation checks may be performed equally well in the Minkowski or Abraham framework.     

Conjugate variables in quantum field theory and natural symplectic structures

Within standard quantum field theory we establish relations which operators conjugate to the energy–momentum operator of the theory would have. They thus can be understood as representing the effect of coordinate operators. The non-trivial commutation relations we derive constitute natural symplectic structures in the theory. The example which is based on the energy–momentum tensor of the theory is constructed to all orders of perturbation theory. The reference theory is massless ?⁴${?}^4$. The extension to other theories is indicated.     

Anomalies and de Sitter radiation from the generic black holes in de Sitter spaces

Robinson–Wilczek's recent work shows that, the energy–momentum tensor flux required to cancel gravitational anomaly at the event horizon of a Schwarzschild-type black hole has an equivalent form to that of a (1+1)$(1+1)$-dimensional blackbody radiation at the Hawking temperature. Motivated by their work, Hawking radiation from the cosmological horizons of the general Schwarzschild–de Sitter and Kerr–de Sitter black holes, has been studied by the method of anomaly cancellation. The result shows that the absorbing gauge current and energy momentum tensor fluxes required to cancel gauge and gravitational anomalies at the cosmological horizon are precisely equal to those of Hawking radiation from it. It should be emphasized that the effective field theory for generic black holes in de Sitter spaces should be formulated within the region between the event horizon (EH) and the cosmological horizon (CH), to integrate out the classically irrelevant ingoing modes at the EH and the classically irrelevant outgoing modes at the CH, respectively.     

Semi-classical wormholes are unstable

We show that Lorentzian (traversable) wormholes with semi-classical spacetimes are unstable. Semi-classicality of the energy–momentum tensor of the exotic matter used to stabilize the wormhole implies localization of its wavefunction in phase space, leading to evolution according to the classical equations of motion. Previous results related to violation of the NEC then require that the matter is unstable to small perturbations.     

The extended conformal Einstein field equations with matter: The Einstein–Maxwell field

A discussion is given of the conformal Einstein field equations coupled with matter whose energy–momentum tensor is trace-free. These resulting equations are expressed in terms of a generic Weyl connection. The article shows how in the presence of matter it is possible to construct a conformal gauge which allows to know a priori the location of the conformal boundary. In vacuum this gauge reduces to the so-called conformal Gaussian gauge. These ideas are applied to obtain (i) a new proof of the stability of Einstein–Maxwell de Sitter-like spacetimes; (ii) a proof of the semi-global stability of purely radiative Einstein–Maxwell spacetimes.     

Hydrodynamics of resonances

We derive system of equations describing fluidity of the medium consisting of non-relativistic particles with finite mass-widths. For that we use expressions for the kinetic Noether 4-current and the Noether energy–momentum tensor being conserved provided one uses self-consistent approximations to the gradient expanded Kadanoff–Baym equations. Kinetic coefficients entering equations of non-ideal hydrodynamics of resonances are obtained in terms of the real and imaginary parts of the self-energies within a relaxation time approximation.     

Anisotropic fluid dynamics in the early stage of relativistic heavy-ion collisions

A formalism for anisotropic fluid dynamics is proposed. It is designed to describe boost-invariant systems with anisotropic pressure. Such systems are expected to be produced at the early stages of relativistic heavy-ion collisions, when the timescales are too short to achieve equal thermalization of transverse and longitudinal degrees of freedom. The approach is based on the energy–momentum and entropy conservation laws, and may be regarded as a minimal extension of the boost-invariant standard relativistic hydrodynamics of the perfect fluid. We show how the formalism may be used to describe the isotropization of the system (the transition from the initial state with no longitudinal pressure to the final state with equal longitudinal and transverse pressure).     

Non-gravitating scalar field in the FRW background

We study interacting scalar field theory non-minimally coupled to gravity in the FRW background. We show that for a specific choice of interaction terms, the energy–momentum tensor of the scalar field ϕ vanishes, and as a result the scalar field does not gravitate. The naive space dependent solution to equations of motion gives rise to singular field profile. We carefully analyze the energy–momentum tensor for such a solution and show that the singularity of the solution gives a subtle contribution to the energy–momentum tensor. The space dependent solution therefore is not non-gravitating. Our conclusion is applicable to other space–time dependent non-gravitating solutions as well. We study hybrid inflation scenario in this model when purely time dependent non-gravitating field is coupled to another scalar field χ.     

Geons of galileons

We suggest that galileon theories should have an additional self-coupling of the fields to the trace of their own energy–momentum tensor. We explore the classical features of one such model, in flat 4D spacetime, with emphasis on solutions that are scalar analogues of gravitational geons. We discuss the stability of these scalar geons, and some of their possible signatures, including shock fronts.     

General relativistic spinning fluids with a modified projection tensor

An energy-momentum tensor for general relativistic spinning fluids compatible with Tulczyjew-type supplementary condition is derived from the variation of a general Lagrangian with unspecified explicit form. This tensor is the sum of a term containing the Belinfante–Rosenfeld tensor and a modified perfect-fluid energy-momentum tensor in which the four-velocity is replaced by a unit four-vector in the direction of fluid momentum. The equations of motion are obtained and it is shown that they admit a Friedmann–Robertson–Walker space–time as a solution.     

A lattice test of strong coupling behaviour in QCD at finite temperature

We propose a set of lattice measurements which could test whether the deconfined, quark–gluon plasma, phase of QCD shows strong coupling aspects at temperatures a few times the critical temperature for deconfinement. The measurements refer to twist-two operators which are not protected by symmetries and which in a strong-coupling scenario would develop large, negative, anomalous dimensions, resulting in a strong suppression of the respective lattice expectation values in the continuum limit. Special emphasis is put on the twist-two operator with lowest spin (the spin-2 operator orthogonal to the energy–momentum tensor within the renormalization flow) and on the case of quenched QCD, where this operator is known for arbitrary values of the coupling: this is the quark energy–momentum tensor. The proposed lattice measurements could also test whether the plasma constituents are pointlike (as expected at weak coupling), or not.     

Vacuum quantum effect for curved boundaries in static Robertson–Walker space–time

The energy–momentum tensor for a massless conformally coupled scalar field in the region between two curved boundaries in k=−1 static Robertson–Walker space–time is investigated. We assume that the scalar field satisfies the Dirichlet boundary condition on the boundaries. k=−1 Robertson–Walker space is conformally related to the Rindler space, as a result we can obtain vacuum expectation values of energy–momentum tensor for conformally invariant field in Robertson–Walker space from the corresponding Rindler counterpart by the conformal transformation.     

On the supersymmetric limit of Kerr-NUT-AdS metrics

Generalizing the scaling limit of Martelli and Sparks [D. Martelli, J. Sparks, Phys. Lett. B 621 (2005) 208, hep-th/0505027] into an arbitrary number of spacetime dimensions we re-obtain the (most general explicitly known) Einstein–Sasaki spaces constructed by Chen et al. [W. Chen, H. Lü, C.N. Pope, Class. Quantum Grav. 23 (2006) 5323, hep-th/0604125]. We demonstrate that this limit has a well-defined geometrical meaning which links together the principal conformal Killing–Yano tensor of the original Kerr-NUT-(A)dS spacetime, the Kähler 2-form of the resulting Einstein–Kähler base, and the Sasakian 1-form of the final Einstein–Sasaki space. The obtained Einstein–Sasaki space possesses the tower of Killing–Yano tensors of increasing rank—underlined by the existence of Killing spinors. A similar tower of hidden symmetries is observed in the original (odd-dimensional) Kerr-NUT-(A)dS spacetime. This rises an interesting question whether also these symmetries can be related to the existence of some ‘generalized’ Killing spinor.     

Parity asymmetric boost invariant plasma in AdS/CFT correspondence

We consider a simple extension to the previously found gravity solution corresponding to a boost invariant Bjorken plasma, by allowing components that are asymmetric under parity flipping of the spacetime rapidity. Besides the question whether this may have a realization in collisions of different species of projectiles, such as lead-gold collision, our new time-dependent gravity background can serve as a test ground for the recently proposed second order conformal viscous hydrodynamics. We find that non-trivial parity-asymmetric effects start to appear at second order in late time expansion, and we map the corresponding energy–momentum tensor to the second order conformal hydrodynamics to find certain second order transport coefficients. Our results are in agreement with the previous results in literature, giving one more corroborative evidence for the validity of the framework.     

Anomaly poles as common signatures of chiral and conformal anomalies

One feature of the chiral anomaly, analyzed in a perturbative framework, is the appearance of massless poles which account for it. They are identified by a spectral analysis of the anomaly graph and are usually interpreted as being of an infrared origin. Recent investigations show that their presence is not just confined in the infrared, but that they appear in the effective action under the most general kinematical conditions, even if they decouple in the infrared. Further studies reveal that they are responsible for the non-unitary behaviour of these theories in the ultraviolet (UV) region. We extend this analysis to the case of the conformal anomaly, showing that the effective action describing the interaction of gauge fields with gravity is characterized by anomaly poles that give the entire anomaly and are decoupled in the infrared (IR), in complete analogy with the chiral case. This complements a related analysis by Giannotti and Mottola on the trace anomaly in gravity, in which an anomaly pole has been identified in the corresponding correlator using dispersion theory in the IR. Our extension is based on an exact computation of the off-shell correlation function involving an energy–momentum tensor and two vector currents (the gauge–gauge–graviton vertex) which is responsible for the appearance of the anomaly.