Aspects of quadratic gravity

We discuss quadratic gravity where terms quadratic in the curvature tensor are included in the action. After reviewing the corresponding field equations, we analyze in detail the physical propagating modes in some specific backgrounds. First we confirm that the pure R² theory is indeed ghost free. Then we point out that for flat backgrounds the pure R² theory propagates only a scalar massless mode and no spin‐two tensor mode. However, the latter emerges either by expanding the theory around curved backgrounds like de Sitter or anti‐de Sitter, or by changing the long‐distance dynamics by introducing the standard Einstein term. In both cases, the theory is modified in the infrared and a propagating graviton is recovered. Hence we recognize a subtle interplay between the UV and IR properties of higher order gravity. We also calculate the corresponding Newton's law for general quadratic curvature theories. Finally, we discuss how quadratic actions may be obtained from a fundamental theory like string‐ or M‐theory. We demonstrate that string theory on non‐compact manifolds, like a line bundle over , may indeed lead to gravity dynamics determined by a higher curvature action.     

De Sitter hunting in a classical landscape

We elaborate on the construction of de Sitter solutions from IIA orientifolds of SU(3)‐structure manifolds that solve the 10‐dimensional equations of motion at tree‐level in the approximation of smeared sources. First we classify geometries that are orbifolds of a group manifold covering space which, upon the proper inclusion of O6 planes, can be described within the framework of 𝒩 = 1 supergravity in 4D. Then we scan systematically for de Sitter solutions, obtained as critical points of an effective 4D potential. Apart from finding many new solutions we emphasize the challenges in constructing explicit classical de Sitter vacua, which have sofar not been met. These challenges are interesting avenues for further research and include finding solutions that are perturbatively stable, satisfy charge and flux quantization, and have genuine localized (versus smeared) orientifold sources. This paper intends to be self‐contained and pedagogical, and thus can serve as a guide to the necessary technical tools required for this line of research. In an appendix we explain how to study flux and charge quantization in the presence of a non‐trivial H‐field using twisted homology.     

Dirac Fields in 3D de Sitter Spacetime

We show that the Dirac equation is separable in the circularly symmetric metric in three dimensions and when the background spacetime is de Sitter we find exact solutions to the radial equations. Using these results we show that the de Sitter horizon has a cross section equal to zero for the massless Dirac field, as in the case of the scalar field. Also, using the improved brick wall model we calculate the fermionic entropy associated with the de Sitter horizon and we compare it with some results previously published.     

Casimir Effect for Moving Branes in Static dS4+1 Bulk

In this paper we study the Casimir effect for conformally coupled massless scalar fields on background of Static dS₄₊₁ spacetime. We will consider the general plane–symmetric solutions of the gravitational field equations and boundary conditions of the Dirichlet type on the branes. Then we calculate the vacuum energy-momentum tensor in a configuration in which the boundary branes are moving by uniform proper acceleration in static de Sitter background. Static de Sitter 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 static de Sitter space from the corresponding Rindler counterpart by the conformal transformation.     

Exact solutions to the first-order perturbation problem in a de Sitter background

We study field perturbations in a de Sitter background described by static coordinates. Using Wald's method we obtain a pair of equations for the Debye potentials corresponding to these field perturbations. These equations are solved exactly, thus solving the linearized perturbation problem in a de Sitter background.     

Doubly special relativity in de Sitter spacetime

We discuss the generalization of Doubly Special Relativity to a curved de Sitter background. The model has three fundamental observer‐independent scales, the velocity of light c, the de Sitter radius α, and the Planck energy κ, and can be realized through a nonlinear action of the de Sitter group on a noncommutative position space. We consider different choices of coordinates on the de Sitter hyperboloid that, although equivalent, may be more suitable for treating different problems. Also the momentum space can be described as a hyperboloid embedded in a five‐dimensional space, but in this case different choices of coordinates lead to inequivalent models. We investigate the kinematics and the Hamiltonian dynamics of some specific models and describe some of their phenomenological consequences. Finally, we show that it is possible to construct a model exhibiting a duality for the interchange of positions and momenta together with the interchange of α and κ.     

Inflation and conformal invariance: the perspective from radial quantization

According to the dS/CFT correspondence, correlators of fields generated during a primordial de Sitter phase are constrained by three‐dimensional conformal invariance. Using the properties of radially quantized conformal field theories and the operator‐state correspondence, we glean information on some points. The Higuchi bound on the masses of spin‐s states in de Sitter is a direct consequence of reflection positivity in radially quantized CFT₃ and the fact that scaling dimensions of operators are energies of states. The partial massless states appearing in de Sitter correspond from the boundary CFT₃ perspective to boundary states with highest weight for the conformal group. Finally, we discuss the inflationary consistency relations and the role of asymptotic symmetries which transform asymptotic vacua to new physically inequivalent vacua by generating long perturbation modes. We show that on the CFT₃ side, asymptotic symmetries have a nice quantum mechanics interpretation. For instance, acting with the asymptotic dilation symmetry corresponds to evolving states forward (or backward) in “time” and the charge generating the asymptotic symmetry transformation is the Hamiltonian itself.     

Solution of Maxwell’s equations on a de Sitter background

The Maxwell equations for the electromagnetic potential, supplemented by the Lorenz gauge condition, are decoupled and solved exactly in de Sitter space–time studied in static spherical coordinates. There is no source besides the background. One component of the vector field is expressed, in its radial part, through the solution of a fourth-order ordinary differential equation obeying given initial conditions. The other components of the vector field are then found by acting with lower-order differential operators on the solution of the fourth-order equation (while the transverse part is decoupled and solved exactly from the beginning). The whole four-vector potential is eventually expressed through hypergeometric functions and spherical harmonics. Its radial part is plotted for given choices of initial conditions. We have thus completely succeeded in solving the homogeneous vector wave equation for Maxwell theory in the Lorenz gauge when a de Sitter space–time is considered, which is relevant both for inflationary cosmology and gravitational wave theory. The decoupling technique and analytic formulae and plots are completely original. This is an important step towards solving exactly the tensor wave equation in de Sitter space–time, which has important applications to the theory of gravitational waves about curved backgrounds.     

Spectra in Coherent States with Excited-de Sitter Mode during Inflation

We use an excited-de Sitter mode as the fundamental mode function for the far past time limit during inflation, to study the corrections of spectra of curvature perturbation. Excited-de Sitter mode is actually the approximate solution of the inflaton field equation that asymptotically approaches to the de Sitter mode function in the first approximation. We build coherent state over excited-de Sitter mode. Then, we compute spectrum of the curvature perturbation with this coherent state as the initial state. We show that in this case, the spectrum of curvature perturbation is scale dependent. As a important result of using this coherent state, we find a non-zero non-Gaussian one-point function as a possible tiny source for generation of anisotropy in CMB from the initial mode in the string or Planck scale.     

Generalised Chern–Simons actions for 3d gravity and κ-Poincaré symmetry

We consider Chern–Simons theories for the Poincaré, de Sitter and anti-de Sitter groups in three dimensions which generalise the Chern–Simons formulation of 3d gravity. We determine conditions under which κ-Poincaré symmetry and its de Sitter and anti-de Sitter analogues can be associated to these theories as quantised symmetries. Assuming the usual form of those symmetries, with a timelike vector as deformation parameter, we find that such an association is possible only in the de Sitter case, and that the associated Chern–Simons action is not the gravitational one. Although the resulting theory and 3d gravity have the same equations of motion for the gauge field, they are not equivalent, even classically, since they differ in their symplectic structure and the coupling to matter. We deduce that κ-Poincaré symmetry is not associated to either classical or quantum gravity in three dimensions. Starting from the (non-gravitational) Chern–Simons action we explain how to construct a multi-particle model which is invariant under the classical analogue of κ-de Sitter symmetry, and carry out the first steps in that construction.     

Effects of cosmological constant on motion of UHECR particles

Recent astronomical observations manifest that about two-thirds of the whole energy in the Universe is contributed by a small positive cosmological constant A (> 0). Then, an asymptotically de Sitter spacetime is premised naturally. However, physics in the de Sitter spacetime is very different from that in the Minkowski spacetime. As the first step, a covariant formalism of the kinematics in the de Sitter spacetime is presented here. By solving exactly the equations of motion for a field, we obtain the dispersion relation of a free particle. It is noticed that the dispersion relation is dependent on the degree of freedom of angular momentum of the particle. We show the threshold anomaly of the ultra high energy cosmic ray disappears naturally in the framework of the de Sitter kinematics.     

Dirac quasinormal modes of <Emphasis Type="Italic">D</Emphasis>-dimensional de Sitter spacetime

We find exact solutions to the Dirac equation in D-dimensional de Sitter spacetime. Using these solutions we analytically calculate the de Sitter quasinormal (QN) frequencies of the Dirac field. For the massive Dirac field this computation is similar to that previously published for massive fields of half-integer spin moving in four dimensions. However to calculate the QN frequencies of the massless Dirac field we must use distinct methods in odd and even dimensions, therefore the computation is different from that already known for other massless fields of integer spin.     

Dynamics and quantum entanglement of two-level atoms in de Sitter spacetime

In the framework of open quantum systems, we study the internal dynamics of both freely falling and static two-level atoms interacting with quantized conformally coupled massless scalar field in de Sitter spacetime. We find that the atomic transition rates depend on both the nature of de Sitter spacetime and the motion of atoms, interestingly the steady states for both cases are always driven to being purely thermal, regardless of the atomic initial states. This thermalization phenomenon is structurally similar to what happens to an elementary quantum system immersed in a thermal field, and thus reveals the thermal nature of de Sitter spacetime. Besides, we find that the thermal baths will drive the entanglement shared by the freely falling atom (the static atom) and its auxiliary partner, a same two-level atom which is isolated from external fields, to being sudden death, and the proper time for the entanglement to be extinguished is computed. We also analyze that such thermalization and disentanglement phenomena, in principle, could be understood from the perspective of table-top simulation experiment.     

Do scale-invariant fluctuations imply the breaking of de Sitter invariance?

The quantization of the massless minimally coupled (mmc) scalar field in de Sitter spacetime is known to be a non-trivial problem due to the appearance of strong infrared (IR) effects. In particular, the scale-invariance of the CMB power-spectrum – certainly one of the most successful predictions of modern cosmology – is widely believed to be inconsistent with a de Sitter invariant mmc two-point function. Using a Cesaro-summability technique to properly define an otherwise divergent Fourier transform, we show in this Letter that de Sitter symmetry breaking is not a necessary consequence of the scale-invariant fluctuation spectrum. We also generalize our result to the tachyonic scalar fields, i.e. the discrete series of representations of the de Sitter group, that suffer from similar strong IR effects.     

On Born approximation in black hole scattering

A massless field propagating on spherically symmetric black hole metrics such as the Schwarzschild, Reissner–Nordström and Reissner–Nordström–de Sitter backgrounds is considered. In particular, explicit formulae in terms of transcendental functions for the scattering of massless scalar particles off black holes are derived within a Born approximation. It is shown that the conditions on the existence of the Born integral forbid a straightforward extraction of the quasi normal modes using the Born approximation for the scattering amplitude. Such a method has been used in literature. We suggest a novel, well defined method, to extract the large imaginary part of quasinormal modes via the Coulomb-like phase shift. Furthermore, we compare the numerically evaluated exact scattering amplitude with the Born one to find that the approximation is not very useful for the scattering of massless scalar, electromagnetic as well as gravitational waves from black holes.     

Auxiliary Conformally Invariant Higher-Spin Field in de Sitter Space

We employ de Sitter isometry to study a mixed symmetric rank-3 tensor field in de Sitter space by finding the field equation, solution and two-point function which are conformally invariant. It is proved that such a tensor field plays a key role in conformal theory of linear gravity (Binegar et al., Phys. Rev. D 27, 2249, 1983) . In de Sitter space from the group theoretical point of view this kind of tensor could associate with two unitary irreducible representations (UIR) of the de Sitter group (Takook et al., J.Math. Phys. 51, 032503, 2010), which one representation has a flat limit, namely, in zero curvature coincides to the UIR of Poincaré group, however, the second one which is named as auxiliary field, becomes significant in the study of conformal gravity in de Sitter background. We show that the rank-3 tensor solution can be written in terms of a massless minimally coupled scalar field and also the related two-point function is a function of a massless minimally coupled scalar two-point function.     

Brane-induced-gravity shock waves

We construct exact gravitational field solutions for a relativistic particle localized on a tensional brane in brane-induced gravity. They are a generalization of gravitational shock waves in 4D de Sitter space. We provide the metrics for both the normal branch and the self-inflating branch Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati brane worlds, and compare them to the 4D Einstein gravity solution and to the case when gravity resides only in the 5D bulk, without any brane-localized curvature terms. At short distances the wave profile looks the same as in four dimensions. The corrections appear only far from the source, where they differ from the long distance corrections in 4D de Sitter space. We also discover a new nonperturbative channel for energy emission into the bulk from the self-inflating [corrected] branch, when gravity is modified at the de Sitter radius.     

A new vacuum state in de Sitter space

We present a new vacuum state which can be defined in a region of de Sitter space. This region corresponds to a K=?1 Robertson-Walker coordinatization of de Sitter space. The renormalized expectation value of the stress tensor for the conformally invariant massless scalar field in this vacuum is evaluated, and is found to differ from the corresponding result in the usual de Sitter-invariant vacuum by the absence of a pure radiation term. We also indicate that this can be accounted for by regarding the de Sitter-invariant vacuum as a thermal state relative to the new vacuum.