Search Results (12)

We investigate the modifications to inflationary observables that arise when adopting an $\alpha$-vacuum instead of the standard Bunch–Davies vacuum for quantum fluctuations during inflation. Within the Starobinsky inflationary model, we compute and compare the scalar spectral index, its running, and the running of the running arising from different choices of the initial vacuum state. We further examine the energy scales associated with $\alpha$-vacua and argue that, for any number of extra spatial dimensions, the relevant scale can be truncated at the Hubble scale, ∼$\mathcal{O}\left({10}^{13}\right)\mathrm{GeV}$, without conflict with current Cavendish-type experimental bounds on sub-millimeter gravity (∼$250\mathsf{\mu }\mathrm{m}$). Our analysis demonstrates that the $\alpha$-vacuum is subject to stringent constraints as a viable de Sitter-invariant alternative to the Euclidean (Bunch–Davies) vacuum, with the corrections that it induces in the inflationary observables being strongly limited by the latest Planck data. Full article

In this work, we study field theoretic systems of a single axion-like field with linear potentials modulated by cosine terms, allegedly induced by non-perturbative instanton configurations. These systems are considered in expanding-Universe spacetime backgrounds (of Friedmann–Lema$\widehat{\mathrm{i}}$tre–Robertson–Walker-type). Using a dynamical system approach, we classify the various de Sitter-like (inflationary) vacua from the point of view of their stability, which depend on the values of the model parameters. In this respect, bifurcation points are found to be present for the various models under consideration. Part of the parameter space of the systems under consideration includes the running-vacuum (approximately) linear axion monodromy potentials, considered in previous works by some of the authors, where inflation is induced by primordial gravitational wave condensates. A particularly interesting case, corresponding to another part of the parameter space of the models, includes a series of stable de Sitter vacua, which physically may correspond to a series of successive tunnelings of the system, via say non-perturbative effects, with a decreasing effective cosmological constant. Under certain values of the parameters, these successive tunnelings can reach a Minkowski spacetime, with zero value of the minimum of the axion potential. The situation is not dissimilar to the one of discrete inflation that arguably characterizes some minimal non-critical-string (Liouville) models of cosmology. Finally, for comparison, we also include in this article a dynamical system study of standard axion monodromy-modulated potentials characterizing some string/brane compactification models of inflation. Full article

In this article, we investigate the various physical implications of quantum circuit complexity using the squeezed state formalism of Primordial Gravitational Waves (PGW). Recently, quantum information-theoretic concepts, such as entanglement entropy and complexity, have played a pivotal role in understanding the dynamics of quantum systems, even in diverse fields such as high-energy physics and cosmology. This paper is devoted to studying the quantum circuit complexity of PGW for various cosmological models, such as de Sitter, inflation, radiation, reheating, matter, bouncing, cyclic and black hole gas models, etc. We compute complexity measures using both Covariance and Nielsen’s wave function method for three different choices of quantum initial vacua: Motta-Allen, $\alpha$ and Bunch–Davies. Besides computing circuit complexity, we also compute the Von Neumann entanglement entropy. By making the comparison between complexity and entanglement entropy, we are able to probe various features regarding the dynamics of evolution for different cosmological models. Because entanglement entropy is independent of the squeezing angle, we are able to understand more details of the system using Nielsen’s measure of complexity, which is dependent on both squeezing parameter and angle. This implies that quantum complexity could indeed be a useful probe to study quantum features on a cosmological scale. Quantum complexity is also becoming a powerful technique to understand the chaotic behaviour and random fluctuations of quantum fields. Using the growth of complexity, we are able to compute the quantum Lyapunov exponent for various cosmological models and comment on its chaotic nature. Full article

We consider $\mathcal{N}=4$ conformal supergravity with an arbitrary holomorphic function of the complex scalar S which parametrizes the $SU(1,1)/U\left(1\right)$ coset. Assuming non-vanishings vevs for S and the scalars in a symmetric matrix $E_{ij}$ of the $\overline{\mathbf{10}}$ of $SU\left(4\right)$ R-symmetry group, we determine the vacuum structure of the theory. We find that the possible vacua are classified by the number of zero eigenvalues of the scalar matrix and the spacetime is either Minkowski, de Sitter, or anti-de Sitter. We determine the spectrum of the scalar fluctuations and we find that it contains tachyonic states which, however, can be removed by appropriate choice of the unspecified at the supergravity level holomorphic function. Finally, we also establish that S-supersymmetry is always broken whereas Q-supersymmetry exists only on flat Minkowski spacetime. Full article

Here, we study a quantum fermion field in rigid rotation at finite temperature on anti-de Sitter space. We assume that the rotation rate $\Omega$ is smaller than the inverse radius of curvature ${\ell }^{-1}$, so that there is no speed of light surface and the static (maximally-symmetric) and rotating vacua coincide. This assumption enables us to follow a geometric approach employing a closed-form expression for the vacuum two-point function, which can then be used to compute thermal expectation values (t.e.v.s). In the high temperature regime, we find a perfect analogy with known results on Minkowski space-time, uncovering curvature effects in the form of extra terms involving the Ricci scalar R. The axial vortical effect is validated and the axial flux through two-dimensional slices is found to escape to infinity for massless fermions, while for massive fermions, it is completely converted into the pseudoscalar density $-i\overline{\psi }{\gamma }^5\psi$. Finally, we discuss volumetric properties such as the total scalar condensate and the total energy within the space-time and show that they diverge as ${[1-{\ell }^2{\Omega }^2]}^{-1}$ in the limit $\Omega \to {\ell }^{-1}$. Full article

S-matrix formulation of gravity excludes de Sitter vacua. In particular, this is organic to string theory. The S-matrix constraint is enforced by an anomalous quantum break-time proportional to the inverse values of gravitational and/or string couplings. Due to this, de Sitter can satisfy the conditions for a valid vacuum only at the expense of trivializing the graviton and closed-string S-matrices. At non-zero gravitational and string couplings, de Sitter is deformed by corpuscular $1/N$ effects, similarly to Witten–Veneziano mechanism in QCD with N colors. In this picture, an S-matrix formulation of Einstein gravity, such as string theory, nullifies an outstanding cosmological puzzle. We discuss possible observational signatures which are especially interesting in theories with a large number of particle species. Species can enhance the primordial quantum imprints to potentially observable level even if the standard inflaton fluctuations are negligible. Full article

In generic curved spacetimes, the unavailability of a natural choice of vacuum state introduces a serious ambiguity in the Fock quantization of fields. In this review, we study the case of fermions described by a Dirac field in non-stationary spacetimes, and present recent results obtained by us and our collaborators about well-motivated criteria capable to ensure the uniqueness in the selection of a vacuum up to unitary transformations, at least in certain situations of interest in cosmology. These criteria are based on two reasonable requirements. First, the invariance of the vacuum under the symmetries of the Dirac equations in the considered spacetime. These symmetries include the spatial isometries. Second, the unitary implementability of the Heisenberg dynamics of the annihilation and creation operators when the curved spacetime is treated as a fixed background. This last requirement not only permits the uniqueness of the Fock quantization but, remarkably, it also allows us to determine an essentially unique splitting between the phase space variables assigned to the background and the fermionic annihilation and creation variables. We first consider Dirac fields in 2 + 1 dimensions and then discuss the more relevant case of 3 + 1 dimensions, particularizing the analysis to cosmological spacetimes with spatial sections of spherical or toroidal topology. We use this analysis to investigate the combined, hybrid quantization of the Dirac field and a flat homogeneous and isotropic background cosmology when the latter is treated as a quantum entity, and the former as a perturbation. Specifically, we focus our study on a background quantization along the lines of loop quantum cosmology. Among the Fock quantizations for the fermionic perturbations admissible according to our criteria, we discuss the possibility of further restricting the choice of a vacuum by the requisite of a finite fermionic backreaction and, moreover, by the diagonalization of the fermionic contribution to the total Hamiltonian in the asymptotic limit of large wave numbers of the Dirac modes. Finally, we argue in support of the uniqueness of the vacuum state selected by the extension of this diagonalization condition beyond the commented asymptotic region, in particular proving that it picks out the standard Poincaré and Bunch–Davies vacua for fixed flat and de Sitter background spacetimes, respectively. Full article

We use the method of the Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant to analyze the dynamical properties of the Mukhanov-Sasaki Hamiltonian and, following this approach, investigate whether we can obtain possible candidates for initial states in the context of inflation considering a quasi-de Sitter spacetime. Our main interest lies in the question of to which extent these already well-established methods at the classical and quantum level for finitely many degrees of freedom can be generalized to field theory. As our results show, a straightforward generalization does in general not lead to a unitary operator on Fock space that implements the corresponding time-dependent canonical transformation associated with the Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant. The action of this operator can be rewritten as a time-dependent Bogoliubov transformation, where we also compare our results to already existing ones in the literature. We show that its generalization to Fock space has to be chosen appropriately in order to not violate the Shale-Stinespring condition. Furthermore, our analysis relates the Ermakov differential equation that plays the role of an auxiliary equation, whose solution is necessary to construct the Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant, as well as the corresponding time-dependent canonical transformation, to the defining differential equation for adiabatic vacua. Therefore, a given solution of the Ermakov equation directly yields a full solution of the differential equation for adiabatic vacua involving no truncation at some adiabatic order. As a consequence, we can interpret our result obtained here as a kind of non-squeezed Bunch-Davies mode, where the term non-squeezed refers to a possible residual squeezing that can be involved in the unitary operator for certain choices of the Bogoliubov map. Full article

We present a systematic review of thermodynamics of horizons in regular spherically symmetric spacetimes of the Kerr-Schild class, $d{s}^2=g\left(r\right)d{t}^2-g^{-1}\left(r\right)d{r}^2-r^{2}d{\mathsf{\Omega }}^2$ , both asymptotically flat and with a positive background cosmological constant $\lambda$ . Regular solutions of this class have obligatory de Sitter center. A source term in the Einstein equations satisfies $T_t^t=T_r^r$ and represents an anisotropic vacuum dark fluid ( $p_r=-\rho$ ), defined by the algebraic structure of its stress-energy tensor, which describes a time-evolving and spatially inhomogeneous, distributed or clustering, vacuum dark energy intrinsically related to space-time symmetry. In the case of two vacuum scales it connects smoothly two de Sitter vacua, $8\pi G{T}_{\nu }^{\mu }=\mathsf{\Lambda }{\delta }_{\nu }^{\mu }$ as $r\to 0$ , $8\pi G{T}_{\nu }^{\mu }=\lambda {\delta }_{\nu }^{\mu }$ as $r\to \infty$ with $\lambda <\mathsf{\Lambda }$ . In the range of the mass parameter $M_{cr1}\le M\le M_{cr2}$ it describes a regular cosmological black hole directly related to a vacuum dark energy. Space-time has at most three horizons: a cosmological horizon $r_c$ , a black hole horizon $r_b<r_c$ , and an internal horizon $r_a<r_b$ , which is the cosmological horizon for an observer in the internal R-region asymptotically de Sitter as $r\to 0$ . Asymptotically flat regular black holes ( $\lambda =0$ ) can have at most two horizons, $r_b$ and $r_a$ . We present the basic generic features of thermodynamics of horizons revealed with using the Padmanabhan approach relevant for a multi-horizon space-time with a non-zero pressure. Quantum evaporation of a regular black hole involves a phase transition in which the specific heat capacity is broken and changes sign while a temperature achieves its maximal value, and leaves behind the thermodynamically stable double-horizon ( $r_a=r_b$ ) remnant with zero temperature and positive specific heat. The mass of objects with the de Sitter center is generically related to vacuum dark energy and to breaking of space-time symmetry. In the cosmological context space-time symmetry provides a mechanism for relaxing cosmological constant to a certain non-zero value. We discuss also observational applications of the presented results. Full article

The Petrov classification of stress-energy tensors provides a model-independent definition of a vacuum by the algebraic structure of its stress-energy tensor and implies the existence of vacua whose symmetry is reduced as compared with the maximally symmetric de Sitter vacuum associated with the Einstein cosmological term. This allows to describe a vacuum in general setting by dynamical vacuum dark fluid, presented by a variable cosmological term with the reduced symmetry which makes vacuum fluid essentially anisotropic and allows it to be evolving and clustering. The relevant solutions to the Einstein equations describe regular cosmological models with time-evolving and spatially inhomogeneous vacuum dark energy, and compact vacuum objects generically related to a dark energy: regular black holes, their remnants and self-gravitating vacuum solitons with de Sitter vacuum interiors—which can be responsible for observational effects typically related to a dark matter. The mass of objects with de Sitter interior is generically related to vacuum dark energy and to breaking of space-time symmetry. In the cosmological context spacetime symmetry provides a mechanism for relaxing cosmological constant to a needed non-zero value. Full article

In this paper, we have worked on the possibility of setting up an Bell’s inequality violating experiment in the context of primordial cosmology following the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics. To set up this proposal, we have introduced a model-independent theoretical framework using which we have studied the creation of new massive particles for the scalar fluctuations in the presence of an additional time-dependent mass parameter. Next we explicitly computed the one-point and two-point correlation functions from this setup. Then, we comment on the measurement techniques of isospin breaking interactions of newly introduced massive particles and its further prospects. After that, we give an example of the string theory-originated axion monodromy model in this context. Finally, we provide a bound on the heavy particle mass parameter for any arbitrary spin field. Full article

We address the question of thermodynamics of regular cosmological spherically symmetric black holes with the de Sitter center. Space-time is asymptotically de Sitter as r → 0 and as r → ∞. A source term in the Einstein equations connects smoothly two de Sitter vacua with different values of cosmological constant: 8πGT_μ^ν = Λδ_μ^ν as r → 0, 8πGT_μ^ν = λδ_μ^ν as r → ∞ with λ < Λ. It represents an anisotropic vacuum dark fluid defined by symmetry of its stress-energy tensor which is invariant under the radial boosts. In the range of the mass parameter M_cr1 ≤ M ≤ M_cr2 it describes a regular cosmological black hole. Space-time in this case has three horizons: a cosmological horizon rc, a black hole horizon r_b < r_c, and an internal horizon r_a < r_b, which is the cosmological horizon for an observer in the internal R-region asymptotically de Sitter as r → 0. We present the basicfeatures of space-time geometry and the detailed analysis of thermodynamics of horizons using the Padmanabhan approach relevant for a multi-horizon space-time with a non-zero pressure. We find that in a certain range of parameters M and q =√Λ/λ there exist a global temperature for an observer in the R-region between the black hole horizon r_b and cosmological horizon r_c. We show that a second-order phase transition occurs in the course of evaporation, where a specific heat is broken and a temperature achieves its maximal value. Thermodynamical preference for a final point of evaporation is thermodynamically stable double-horizon (r_a = r_b) remnant with the positive specific heat and zero temperature. Full article