Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Black holes, quantum chaos, and the Riemann hypothesis

  Panagiotis Betzios, Nava Gaddam, Olga Papadoulaki

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 032 (2021) · published 10 December 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Quantum gravity is expected to gauge all global symmetries of effective theories, in the ultraviolet. Inspired by this expectation, we explore the consequences of gauging CPT as a quantum boundary condition in phase space. We find that it provides for a natural semiclassical regularisation and discretisation of the continuous spectrum of a quantum Hamiltonian related to the Dilation operator. We observe that the said spectrum is in correspondence with the zeros of the Riemann zeta and Dirichlet beta functions. Following ideas of Berry and Keating, this may help the pursuit of the Riemann hypothesis. It strengthens the proposal that this quantum Hamiltonian captures the near horizon dynamics of the scattering matrix of the Schwarzschild black hole, given the rich chaotic spectrum upon discretisation. It also explains why the spectrum appears to be erratic despite the unitarity of the scattering matrix.

  17 citations

• Relativistic Landau quantization in non-uniform magnetic field and its applications to white dwarfs and quantum information

  Srishty Aggarwal, Banibrata Mukhopadhyay, Gianluca Gregori

  SciPost Phys. 11, 093 (2021) · published 18 November 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the two-dimensional motion of relativistic cold electrons in the presence of ‘strictly’ spatially varying magnetic fields satisfying, however, no magnetic monopole condition. We find that the degeneracy of Landau levels, which arises in the case of the constant magnetic field, lifts out when the field is variable and the energy levels of spin-up and spin-down electrons align in an interesting way depending on the nature of change of field. Also the varying magnetic field splits Landau levels of electrons with zero angular momentum from positive angular momentum, unlike the constant field which only can split the levels between positive and negative angular momenta. Exploring Landau quantization in non-uniform magnetic fields is a unique venture on its own and has interdisciplinary implications in the fields ranging from condensed matter to astrophysics to quantum information. As examples, we show magnetized white dwarfs, with varying magnetic fields, involved simultaneously with Lorentz force and Landau quantization affecting the underlying degenerate electron gas, exhibiting a significant violation of the Chandrasekhar mass-limit; and an increase in quantum speed of electrons in the presence of a spatially growing magnetic field.

  4 citations

• Quantum aspects of chaos and complexity from bouncing cosmology: A study with two-mode single field squeezed state formalism

  Parth Bhargava, Sayantan Choudhury, Satyaki Chowdhury, Anurag Mishara, Sachin Panneer Selvam, Sudhakar Panda, Gabriel D. Pasquino

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 026 (2021) · published 7 October 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  $Circuit~ Complexity$, a well known computational technique has recently become the backbone of the physics community to probe the chaotic behaviour and random quantum fluctuations of quantum fields. This paper is devoted to the study of out-of-equilibrium aspects and quantum chaos appearing in the universe from the paradigm of two well known bouncing cosmological solutions viz. $Cosine~ hyperbolic$ and $Exponential$ models of scale factors. Besides $circuit~ complexity$, we use the $Out-of-Time~ Ordered~ correlation~ (OTOC)$ functions for probing the random behaviour of the universe both at early and the late times. In particular, we use the techniques of well known two-mode squeezed state formalism in cosmological perturbation theory as a key ingredient for the purpose of our computation. To give an appropriate theoretical interpretation that is consistent with the observational perspective we use the scale factor and the number of e-foldings as a dynamical variable instead of conformal time for this computation. From this study, we found that the period of post bounce is the most interesting one. Though it may not be immediately visible, but an exponential rise can be seen in the $complexity$ once the post bounce feature is extrapolated to the present time scales. We also find within the very small acceptable error range a universal connecting relation between Complexity computed from two different kinds of cost functionals-$linearly~ weighted$ and $geodesic~ weighted$ with the OTOC. Furthermore, from the $complexity$ computation obtained from both the cosmological models and also using the well known MSS bound on quantum Lyapunov exponent, $\lambda\leq 2\pi/\beta$ for the saturation of chaos, we estimate the lower bound on the equilibrium temperature of our universe at late time scale. Finally, we provide a rough estimation of the scrambling time in terms of the conformal time.

  30 citations

• The derivative expansion in asymptotically safe quantum gravity: general setup and quartic order

  Benjamin Knorr

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 020 (2021) · published 9 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a general framework to systematically study the derivative expansion of asymptotically safe quantum gravity. It is based on an exact decoupling and cancellation of different modes in the Landau limit, and implements a correct mode count as well as a regularisation based on geometrical considerations. It is applicable independent of the truncation order. To illustrate the power of the framework, we discuss the quartic order of the derivative expansion and its fixed point structure as well as physical implications.

  39 citations

• Indirect searches for dark matter with the nEDM spectrometer

  S. Roccia, G. Zsigmond on behalf of the nEDM collaboration at PSI

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 5, 028 (2021) · published 6 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The nEDM apparatus at PSI has been used to search for different dark matter signatures utilizing its high sensitivity to shifts in the neutron precession frequency and its well-controlled low magnetic field at the microT level. Such a shift could be interpreted as a consequence of a short-range spin-dependent interaction that could possibly be mediated by axions or axion-like particles, or as an axion-induced oscillating electric dipole moment of the neutron. Another search, based on so-called UCN disappearance measurements, targeted previously reported signals of neutron to mirror-neutron oscillations. These dark matter searches confirmed and improved previous results, as detailed in this review.

• Linear stability of Einstein and de Sitter universes in the quadratic theory of modified gravity

  Mudhahir Al-Ajmi

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 012 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the Einstein static and the de Sitter universe solutions and examine their instabilities in a subclass of quadratic modified theories for gravity. This modification proposed by Nash is an attempt to generalize general relativity. Interestingly, we discover that the Einstein static universe is unstable in the context of the modified gravity. In contrast to Einstein static universe, the de Sitter universe remains stable under metric perturbation up to the second order.

• Position-dependent mass quantum systems and ADM formalism

  Davood Momeni

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 009 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The classical Einstein-Hilbert (EH) action for general relativity (GR) is shown to be formally analogous to the classical system with position-dependent mass (PDM) models. The analogy is developed and used to build the covariant classical Hamiltonian as well as defining an alternative phase portrait for GR. The set of associated Hamilton's equations in the phase space is presented as a first-order system dual to the Einstein field equations. Following the principles of quantum mechanics, I build a canonical theory for the classical general. A fully consistent quantum Hamiltonian for GR is constructed based on adopting a high dimensional phase space. It is observed that the functional wave equation is timeless. As a direct application, I present an alternative wave equation for quantum cosmology. In comparison to the standard Arnowitt-Deser-Misner(ADM) decomposition and quantum gravity proposals, I extended my analysis beyond the covariant regime when the metric is decomposed into the 3+1 dimensional ADM decomposition. I showed that an equal dimensional phase space can be obtained if one applies ADM decomposed metric.

  1 citation

• Two faces of Hawking radiation and thin-shell emission: pair-creation vs. tunneling

  Dong-han Yeom

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 004 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We first revisit Hartle and Hawking's path integral derivation of Hawking radiation. In the first point of view, we interpret that a particle-antiparticle pair is created and the negative energy antiparticle falls into the black hole. On the other point of view, a particle inside the horizon, or beyond the Einstein-Rosen bridge, tunnels to outside the horizon, where this computation requires the analytic continuation of the time. These two faces of the Hawking radiation process can be extended to not only particles but also fields. As a concrete example, we study the thin-shell tunneling process; by introducing the antishell as a negative tension shell, we can give the consistent interpretation for two pictures, where one is a tunneling from inside to outside the horizon using instantons, while the other is a shell-antishell pair-creation. This shows that the Euclidean path integral indeed carries vast physical implications not only for perturbative, but also for non-perturbative processes.

• From Rindler fluid to dark fluid on the holographic cutoff surface

  Rong-Gen Cai, Gansukh Tumurtushaa, Yun-Long Zhang

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 003 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  As an approximation to the near horizon regime of black holes, the Rindler fluid was proposed on an accelerating cutoff surface in the flat spacetime. The concept of the Rindler fluid was then generalized into a flat bulk with the cutoff surface of the induced de Sitter and FRW universe, such that an effective description of dark fluid in the accelerating universe can be investigated.

• Properties of non-relativistic string theory

  E.A. Bergshoeff, J. Lahnsteiner, L. Romano, C. Simsek

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 4, 001 (2021) · published 13 August 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show how Newton-Cartan geometry can be generalized to String Newton-Cartan geometry which is the geometry underlying non-relativistic string theory. Several salient properties of non-relativistic string theory in this geometric background are presented and a discussion of possible research for the future is outlined.