arXiv subjects

Alessandro Pesci

Publications and source records attributed to Alessandro Pesci.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

On the nature of entangling photons in horizon-induced decoherence

Recently, it was discussed how the presence of a Killing horizon induces decoherence on a quantum system in a superposition of states. Focusing on the case of an electrically-charged system with superposed positions, this would happen due to ``entangling'' photons crossing the horizon while carrying information on the superposition. Purpose of this essay is to investigate this process in connection with black hole thermodynamics and the ensuing entropy bounds. We show that an apparent tension arising with the latter is resolved provided the entangling photons, expressing a modification of the field at, as well as inside the horizon, do not give rise to a flux across it. The storage of information in this field, not retrievable from an outside observer, causes the superposition to decohere.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

A Systematic Benchmark of GAN Architectures for MRI-to-CT Synthesis

The translation from Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to Computed tomography (CT) has been proposed as an effective solution to facilitate MRI-only clinical workflows while limiting exposure to ionizing radiation. Although numerous Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) architectures have been proposed for MRI-to-CT translation, systematic and fair comparisons across heterogeneous models remain limited. We present a comprehensive benchmark of ten GAN architectures evaluated on the SynthRAD2025 dataset across three anatomical districts (abdomen, thorax, head-and-neck). All models were trained under a unified validation protocol with identical preprocessing and optimization settings. Performance was assessed using complementary metrics capturing voxel-wise accuracy, structural fidelity, perceptual quality, and distribution-level realism, alongside an analysis of computational complexity. Supervised Paired models consistently outperformed Unpaired approaches, confirming the importance of voxel-wise supervision. Pix2Pix achieved the most balanced performance across districts while maintaining a favorable quality-to-complexity trade-off. Multi-district training improved structural robustness, whereas intra-district training maximized voxel-wise fidelity. This benchmark provides quantitative and computational guidance for model selection in MRI-only radiotherapy workflows and establishes a reproducible framework for future comparative studies. To ensure the reproducibility of our experiments we make our code public, together with the overall results, at the following link:https://github.com/arco-group/MRI_TO_CT.git

cs.CV↗

arXiv2025

Minimum spacetime length and the thermodynamics of spacetime

Theories of emergent gravity have established a deep connection between entropy and the geometry of spacetime by looking at the latter through a thermodynamic lens. In this framework, the macroscopic properties of gravity arise in a statistical way from an effective small scale discrete structure of spacetime and its information content. In this review we begin by outlining how theories of quantum gravity imply the existence of a minimum length of spacetime as a general feature. We then describe how such a structure can be implemented in a way that is independent from the details of the quantum fluctuations of spacetime via a bi-tensorial quantum metric $q_{\alpha\beta}(x, x')$ that yields a finite geodesic distance in the coincidence limit $x\rightarrow x'$. Finally, we discuss how the entropy encoded by these microscopic degrees of freedom can give rise to the field equations for gravity through a thermodynamic variational principle.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Horizon quantum geometries and decoherence

There is mounting theoretical evidence that black hole horizons induce decoherence on a quantum system, say a particle, put in a superposition of locations, with the decoherence functional, evaluated after closure of the superposition, increasing linearly with the time the superposition has been kept open. This phenomenon has been shown to owe its existence to soft modes, that is modes with very low frequencies, of the quantum fields -- sourced by the particle -- which pierce through the horizon, or also can be understood as coming from the interaction with the black hole described as a thermodynamic quantum system at Hawking's temperature. Here we investigate the effects of ensuing quantum aspects of the geometry itself of the horizon, in an effective perspective in which the quantum geometry of the horizon is captured by existence of a limit length or by horizon area quantisation. We show that the discreteness of the energy levels associated to the different geometric configurations might have strong impact on the results, in particular reducing the decoherence effects even to a negligible level in case of quanta of area $A_0 = \mathcal{O}(1) \, \, l_p^2$ or larger, with $l_p$ the Planck length.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Effects of quantum geometry on the decoherence induced by black holes

Recently, it has been shown that a quantum system held in spatial superposition and then eventually recombined does experience decoherence from black hole horizons, at a level increasing linearly with the time the superposition has been kept open. In this, the effects of the horizon have been derived using a classical spacetime picture for the latter. In the present note we point out that quantum aspects of the geometry itself of the quantum black hole could significantly affect the results. In a specific effective implementation of the quantum geometry in terms of a minimal length and ensuing minimal area, it appears in particular that, for selected values of the quantum of area proposed on various grounds in the literature, the decoherence induced by the horizon turns out to be limited to negligibly small values.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Probing the existence of a minimal length through compact binary inspiral

Existence of a minimal length in spacetime geometries avoids several singular situations involving quantum theory and gravity. In this work, we show that the existence of such a minimal length also affects the gravitational wave (GW) waveform of any inspiraling binary black hole (BH) system by introducing a minimum frequency, below which the BHs behave as perfectly reflecting compact objects, while above they are identical to classical BHs. This leads to a significant imprint on the tidal heating term, appearing in the GW waveform at 2.5 post Newtonian order. Based on these modifications to the inspiraling waveform, it turns out that the detection of highly spinning and highly absorbing, almost classical BH like compact objects, inspiraling around each other, would be in tension with the quantum properties of BH geometries. The same would also be true if the zero point length exceeds the Planck length by a significant amount, suggesting that the zero point length, if it exists, must be of the same order as the Planck length, or smaller, purely from GW observations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Small-scale metric structure and horizons: Probing the nature of gravity

A recently developed tool allows for a description of spacetime as a manifold with a Lorentz-invariant (lower) limit length built-in. This is accomplished in terms of geometric quantities depending on two spacetime events (bitensors) and looking at the 2-point function of fields on it, all this being well suited to embody nonlocality at the small scale. What one gets is a metric bitensor with components singular in the coincidence limit of the two events, capable to provide a finite distance in the same limit. We discuss here how this metric structure encompasses also the case of null separated events, and describe some results one obtains with the null qmetric which do have immediate thermodynamic/statistical interpretation for horizons. One of them is that the area transverse to null geodesics converging to a base point goes to a finite value in the coincidence limit (instead of shrinking to 0). We comment on the discreteness this seems to imply for the area of black hole horizons as well as on possible ensuing effects in gravitational waves from binary black hole coalescences.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Gravitation as a Statistical Theory on the Light Cone

In this paper, we will explore Padmanabhan's mesoscopic, statistical approach to gravity [62] with a twist. The general picture of his approach is that spacetime is made of large numbers of localized quantum degrees of freedom. Padmanabhan assumed that the degrees of freedom of a given quantum state of geometry contribute, after averaging over fluctuations, a vector degree of freedom for space-time at a point. For null vectors, this can be regarded as corresponding to one single vector, i.e. a pure state, for the statistical ensemble on the light cone at every point. In the present paper, we consider instead the case where the states of the gravitational degrees of freedom are spread out and overlap, with only probabilistic information on which of them determines the actual spacetime at a point. In the continuum limit, this corresponds to a mixed state for the statistical ensemble on the light cone at every point. This change in assumptions leads to some interesting observations. When we define a statistical ensemble on the light cone, its variance "knows" about the interior of the light cone. As an intriguing consequence, we find that the cosmological constant can be related to the variance over the light cone. With a mixed state, we can no longer derive the gravitational field equations from an entropy functional. Here, instead, we show that a naive implementation of the measure of a mixed state on the light cone in the variation principle leads to modified measure theories (MMT) as the grand canonical ensemble and allows one to reframe unimodular gravity as the canonical ensemble of a statistical theory on the light cone.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Testing the nonclassicality of gravity with the field of a single delocalized mass

Most of the existing proposals for laboratory tests of a quantum nature of gravity are based on the use of two delocalized masses or harmonically bound masses prepared in pure quantum states with large enough spatial extent. Here a setup is proposed that is based on a single delocalized mass coupled to a harmonically trapped test mass (undergoing first expansion and then compression) that moves under the action of gravity. We investigate the in-principle feasibility of such an experiment, which turns out to crucially depend on the ability to tame Casimir-Polder forces. We thus proceed with a design aimed at achieving this, trying at the same time to take advantage of these forces rather than only fighting them.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Conditions for graviton emission in the recombination of a delocalized mass

In a known gedanken experiment, a delocalized mass is recombined while the gravitational field sourced by it is probed by another (distant) particle; in it, this is used to explore a possible tension between complementarity and causality in case the gravitational field entangles with the superposed locations, a proposed resolution being graviton emission from quadrupole moments. Here, we focus on the delocalized particle (forgetting about the probe and the gedanken experiment) and explore the conditions (in terms of mass, separation, and recombination time) for graviton emission. Through this, we find that the variations of quadrupole moments in the recombination are generically greatly enhanced if the field is entangled compared to if it is sourced instead by the energy momentum expectation value on the delocalized state (moment variation $\sim m \, d^2$ in the latter case, with $m$ mass, $d$ separation). In addition, we obtain the (upper) limit recombination time for graviton emission growing as $m$ in place of the naive expectation $\sqrt{m}$. In this, the Planck mass acts as threshold mass (huge, for delocalized objects): no graviton emission is possible below it, however fast the recombination occurs. If this is compared with the decay times foreseen in the collapse models of Diósi and Penrose (in their basic form), one finds that no (quadrupole) graviton emission from recombination is possible in them. Indeed, right when $m$ becomes large enough to allow for emission, it also becomes too large for the superposition to survive collapse long enough to recombine.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Quantum states for a minimum-length spacetime

Starting from some results regarding the form of the Ricci scalar at a point $P$ in a spacetime endowed with a minimum distance, we investigate how they might be accommodated, specifically for the case of null separations, in a as-simple-as-possible quantum structure for spacetime at $P$, and we try to accomplish this in terms of potentially operationally-defined concepts. In so doing, we provide a possible explicit form for the operator expressing the Ricci scalar as a quantum observable, and give quantum-informational support, thus regardless of or before field equations, to associating with a patch of horizon an entropy proportional to its area.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Information content and minimum-length metric: A drop of light

In the vast amount of results linking gravity with thermodynamics, statistics, information, a path is described which tries to explore this connection from the point of view of (non)locality of the gravitational field. First the emphasis is put on that well-known thermodynamic results related to null hypersurfaces (i.e. to lightsheets and to generalized covariant entropy bound) can be interpreted as implying an irreducible intrinsic nonlocality of gravity. This nonlocality even if possibly concealed at ordinary scales(depending on which matter is source of the gravitational field, and which matter we use to probe the latter) unavoidably shows up at the smallest scales, read the Planck length $l_p$, whichever are the circumstances we are considering. Some consequences are then explored of this nonlocality when embodied in the fabric itself of spacetime by endowing the latter with a minimum length $L$, in particular the well-known and intriguing fact that this brings to get the field equations, and all of gravity with it, as a statistical-mechanical result. This is done here probing the neighborhood of a would-be (in ordinary spacetime) generic event through lightsheets (instead of spacelike or timelike geodesic congruences as in other accounts) from it. The tools for these derivations are nonlocal quantities, and among them the minimum-length Ricci scalar stands out both for providing micro degrees of freedom for gravity in the statistical account and for the fact that intriguingly the ordinary, or `classical', Ricci scalar can not be recovered from it in the $L\to 0$ limit. Emphasis is put on that classical gravity is generically obtained this way for $\hbar\ne 0$, but not in the $\hbar\to 0$ limit (the statistically derived field equations become singular in this limit), adding to previous results in this sense. (truncated Abstract; see the paper for full Abstract)

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Expectation values of minimum-length Ricci scalar

In this paper, we consider a specific model, implementing the existence of a fundamental limit distance $L_0$ between (space or time separated) points in spacetime, which in the recent past has exhibited the intriguing feature of having a minimum-length Ricci scalar $R_{(q)}$ that does not approach the ordinary Ricci scalar $R$ in the limit of vanishing $L_0$. $R_{(q)}$ at a point has been found to depend on the direction along which the existence of minimum distance is implemented. Here, we point out that the convergence $R_{(q)}\to R$ in the $L_0\to 0$ limit is anyway recovered in a relaxed or generalized sense, which is when we average over directions, this suggesting we might be taking the expectation value of $R_{(q)}$ promoted to be a quantum variable. It remains as intriguing as before the fact that we cannot identify (meaning this is much more than simply equating in the generalised sense above) $R_{(q)}$ with $R$ in the $L_0\to 0$ limit, namely when we get ordinary spacetime. Thing is like if, even when $L_0$ (read here the Planck length) is far too small to have any direct detection of it feasible, the intrinsic quantum nature of spacetime might anyway be experimentally at reach, witnessed by the mentioned special feature of Ricci, not fading away with $L_0$ (i.e. persisting when taking the $\hbar \to 0$ limit).

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Zero-point gravitational field equations

We study the recently reported qmetric (or zero-point-length) expressions of the Ricci (bi)scalar $R_{(q)}$ (namely, expressions of the Ricci scalar in a spacetime with a limit length $L_0$ built in), focusing specifically on the case of null separated events. A feature of these expressions is that, when considered in the coincidence limit $p \to P$, they generically exhibit a dependence on the geodesic along which the varying point $p$ approached $P$, sort of memory of how $p$ went to $P$. This fact demands a deeper understanding of the meaning of the quantity $R_{(q)}$, for this latter tells about curvature of spacetime as a whole at $P$ and would not be supposed to depend on whichever vector we might happen to consider at $P$. Here, we try to search for a framework in which these two apparently conflicting aspects might be consistently reconciled. We find a tentative sense in which this could be achieved by endowing spacetime of a specific operational meaning. This comes, however, at the price (or with the benefit) of having a spacetime no longer arbitrary but, in a specific sense, constrained. The constraint turns out to be in the form of a relation between spacetime geometry in the large scale (as compared to $L_0$) and the matter content, namely as sort of field equations. This comes thanks to something which happens to coincide with the expression of balance of (matter and spacetime) exchanged heats, i.e. the thermodynamic variational principle from which the field equations have been reported to be derivable. This establishes a link between (this specific, operational understanding of) the meaning of the limit expression of $R_{(q)}$ on one side and the (large-scale) field equations on the other, this way reconnecting (once more) the latter to a quantum feature.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Minimum-length Ricci scalar for null separated events

We consider spacetime endowed with a zero-point length, i.e. with an effective metric structure which allows for a (quantum-mechanically arising) finite distance $L_0$ between events in the limit of their coincidence. Restricting attention to null separated events, we find an expression for the Ricci (bi)scalar in this zero-point-length metric; this is done for when geometric circumstances are such that the collection of all null geodesics emerging from a point $P$ has all the information needed to fix the value of scalar curvature at $P$. Taking then the coincidence and further $L_0 \to 0$ limits, we find that this expression does not reduce to the Ricci scalar $R$ of the ordinary metric but to $(D-1) R_{ab} l^a l^b$ in $D$-dimensional spacetime ($D \ge 4$), where $R_{ab}$ and $l^a$ are the ordinary Ricci tensor and tangent vector to the null geodesics. This adds nicely to the existing results for time and space separations. This finding seems to give further support to the view that the quantity $R_{ab} l^a l^b$, ubiquitous in horizon thermodynamics, embodies something which remains as a relic/remnant/memory of a quantum underlying structure for spacetime in the limit of (actual detectability of) this quantumness fading away, and which as such should enter the scene when aiming to derive/motivate the field equations. Further, it turns out to be the same quantity used in an existing derivation of field equations from a thermodynamic variational principle, thus adding further evidence of an origin as quantum-spacetime relic for the latter.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2019

Quantum metric for null separated events and spacetime atoms

Recently, a proposal has been made to figure out the expected discrete nature of spacetime at the smallest scales in terms of atoms of spacetime, capturing their effects through a scalar $ρ$, related to their density, function of the point $P$ and vector $v^a$ at $P$. This has been done in the Euclideanized space one obtains through analytic continuation from Lorentzian sector at $P$. $ρ$ has been defined in terms of a peculiar `effective' metric $q_{ab}$, of quantum origin, introduced for spacelike/timelike separated events. This metric stems from requiring that $q_{ab}$ coincides with $g_{ab}$ at large (space/time) distances, but gives finite distance in the coincidence limit, and implements directly this way one single, very basic aspect associated to any quantum description of spacetime: length quantization. Since the latter appears a quite common feature in the available quantum descriptions of gravity, this quantum metric $q_{ab}$ can be suspected to have a rather general scope and to be re-derivable (and cross-checkable) in various specific quantum models of gravity, even markedly different one from the other. This work reports on an attempt to introduce a definition of $ρ$ not through the Euclidean but directly in the Lorentz sector. This turns out to be not a so trivial task, essentially because of the null case, meaning when $v^a$ is null, as in this case it seems we lack even a concept of $q_{ab}$. A notion for the quantum metric $q_{ab}$ for null separated events is then proposed and an expression for it is derived. From it, a formula for $ρ$ is deduced, which turns out to coincide with what obtained through analytic continuation. This virtually completes the task of having quantum expressions of any kind of spacetime intervals, with, moreover, $ρ$ defined directly in terms of them (not in the Euclideanized space).

gr-qc↗

arXiv2019

Raychaudhuri equation with zero point length

The Raychaudhuri equation for a geodesic congruence in the presence of a zero-point length has been investigated. This is directly related to the small-scale structure of spacetime and possibly captures some quantum gravity effects. The existence of such a minimum distance between spacetime events modifies the associated metric structure and hence the expansion as well as its rate of change deviates from standard expectations. This holds true for any kind of geodesic congruences, including time-like and null geodesics. Interestingly, this construction works with generic spacetime geometry without any need of invoking any particular symmetry. In particular, inclusion of a zero-point length results into a non-vanishing cross-sectional area for the geodesic congruences even in the coincidence limit, thus avoiding formation of caustics. This will have implications for both time-like and null geodesic congruences, which may lead to avoidance of singularity formation in the quantum spacetime.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2019

Spacetime atoms and extrinsic curvature of equi-geodesic surfaces

A recently-introduced function $ρ$ of spacetime event $P$ expressing spacetime as made of 'spacetime atoms' of quantum origin is considered. Using its defining relation, we provide an exact expression for $ρ$ involving the van Vleck biscalar, and show it can be recast in terms of the extrinsic curvature of suitable equi-geodesic surfaces centered at $P$. Moreover, looking at the role $ρ$ plays in the statistical description of spacetime, we point out that this quantity should actually be understood as counting the quantum states of the collection of spacetime atoms rather than counting directly the spacetime atoms themselves (or the degrees of freedom associated to them), and would correspond to the ratio of the number of quantum states 'at $P$' for an assigned spacetime configuration to the number of quantum states for flat spacetime.

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