arXiv subjects

B. L. Hu

Publications and source records attributed to B. L. Hu.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

arXiv1997

Nonequilibrium inflaton dynamics and reheating: Back reaction of parametric particle creation and curved spacetime effects

We present a detailed and systematic analysis of the nonperturbative, nonequilibrium dynamics of a quantum field in the reheating phase of inflatonary cosmology, including full back reactions of the quantum field on the curved spacetime, as well as the fluctuations on the mean field. We use the O(N) field theory with unbroken symmetry in a spatially flat FRW universe to study the dynamics of the inflaton in the post-inflaton, preheating stage. Oscillations of the inflaton's zero mode induce parametric amplification of quantum fluctuations, resulting in a rapid transfer of energy to the inhomogeneous modes of the inflaton field. We adopt the coupled nonperturbative equations for the mean field and variance derived in a preceding paper [gr-qc/9706001] by means of a two-particle-irreducible (2PI), closed-time-path (CTP) effective action for curved spacetime while specialized to leading order in the 1/N expansion. Adiabatic regularization is employed. The renormalized dynamical equations are evolved numerically from initial data which are generic to the end state of slow roll in many inflatonary cosmological scenarios. The initial conditions consist of a large-amplitude, quasiclassical, oscillating mean field, and a variance given by the de Sitter-invariant vacuum. We find that for sufficiently large initial mean-field amplitudes in this model, the parametric resonance effect alone (in a collisionless approximation) is not an efficient means to "preheat" the quantum field. For small initial mean-field amplitude, damping of the mean field via parametric amplification of quantum fluctuations is seen to occur. Our results indicate that the self-consistent dynamics of spacetime plays an important role in determining the physics of the post-inflatonary Universe.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1997

Coherence and Fluctuations in the Interaction between Moving Atoms and a Quantum Field

Mesoscopic physics deals with three fundamental issues: quantum coherence, fluctuations and correlations. Here we analyze these issues for atom optics, using a simplified model of an assembly of atoms (or detectors, which are particles with some internal degree of freedom) moving in arbitrary trajectories in a quantum field. Employing the influence functional formalism, we study the self-consistent effect of the field on the atoms, and their mutual interactions via coupling to the field. We derive the coupled Langevin equations for the atom assemblage and analyze the relation of dissipative dynamics of the atoms with the correlation and fluctuations of the quantum field. This provides a useful theoretical framework for analysing the coherent properties of atom-field systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1997

Wave Propagation in Stochastic Spacetimes: Localization, Amplification and Particle Creation

Here we study novel effects associated with electromagnetic wave propagation in a Robertson-Walker universe and the Schwarzschild spacetime with a small amount of metric stochasticity. We find that localization of electromagnetic waves occurs in a Robertson-Walker universe with time-independent metric stochasticity, while time-dependent metric stochasticity induces exponential instability in the particle production rate. For the Schwarzschild metric, time-independent randomness can decrease the total luminosity of Hawking radiation due to multiple scattering of waves outside the black hole and gives rise to event horizon fluctuations and thus fluctuations in the Hawking temperature.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1997

O(N) Quantum fields in curved spacetime

For the O(N) field theory with lambda Phi^4 self-coupling, we construct the two-particle-irreducible (2PI), closed-time-path (CTP) effective action in a general curved spacetime. From this we derive a set of coupled equations for the mean field and the variance. They are useful for studying the nonperturbative, nonequilibrium dynamics of a quantum field when full back reactions of the quantum field on the curved spacetime, as well as the fluctuations on the mean field, are required. Applications to phase transitions in the early Universe such as the Planck scale or in the reheating phase of chaotic inflation are under investigation.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1997

Thermal Particle Creation in Cosmological Spacetimes: A Stochastic Approach

The stochastic method based on the influence functional formalism introduced in an earlier paper to treat particle creation in near-uniformly accelerated detectors and collapsing masses is applied here to treat thermal and near-thermal radiance in certain types of cosmological expansions. It is indicated how the appearance of thermal radiance in different cosmological spacetimes and in the two apparently distinct classes of black hole and cosmological spacetimes can be understood under a unifying conceptual and methodological framework.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1996

Entropy and Uncertainty of Squeezed Quantum Open Systems

We define the entropy S and uncertainty function of a squeezed system interacting with a thermal bath, and study how they change in time by following the evolution of the reduced density matrix in the influence functional formalism. As examples, we calculate the entropy of two exactly solvable squeezed systems: an inverted harmonic oscillator and a scalar field mode evolving in an inflationary universe. For the inverted oscillator with weak coupling to the bath, at both high and low temperatures, $S\to r $, where r is the squeeze parameter. In the de Sitter case, at high temperatures, $S\to (1-c)r$ where $c = γ_0/H$, $γ_0$ being the coupling to the bath and H the Hubble constant. These three cases confirm previous results based on more ad hoc prescriptions for calculating entropy. But at low temperatures, the de Sitter entropy $S\to (1/2-c)r$ is noticeably different. This result, obtained from a more rigorous approach, shows that factors usually ignored by the conventional approaches, i.e., the nature of the environment and the coupling strength betwen the system and the environment, are important.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1996

Fluctuations of the vacuum energy density of quantum fields in curved spacetime via generalized zeta functions

For quantum fields on a curved spacetime with an Euclidean section, we derive a general expression for the stress energy tensor two-point function in terms of the effective action. The renormalized two-point function is given in terms of the second variation of the Mellin transform of the trace of the heat kernel for the quantum fields. For systems for which a spectral decomposition of the wave opearator is possible, we give an exact expression for this two-point function. Explicit examples of the variance to the mean ratio $Δ' = (<ρ^2>-<ρ>^2)/(<ρ>^2)$ of the vacuum energy density $ρ$ of a massless scalar field are computed for the spatial topologies of $R^d\times S^1$ and $S^3$, with results of $Δ'(R^d\times S^1) =(d+1)(d+2)/2$, and $Δ'(S^3) = 111$ respectively. The large variance signifies the importance of quantum fluctuations and has important implications for the validity of semiclassical gravity theories at sub-Planckian scales. The method presented here can facilitate the calculation of stress-energy fluctuations for quantum fields useful for the analysis of fluctuation effects and critical phenomena in problems ranging from atom optics and mesoscopic physics to early universe and black hole physics.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1996

General Relativity as Geometro-Hydrodynamics

In the spirit of Sakharov's `metric elasticity' proposal, we draw a loose analogy between general relativity and the hydrodynamic state of a quantum gas. In the `top-down' approach, we examine the various conditions which underlie the transition from some candidate theory of quantum gravity to general relativity. Our emphasis here is more on the `bottom-up' approach, where one starts with the semiclassical theory of gravity and examines how it is modified by graviton and quantum field excitations near and above the Planck scale. We mention three aspects based on our recent findings: 1) Emergence of stochastic behavior of spacetime and matter fields depicted by an Einstein-Langevin equation. The backreaction of quantum fields on the classical background spacetime manifests as a fluctuation-dissipation relation. 2) Manifestation of stochastic behavior in effective theories below the threshold arising from excitations above. The implication for general relativity is that such Planckian effects, though exponentially suppressed, is in principle detectable at sub-Planckian energies. 3) Decoherence of correlation histories and quantum to classical transition. From Gell-Mann and Hartle's observation that the hydrodynamic variables which obey conservation laws are most readily decohered, one can, in the spirit of Wheeler, view the conserved Bianchi identity obeyed by the Einstein tensor as an indication that general relativity is a hydrodynamic theory of geometry. Many outstanding issues surrounding the transition to general relativity are of a nature similar to hydrodynamics and mesoscopic physics.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1996

Near-Thermal Radiation in Detectors, Mirrors and Black Holes: A Stochastic Approach

In analyzing the nature of thermal radiance experienced by an accelerated observer (Unruh effect), an eternal black hole (Hawking effect) and in certain types of cosmological expansion, one of us proposed a unifying viewpoint that these can be understood as arising from the vacuum fluctuations of the quantum field being subjected to an exponential scale transformation. This viewpoint, together with our recently developed stochastic theory of particle-field interaction understood as quantum open systems described by the influence functional formalism, can be used to address situations where the spacetime possesses an event horizon only asymptotically, or none at all. Examples studied here include detectors moving at uniform acceleration only asymptotically or for a finite time, a moving mirror, and a collapsing mass. We show that in such systems radiance indeed is observed, albeit not in a precise Planckian spectrum. The deviation therefrom is determined by a parameter which measures the departure from uniform acceleration or from exact exponential expansion. These results are expected to be useful for the investigation of non-equilibrium black hole thermodynamics and the linear response regime of backreaction problems in semiclassical gravity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1996

Hawking-Unruh Thermal Radiance as Relativistic Exponential Scaling of Quantum Noise

The Hawking-Unruh effect of thermal radiance from a black hole or observed by an accelerated detector is usually viewed as a geometric effect related to the existence of an event horizon. Here we propose a new viewpoint, that the detection of thermal radiance in these systems is a local, kinematic effect arising from the vacuum being subjected to a relativistic exponential scale transformation. This kinematic effect alters the relative weight of quantum versus thermal fluctuations (noise) between the two vacua. This approach can treat conditions which the geometric approach cannot, such as systems which do not even have an event horizon. An example is the case of an observer whose acceleration is nonuniform or only asymptotically uniform. Since this approach is based on concepts and techniques of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, it is more adept to dynamical problems, such as the dissipation, fluctuation, and entropy aspects of particle creation and phase transitions in black hole collapse and in the early universe.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1995

Quantum Origin of Noise and Fluctuations in Cosmology

We address two basic issues in the theory of galaxy formation from fluctuations of quantum fields: 1) the nature and origin of noise and fluctuations and 2) the conditions for using a classical stochastic equation for their description. On the first issue, we derive the influence functional for a $λϕ^4 $ field in a zero-temperature bath in de Sitter universe and obtain the correlator for the colored noises of vacuum fluctuations. This exemplifies a new mechanism we propose for colored noise generation which can act as seeds for galaxy formation with non-Gaussian distributions. For the second issue, we present a (functional) master equation for the inflaton field in de Sitter universe. By examining the form of the noise kernel we study the decoherence of the long-wavelength sector and the conditions for it to behave classically.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1995

Statistical Mechanics and Quantum Cosmology

Statistical mechanical concepts and processes such as decoherence, correlation, and dissipation can prove to be of basic importance to understanding some fundamental issues of quantum cosmology and theoretical physics such as the choice of initial states, quantum to classical transition and the emergence of time. Here we summarize our effort in 1) constructing a unified theoretical framework using techniques in interacting quantum field theory such as influence functional and coarse-grained effective action to discuss the interplay of noise, fluctuation, dissipation and decoherence; and 2) illustrating how these concepts when applied to quantum cosmology can alter the conventional views on some basic issues. Two questions we address are 1) the validity of minisuperspace truncation, which is usually assumed without proof in most discussions, and 2) the relevance of specific initial conditions, which is the prevailing view of the past decade. We also mention how some current ideas in chaotic dynamics, dissipative collective dynamics and complexity can alter our view of the quantum nature of the universe.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1995

Correlation Dynamics of Quantum Fields and Black Hole Information Paradox

In recent years a statistical mechanics description of particles, fields and spacetime based on the concept of quantum open systems and the influence functional formalism has been introduced. It reproduces in full the established theory of quantum fields in curved spacetime and contains also a microscopic description of their statistical properties, such as noise, fluctuations, decoherence, and dissipation. This new framework allows one to explore the quantum statistical properties of spacetime at the interface between the semiclassical and quantum gravity regimes, as well as important non-equilibrium processes in the early universe and black holes, such as particle creation, entropy generation, galaxy formation, Hawking radiation, gravitational collapse, backreaction and the black hole end-state and information lost issues. Here we give a summary of the theory of correlation dynamics of quantum fields and describe how this conceptual scheme coupled with scaling behavior near the infrared limit can shed light on the black hole information paradox.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1995

Cosmology as `Condensed Matter' Physics

We note that in general there exist two basic aspects in any branch of physics, including cosmology - one dealing with the attributes of basic constituents and forces of nature, the other dealing with how structures arise from them and how they evolve. Current research in quantum and superstring cosmology is directed mainly towards the first aspect, even though a viable theory of the underlying interactions is lacking. We call the attention to the development of the second aspect, i.e., on the organization and processing of the basic constituents of matter (in classical cosmology) and spacetime (in quantum cosmology). Many newly developed concepts and techniques in condensed matter physics stemming from the investigation of disordered, dynamical and complex systems can guide us in asking the right questions and formulating new solutions to existing and developing cosmological issues, thereby broadening our view of the universe both in its formative and present state.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1995

Semiclassical Gravity and Mesoscopic Physics

Developments in theoretical cosmology in the recent decades show a close connection with particle physics, quantum gravity and unified theories. Answers or hints to many fundamental questions in cosmology like the homogeneity and isotropy of the Universe, the sources of structure formation and entropy generation, and the initial state of the Universe can be traced back to the activities of quantum fields and the dynamics of spacetime from the Grand Unification time to the Planck time at $10^{-43} sec$. A closer depiction of this primordial state of the Universe requires at least a semiclassical theory of gravity and the consideration of non-equilibrium statistical processes involving quantum fields. This critical state is intermediate between the well-known classical epoch successfully described by Einstein's Theory of General Relativity and the completely unknown realm of quantum gravity. Many issues special to this stage such as the transition from quantum to classical spacetime via decoherence, cross-over behavior at the Planck scale, tunneling and particle creation, or growth of density contrast from vacuum fluctuations share some basic concerns of mesoscopic physics for condensed matter, atoms or nuclei, in the quantum/classical and the micro/macro interfaces, or the discrete/continuum and the stochastic/ deterministic transitions. We point out that underlying these issues are three main factors: quantum coherence, fluctuations and correlation. We discuss how a deeper understanding of these aspects of fields and spacetimes can help one to address some basic problems, such as Planck scale metric fluctuations, cosmological phase transition and structure formation, and the black hole entropy, end-state and information paradox.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1995

Stochastic Theory of Accelerated Detectors in a Quantum Field

We analyze the statistical mechanical properties of n-detectors in arbitrary states of motion interacting with each other via a quantum field. We use the open system concept and the influence functional method to calculate the influence of quantum fields on detectors in motion, and the mutual influence of detectors via fields. We discuss the difference between self and mutual impedance and advanced and retarded noise. The mutual effects of detectors on each other can be studied from the Langevin equations derived from the influence functional, as it contains the backreaction of the field on the system self-consistently. We show the existence of general fluctuation- dissipation relations, and for trajectories without event horizons, correlation-propagation relations, which succinctly encapsulate these quantum statistical phenomena. These findings serve to clarify some existing confusions in the accelerated detector problem. The general methodology presented here could also serve as a platform to explore the quantum statistical properties of particles and fields, with practical applications in atomic and optical physics problems.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1995

Quantum Fluctuations, Decoherence of the Mean Field, and Structure Formation in the Early Universe

We examine from first principles one of the basic assumptions of modern quantum theories of structure formation in the early universe, i.e., the conditions upon which fluctuations of a quantum field may transmute into classical stochastic perturbations, which grew into galaxies. Our earlier works have discussed the quantum origin of noise in stochastic inflation and quantum fluctuations as measured by particle creation in semiclassical gravity. Here we focus on decoherence and the relation of quantum and classical fluctuations. Instead of using the rather ad hoc splitting of a quantum field into long and short wavelength parts, the latter providing the noise which decoheres the former, we treat a nonlinear theory and examine the decoherence of a quantum mean field by its own quantum fluctuations, or that of other fields it interacts with. This is an example of `dynamical decoherence' where an effective open quantum system decoheres through its own dynamics. The model we use to discuss fluctuation generation has the inflation field coupled to the graviton field. We show that when the quantum to classical transition is properly treated, with due consideration of the relation of decoherence, noise, fluctuation and dissipation, the amplitude of density contrast predicted falls in the acceptable range without requiring a fine tuning of the coupling constant of the inflation field ($λ$). The conventional treatment which requires an unnaturally small $λ\approx 10^{-12}$ stems from a basic flaw in naively identifying classical perturbations with quantum fluctuations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv1995

Decoherence, Delocalization and Irreversibility in Quantum Chaotic Systems

Decoherence in quantum systems which are classically chaotic is studied. The Arnold cat map and the quantum kicked rotor are chosen as examples of linear and nonlinear chaotic systems. The Feynman-Vernon influence functional formalism is used to study the effect of the environment on the system. It is well-known that quantum coherence can obliterate many chaotic behavior in the corresponding classical system. But interaction with an environment can under general circumstances quickly diminish quantum coherence and reenact many classical chaotic behavior. How effective decoherence works to sustain chaos, and how the resultant behavior qualitatively differs from the quantum picture depend on the coupling of the system with the environment and the spectral density and temperature of the environment. We show how recurrence in the quantum cat map is lost and classical ergodicity is recovered due to the effect of the environment. Quantum coherence and diffusion suppression are instrumental to dynamical localization for the kicked rotor. We show how environment-induced effects can destroy this localization. Such effects can also be understood as resulting from external noises driving the system. Peculiar to decohering chaotic systems is the apparent transition from reversible to irreversible dynamics. We show such transitions in the quantum cat map and the kicked rotor and distinguish it from apparent irreversibility originating from dynamical instability and imprecise measurements. By performing a time reversal on and followng the quantum kicked rotor dynamics numerically, we whow how the oth

chao-dyn↗