arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Enrique Alvarez.
The Kerr-Schild gauge is generalized to the case that the vector generating the deformation is not null. Contrary to naive expectations, this vector generates a finite expansion for the curvature tensor. We prove a theorem on the conditions for the deformed metric being Ricci flat, namely that the deformation vector must be irrotational (then geodesic) in the background spacetime.
We compute the parity-odd part of the Weyl anomaly for chiral fermions in a background gravitational field. We start from a manifestly real form of the Lagrangian (that is, not only real up to a total derivative), and we regularize it by means of Pauli-Villars fermions. All parity-odd terms in the anomaly cancel in the integrand, so that the result of the anomaly is necessarily parity-even.
We analyze some aspects of the cubic action for gravity recently proposed by Cheung and Remmen, which is a particular instance of a first order (Palatini) action. In this approach both the spacetime metric and the connection are treated as independent fields. We discuss its BRST invariance and compute explicitly the one-loop contribution of quantum fluctuations around flat space, checking that the corresponding Slavnov-Taylor identities are fulfilled. Finally, our results on a first order action are compared with the existing ones corresponding to a second order action.
Gravitational plane waves (when Ricci flat) belong to the VSI family. The achronym VSI stands for vanishing scalar invariants, meaning that all scalar invariants built out of Riemann tensor and its derivatives vanish, although the Riemann tensor itself does not. In the particular case of plane waves many interesting phenomena have been uncovered for strings propagating in this background. Here we comment on gravitons propagating in such a spacetime, which itself presumably consists of an Avogadro number of such gravitons.
Unimodularity can be implemented in different ways. In this paper we consider only the formulation of Unimodular Gravity in which the unimodular metric is obtained out of an unrestricted one as $\g_{\m\n}=|g|^{-{1\over n}} g_{\m\n}$. This procedure induces an extra Weyl symmetry. Some physical implications of this symmetry on the conserved currents are discussed. Finally the results are illustrated for the Painlevé-Gullstrand extension of Schwarzschild spacetime.
In this paper we study the behavior of a scalar field coupled to gravitons on the Janis-Newman-Winicour background, which somewhat interpolates between Minkowski and Schwarzschild space-times. The most important physical effect we find is that there is a 17-dimensional position-dependent mass matrix YABpxq which happens to be non-diagonal in the basis in which the kinetic energy term is diagonal. There is a different basis with a mixing between the scalar field and the graviton trace in which the mass matrix is diagonal, but this basis fails to diagonalize the kinetic energy piece. This is at variance with what happens in the Standard Model with the quark mixing, and is of course due to the fact that the mass matrix here is position dependent and thus it does not commute with the kinetic energy operator, so that both operators cannot be diagonalized simultaneously.
It is claimed that in the unimodular gravity framework the observational fact of exponential expansion of the universe cannot be taken as evidence for the presence for a cosmological constant or similar quintessence.
The generalization of scale invariance when gravitational effects are considered is Weyl invariance, namely, invariance under (global or local) rescalings of the metric. In this work, we discuss in some details the implications of the fact that the value of the anomaly for the global Weyl invariant coupling of scalar fields to gravity is sensitive to the dynamics (or absence thereof) of the gravitational field.
In this paper some techniques useful to perform quantum field theory computations in a covariant manner are reviewed. In particular the background field gauge, the zeta function regularization and the heat kernel approach are highlighted. Some detailed calculations of the Schwinger-de Witt coefficients of the small proper time expansion of the heat kernel are also repeated in detail. This work reports lectures given by Enrique Álvarez at the IFT-UAM-CSIC in Madrid.
One-loop counterterms are computed in the first order formalism for the Einstein-Hilbert action with a minimally coupled scalar field using the background field method and the heat kernel technique. The {\em off-shell} divergent piece in the harmonic gauge is {\em exactly} the same as the one first found by 't Hooft and Veltman.
This paper is concerned with the structural stability of spherical horizons. By this we mean stability with respect to variations of the second member of the corresponding differential equations, corresponding to the inclusion of the contribution of operators quadratic in curvature. This we do both in the usual second order approach (in which the independent variable is the spacetime metric) and in the first order one (where the independent variables are the spacetime metric and the connection field). In second order, it is claimed that the generic solution in the asymptotic regime (large radius) can be matched not only with the usual solutions with horizons (like Schwarzschild-de Sitter) but also with a more generic (in the sense that it depends on more arbitrary parameters) horizonless family of solutions. It is however remarkable that these horizonless solutions are absent in the {\em restricted} (that is, when the background connection is the metric one) first order approach.
The full one-loop (scalar) effective action is computed for both hyperbolic and elliptic spacetimes.
We discuss the weight of vacuum energy in various contexts. First, we compute the vacuum energy for flat spacetimes of the form $\mathbb{T}^3 \times \mathbb{R}$, where $\mathbb{T}^3$ stands for a general 3-torus. We discover a quite simple relationship between energy at radius $R$ and energy at radius $\frac{l_s^2}{ R}$. Then we consider quantum gravity effects in the vacuum energy of a scalar field in $\mathbb{M}_3 \times S^1$ where $\mathbb{M}_3$ is a general curved spacetime, and the circle $S^1$ refers to a spacelike coordinate. We compute it for General Relativity and generic transverse {\em TDiff} theories. In the particular case of Unimodular Gravity vacuum energy does not gravitate.
These are notes for a graduate course in quantum gravity planned at IFT-UAM/CSIC for the spring term of 2020, but delayed for an indefinite period of time (although a shortened version was given in the Escuela de Fisica (Institute of Physics) in the University of Costa Rica.). The aim of the course was to highlight the most important conceptual problems in the field and to summarize some of the most imaginative solutions to them that have been proposed in the literature. The course can best be characterized as idiosyncratic rather than encyclopedic.
This paper studies both existence and spectral stability properties of bounded spatially periodic traveling wave solutions to a large class of scalar viscous balance laws in one space dimension with a reaction function of monostable or Fisher-KPP type. Under suitable structural assumptions, it is shown that this class of equations underlies two families of periodic waves. The first family consists of small amplitude waves with finite fundamental period which emerge from a Hopf bifurcation around a critical value of the wave speed. The second family pertains to arbitrarily large period waves which arise from a homoclinic bifurcation and tend to a limiting traveling (homoclinic) pulse when their fundamental period tends to infinity. For both families, it is shown that the Floquet (continuous) spectrum of the linearization around the periodic waves intersects the unstable half plane of complex values with positive real part, a property known as spectral instability. For that purpose, in the case of small-amplitude waves it is proved that the spectrum of the linearized operator around the wave can be approximated by that of a constant coefficient operator around the zero solution and determined by a dispersion relation which intersects the unstable complex half plane. In the case of large period waves, we verify that the family satisfies the assumptions of the seminal result by Gardner (1997, J. Reine Angew. Math. 491, pp. 149-181) of convergence of periodic spectra in the infinite-period limit to that of the underlying homoclinic wave, which is unstable. A few examples are discussed.
A new class of conformal field theories is presented, where the background gravitational field is conformally flat. Conformally flat (CF) spacetimes enjoy conformal properties quite similar to the ones of flat spacetime. The conformal isometry group is of maximal rank and the conformal Killing vectors in conformally flat coordinates are {\em exactly} the same as the ones of flat spacetime. In this work, a new concept of distance is introduced, the {\em conformal distance}, which transforms covariantly under all conformal isometries of the CF space. It is shown that precisely for CF spacetimes, an adequate power of the said conformal distance is a solution of the non-minimal d'Alembert equation.
A ghost free massive deformation of unimodular gravity (UG), in the spirit of {\em mimetic massive gravity}, is shown to exist. This construction avoids the no-go theorem for a Fierz-Pauli type of mass term in UG by giving up on Lorentz invariance. In our framework, the mimetic degree of freedom vanishes on-shell.
The most general lagrangian describing spin 2 particles in flat spacetime and containing operators up to (mass) dimension 6 is carefully analyzed, determining the precise conditions for it to be invariant under linearized (transverse) diffeomorphisms, linearized Weyl rescalings, and conformal transformations.