arXiv subjects

Florian Niedermann

Publications and source records attributed to Florian Niedermann.

43 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Brane induced gravity: Ghosts and naturalness

Linear stability of brane induced gravity in two codimensions on a static pure tension background is investigated. The brane is regularized as a ring of finite circumference in extra space. By explicitly calculating the vacuum persistence amplitude of the corresponding quantum theory, we show that the parameter space is divided into two regions - one corresponding to a stable Minkowski vacuum on the brane and one being plagued by ghost instabilities. This analytical result affirms a recent nonlinear, but mainly numerical analysis. The main result is that the ghost is absent for a sufficiently large brane tension, in perfect agreement with a value expected from a natural effective field theory point of view. Unfortunately, the linearly stable parameter regime is either ruled out phenomenologically or becomes unstable for nontrivial cosmologies. We argue that super-critical brane backgrounds constitute the remaining window of opportunity. In the special case of a tensionless brane, we find that the ghost exists for all phenomenologically relevant values of the induced gravity scale. Regarding this case, there are contradicting results in the literature, and we are able to fully resolve this controversy by explicitly uncovering the errors made in the "no-ghost" analysis. Finally, a Hamiltonian analysis generalizes the ghost result to more than two codimensions.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Cosmology on a cosmic ring

We derive the modified Friedmann equations for a generalization of the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) model in which the brane has one additional compact dimension. The main new feature is the emission of gravitational waves into the bulk. We study two classes of solutions: First, if the compact dimension is stabilized, the waves vanish and one exactly recovers DGP cosmology. However, a stabilization by means of physical matter is not possible for a tension-dominated brane, thus implying a late time modification of 4D cosmology different from DGP. Second, for a freely expanding compact direction, we find exact attractor solutions with zero 4D Hubble parameter despite the presence of a 4D cosmological constant. The model hence constitutes an explicit example of dynamical degravitation at the full non-linear level. Without stabilization, however, there is no 4D regime and the model is ruled out observationally, as we demonstrate explicitly by comparing to supernova data.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Radially stabilized inflating cosmic strings

In General Relativity, cosmic strings are well known to produce a static, locally flat spacetime with a wedge removed. If the tension exceeds a critical value, the deficit angle becomes larger than $ 2π$, leading to a compact exterior that ends in a conical singularity. In this work, we investigate dynamical solutions for cosmic strings with super-critical tensions. To this end, we model the string as a cylindrical shell of finite and stabilized transverse width and show that there is a marginally super-critical regime in which the stabilization can be achieved by physically reasonable matter. We show numerically that the static deficit angle solution is unstable for super-critical string tensions. Instead, the geometry starts expanding in axial direction at an asymptotically constant rate, and a horizon is formed in the exterior, which has the shape of a growing cigar. We are able to find the analytic form of the attractor solution describing the interior of the cosmic string. In particular, this enables us to analytically derive the relation between the string tension and the axial expansion rate. Furthermore, we show that the exterior conical singularity can be avoided for dynamical solutions. Our results might be relevant for theories with two extra dimensions, modeling our universe as a cosmic string with a three-dimensional axis. We derive the corresponding Friedmann equation, relating the on-brane Hubble parameter to the string tension or, equivalently, brane cosmological constant.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

The Universe as a Cosmic String

The cosmology of brane induced gravity in six infinite dimensions is investigated. It is shown that a brane with Friedmann-Robertson-Walker symmetries necessarily acts as a source of cylindrically symmetric gravitational waves, so called Einstein-Rosen waves. Their existence essentially distinguishes this model from its codimension-one counterpart and necessitates solving the nonlinear system of bulk and brane-matching equations. A numerical analysis is performed and two qualitatively different and dynamically separated classes of cosmologies are derived: degravitating solutions for which the Hubble parameter settles to zero despite the presence of a non-vanishing energy density on the brane and super-accelerating solutions for which Hubble grows unbounded. The parameter space of both the stable and unstable regime is derived and observational consequences are discussed: It is argued that the degravitating regime does not allow for a phenomenologically viable cosmology. On the other hand, the super-accelerating solutions are potentially viable, however, their unstable behavior questions their physical relevance.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2013

Interpretation of the Weyl tensor

According to folklore in general relativity, the Weyl tensor can be decomposed into parts corresponding to Newton-like, incoming and outgoing wavelike field components. It is shown here that this one-to-one correspondence does not hold for space-time geometries with cylindrical isometries. This is done by investigating some well-known exact solutions of Einstein's field equations with whole-cylindrical symmetry, for which the physical interpretation is very clear, but for which the standard Weyl interpretation would give contradictory results. For planar or spherical geometries, however, the standard interpretation works for both, static and dynamical space-times. It is argued that one reason for the failure in the cylindrical case is that for waves spreading in two spatial dimensions there is no local criterion to distinguish incoming and outgoing waves already at the linear level. It turns out that Thorne's local energy notion, subject to certain qualifications, provides an efficient diagnostic tool to extract the proper physical interpretation of the space-time geometry in the case of cylindrical configurations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2013

Microscopic Picture of Non-Relativistic Classicalons

A theory of a non-relativistic, complex scalar field with derivatively coupled interaction terms is investigated. This toy model is considered as a prototype of a classicalizing theory and in particular of general relativity, for which the black hole constitutes a prominent example of a classicalon. Accordingly, the theory allows for a non-trivial solution of the stationary Gross-Pitaevskii equation corresponding to a black hole in the case of GR. Quantum fluctuations on this classical background are investigated within the Bogoliubov approximation. It turns out that the perturbative approach is invalidated by a high occupation of the Bogoliubov modes. Recently, it was proposed that a black hole is a Bose-Einstein condensate of gravitons that dynamically ensures to stay at the verge of a quantum phase transition. Our result is understood as an indication for that claim. Furthermore, it motivates a non-linear numerical analysis of the model.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Brane Induced Gravity: From a No-Go to a No-Ghost Theorem

Numerous claims in the literature suggest that gravity induced on a higher co-dimensional surface violates unitarity in the weak coupling regime. However, it remained unclear, why a conserved source localized on this surface and giving rise to an induced gravity term at low energies would absorb and emit the associated ghost, given a consistent source-free theory. In this article it is shown that the appearance of the induced Einstein Hilbert term does not threaten the unitarity of the theory. The physics arguments behind this statement are presented in a semi-covariant language, but the detailed proof is given using Dirac's constraint analysis. It is shown that the would-be ghost highlighted in previous works is non-dynamical and therefore not associated with a state in the Hilbert space. As a result of these investigations, brane induced gravity goes without a ghost, opening an exciting window of opportunity for consistent deformations of gravity at the largest observable distances.

hep-th↗