arXiv subjects

Hongguang Liu

Publications and source records attributed to Hongguang Liu.

51 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Path integral renormalisation in loop quantum cosmology

A coarse graining technique akin to block spin transformations that groups together fiducial cells in a homogeneous and isotropic universe has been recently developed in the context of loop quantum cosmology. The key technical ingredient was an SU(1, 1) group and Lie algebra structure of the physical observables as well as the use of Perelomov coherent states for SU(1, 1). It was shown that the coarse graining operation is completely captured by changing group representations. Based on this result, it was subsequently shown that one can extract an explicit renormalisation group flow of the loop quantum cosmology Hamiltonian operator in a simple model with dust-clock. In this paper, we continue this line of investigation and derive a coherent state path integral formulation of this quantum theory and extract an explicit expression for the renormalisation-scale dependent classical Hamiltonian entering the path integral for a coarse grained description at that scale. We find corrections to the non-renormalised Hamiltonian that are qualitatively similar to those previously investigated via canonical quantisation. In particular, they are again most sensitive to small quantum numbers, showing that the large quantum number (spin) description captured by so called "effective equations" in loop quantum cosmology does not reproduce the physics of many small quantum numbers (spins). Our results have direct impact on path integral quantisation in loop quantum gravity, showing that the usually taken large spin limit should be expected not to capture (without renormalisation, as mostly done) the physics of many small spins that is usually assumed to be present in physically reasonable quantum states.

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arXiv2020

On Rotating Black Holes in DHOST Theories

Using the disformal solution-generating method, we construct new axisymmetric solutions in Degenerate Higher Order Scalar Tensor (DHOST) theories. The method consists in first considering a "seed" known solution in DHOST theories and then performing a disformal transformation of the metric to obtain a new solution. In vacuum, the two solutions are equivalent but they become physically inequivalent when one considers coupling to matter. In that way, we "disform" the stealth Kerr black hole solution and we obtain a first analytic rotating non-stealth solution in DHOST theories, while the associated scalar field is time-dependent with a constant kinetic density. The new solution is characterized by three parameters: the mass, the spin and the disformal parameter which encodes the deviation with respect to the Kerr geometry. We explore some geometrical properties of the novel disformed Kerr geometry which is no more Ricci flat, has the same singularity as the Kerr metric, admits an ergoregion, and is asymptotically flat. Moreover, the hidden symmetry of the Kerr solution is broken, providing an example of a non-circular geometry in a higher order theory of gravity. We also discuss geodesic motions and compute its (disformed) null directions which are interesting tools to understand the causal structure of the geometry. In addition, to illustrate again the potentiality of the disformal solution-generating method, we present another axisymmetric solution for DHOST theories obtained from a disformal transformation of the generalized Kerr solution of Einstein-Scalar gravity.

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arXiv2020

Semiclassical Limit of New Path Integral Formulation from Reduced Phase Space Loop Quantum Gravity

Recently, a new path integral formulation of Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) has been derived in arXiv:1910.03763 from the reduced phase space formulation of the canonical LQG. This paper focuses on the semiclassical analysis of this path integral formulation. We show that dominant contributions of the path integral come from solutions of semiclassical equations of motion (EOMs), which reduces to Hamilton's equations of holonomies and fluxes ${h}(e),{p}^a(e)$ in the reduced phase space $\mathcal{P}_γ$ of the cubic lattice $γ$: $\dot{h}(e)=\{{h}(e),\, \mathbf{H}\}$, $\dot{p}^a(e)=\{{p}^a(e),\, \mathbf{H}\}$, where $\mathbf{H}$ is the discrete physical Hamiltonian. The semiclassical dynamics from the path integral becomes an initial value problem of Hamiltonian time evolution in $\mathcal{P}_γ$. Moreover when we take the continuum limit of the lattice $γ$, these Hamilton's equations reproduce correctly classical reduced phase space EOMs of gravity coupled to dust fields in the continuum, as far as initial and final states are semiclassical. Our result proves that the new path integral formulation has the correct semiclassical limit, and indicates that the reduced phase space quantization in LQG is semiclassically consistent. Based on these results, we compare this path integral formulation and the spin foam formulation, and show that this formulation has several advantages including the finiteness, the relation with canonical LQG, and being free of cosine and flatness problems.

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arXiv2020

Hairy black holes in DHOST theories: Exploring disformal transformation as a solution-generating method

Solutions-generating methods based on field redefinitions, such as conformal mapping, play an important role in investigating exact solutions in modified gravity. In this work, we explore the possibility to use disformal field redefinitions to investigate new regions of the solution space of DHOST theories. The crucial ingredient is to find suitable seed solutions to generate new exact ones for DHOST theories. We first consider a seed solution of the Einstein-Scalar system describing a naked singularity. Under suitable assumptions, we derive a no-go result showing that no black hole solution can be constructed from such a seed GR solution. Then, taking into account the stability of each degeneracy classes of quadratic DHOST theories under a general disformal mapping, we consider two kinds of known black hole solutions as seed configurations: the Schwarzschild stealth solution and the non-stealth Reissner-Nordstrom like solution. Restricting our considerations to invertible disformal transformations, we show that building new hairy black hole solutions from the stealth solution associated to a constant kinetic term is also quite constrained. We obtain new solutions which either are stealth or describe asymptotically locally flat black holes with a deficit solid angle. However, starting from the non-stealth seed solution associated to a non constant kinetic term as well as a time-dependent scalar profile, we show that a disformal transformation can introduce rather general modifications of the exterior geometry. Finally, we consider the construction of minimally modified hairy black hole solutions using a small disformal transformation. Further applications of this solution generating method should allow to provide new hairy rotating black hole solutions beyond the stealth sector useful for phenomenological investigations of compact objects beyond GR.

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arXiv2019

Improved ($\barμ$-Scheme) Effective Dynamics of Full Loop Quantum Gravity

We propose a new derivation from the full Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) to the Loop Quantum Cosmology (LQC) improved $\barμ$-scheme effective dynamics, based on the reduced phase space formulation of LQG and a proposal of effective Hamiltonian/action in the full LQG. A key step of our program is an improved regularization of the full LQG Hamiltonian on a cubic lattice. The improved Hamiltonian uses a set of "dressed holonomies" $h_Δ(\mathfrak{s})$ which not only depend on the connection $A$ but also depend on the length of the curve $\mathfrak{s}$. With the improved Hamiltonian, we propose a quantum effective action and derive a new set effective equations of motion (EOMs) for the full LQG. Then we show that these new EOMs imply the $\barμ$-scheme effective dynamics for both the homogeneous-isotropic and Bianchi-I cosmology, and predict bounce and Planckian critical density. As a byproduct, although the model is defined on a cubic lattice, we find that the improved effective Hamiltonian of cosmology is invariant under the lattice refinement. The cosmological effective dynamics, predictions of bounce and critical density are results at the continuum limit.

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arXiv2019

Effective Dynamics from Coherent State Path Integral of Full Loop Quantum Gravity

A new routine is proposed to relate Loop Quant Cosmology (LQC) to Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) from the perspective of effective dynamics. We derive the big-bang singularity resolution and big bounce from the first principle of full canonical LQG. Our results are obtained in the framework of the reduced phase space quantization of LQG. As a key step in our work, we derive with coherent states a new discrete path integral formula of the transition amplitude generated by the physical Hamiltonian. The semiclassical approximation of the path integral formula gives an interesting set of effective equations of motion (EOMs) for full LQG. When solving the EOMs with homogeneous and isotropic ansatz, we reproduce the LQC effective dynamics in $μ_0$-scheme. The solution replaces the big-bang singularity by a big bounce. In the end, we comment on the possible relation between the $\barμ$-scheme of effective dynamics and the continuum limit of the path integral formula.

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arXiv2019

Unitarity and information in quantum gravity: a simple example

In approaches to quantum gravity, where smooth spacetime is an emergent approximation of a discrete Planckian fundamental structure, any effective smooth field theoretical description would miss part of the fundamental degrees of freedom and thus break unitarity. This is applicable also to trivial gravitational field (low energy) idealizations realized by the use of the Minkowski background geometry which, as any other spacetime geometry, corresponds, in the fundamental description, to infinitely many different and closely degenerate discrete microstates. The existence of such microstates provides a large reservoir for information to be coded at the end of black hole evaporation and thus opens the way to a natural resolution of the black hole evaporation information puzzle. In this paper we show that these expectations can be made precise in a simple quantum gravity model for cosmology motivated by loop quantum gravity. Concretely, even when the model is fundamentally unitary, when microscopic degrees of freedom irrelevant to low-energy cosmological observers are suitably ignored, pure states in the effective description evolve into mixed states due to decoherence with the Planckian microscopic structure. Moreover, in the relevant physical regime these hidden degrees freedom do not carry any `energy' and thus realize in a fully quantum gravitational context the idea (emphasized before by Unruh and Wald) that decoherence can take place without dissipation, now in a concrete gravitational model strongly motivated by quantum gravity. All this strengthen the perspective of a quite conservative and natural resolution of the black hole evaporation puzzle where information is not destroyed but simply degraded (made unavailable to low energy observers) into correlations with the microscopic structure of the quantum geometry at the Planck scale.

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arXiv2019

Asymptotic analysis of spin foam amplitude with timelike triangles

The large $j$ asymptotic behavior of $4$-dimensional spin foam amplitude is investigated for the extended spin foam model (Conrady-Hnybida extension) on a simplicial complex. We study the most general situation in which timelike tetrahedra with timelike triangles are taken into account. The large $j$ asymptotic behavior is determined by critical configurations of the amplitude. We identify the critical configurations that correspond to the Lorentzian simplicial geometries with timelike tetrahedra and triangles. Their contributions to the amplitude are phases asymptotically, whose exponents equal to Regge action of gravity. The amplitude may also contains critical configurations corresponding to non-degenerate split signature $4$-simplices and degenerate vector geometries. But for vertex amplitudes containing at least one timelike tetrahedron and one spacelike tetrahedron, critical configurations only give Lorentzian $4$-simplices, while the split signature and degenerate $4$-simplices do not appear.

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arXiv2019

Polymer Schwarzschild black hole: An effective metric

We consider the modified Einstein equations obtained in the framework of effective spherically symmetric polymer models inspired by Loop Quantum Gravity. When one takes into account the anomaly free point-wise holonomy quantum corrections, the modification of Einstein equations is parametrized by a function $f(x)$ of one phase space variable. We solve explicitly these equations for a static interior black hole geometry and find the effective metric describing the trapped region, inside the black hole, for any $f(x)$. This general resolution allows to take into account a standard ambiguity inherent to the polymer regularization: namely the choice of the spin $j$ labelling the SU$(2)$-representation of the holonomy corrections. When $j=1/2$, the function $f(x)$ is the usual sine function used in the polymer litterature. For this simple case, the effective exterior metric remains the classical Schwarzschild's one but acquires modifications inside the hole. The interior metric describes a regular trapped region and presents strong similarities with the Reissner-Nordström metric, with a new inner horizon generated by quantum effects. We discuss the gluing of our interior solution to the exterior Schwarzschild metric and the challenge to extend the solution outside the trapped region due to covariance requirement. By starting from the anomaly free polymer regularization for inhomogeneous spherically symmetric geometry, and then reducing to the homogeneous interior problem, we provide an alternative treatment to existing polymer interior black hole models which focus directly on the interior geometry, ignoring covariance issue when introducing the polymer regularization.

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arXiv2019

Hairy Schwarzschild-(A)dS black hole solutions in DHOST theories beyond shift symmetry

We derive the general conditions for a large family of shift symmetry breaking degenerate higher order scalar-tensor (DHOST) theories to admit stealth black hole solutions. Such black hole configurations correspond to vacuum solutions of General Relativity and admit a scalar hair which does not gravitate, revealing itself only at the perturbative level. We focus our investigation on hairy Schwarzschild-(A)dS or pure Schwarzschild solutions, dressed with a linear time-dependent scalar hair, and assuming a constant kinetic term. We also discuss subclasses of this family which satisfy the observational constraint $c_{\text{grav}}=c_{\text{light}}$, as well as the recent constraint ensuring the absence of graviton decay. We provide at the end concrete examples of DHOST lagrangians satisfying our conditions. This work provides a first analysis of exact black hole solutions in shift symmetry breaking DHOST theories beyond Horndeski.

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arXiv2018

Non-singular black holes and the Limiting Curvature Mechanism: A Hamiltonian perspective

We revisit the non-singular black hole solution in (extended) mimetic gravity with a limiting curvature from a Hamiltonian point of view. We introduce a parameterization of the phase space which allows us to describe fully the Hamiltonian structure of the theory. We write down the equations of motion that we solve in the regime deep inside the black hole, and we recover that the black hole has no singularity, due to the limiting curvature mechanism. Then, we study the relation between such black holes and effective polymer black holes which have been introduced in the context of loop quantum gravity. As expected, contrary to what happens in the cosmological sector, mimetic gravity with a limiting curvature fails to reproduce the usual effective dynamics of spherically symmetric loop quantum gravity which are generically not covariant. Nonetheless, we exhibit a theory in the class of extended mimetic gravity whose dynamics reproduces the general shape of the effective corrections of spherically symmetric polymer models, but in an undeformed covariant manner. These covariant effective corrections are found to be always metric dependent, i.e. within the $\barμ$-scheme, underlying the importance of this ingredient for inhomogeneous polymer models. In that respect, extended mimetic gravity can be viewed as an effective covariant theory which naturally implements a covariant notion of point wise holonomy-like corrections. The difference between the mimetic and polymer Hamiltonian formulations provides us with a guide to understand the deformation of covariance in inhomogeneous polymer models.

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arXiv2017

Effective loop quantum cosmology as a higher-derivative scalar-tensor theory

Recently, Chamseddine and Mukhanov introduced a higher-derivative scalar-tensor theory which leads to a modified Friedmann equation allowing for bouncing solutions. As we note in the present work, this Friedmann equation turns out to reproduce exactly the loop quantum cosmology effective dynamics for a flat isotropic and homogeneous space-time. We generalize this result to obtain a class of scalar-tensor theories, belonging to the family of mimetic gravity, which all reproduce the loop quantum cosmology effective dynamics for flat, closed and open isotropic and homogeneous space-times.

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arXiv2017

Distinguishing f(R) theories from general relativity by gravitational lensing effect

The post-Newtonian formulation of a general class of f(R) theories is set up to 3rd order approximation. It turns out that the information of a specific form of f(R) gravity is encoded in the Yukawa potential, which is contained in the perturbative expansion of the metric components. Although the Yukawa potential is canceled in the 2nd order expression of the effective refraction index of light, detailed analysis shows that the difference of the lensing effect between the f(R) gravity and general relativity does appear at the 3rd order when $\sqrt{f''(0)/f'(0)}$ is larger than the distance $d_0$ to the gravitational source. However, the difference between these two kinds of theories will disappear in the axially symmetric spacetime region. Therefore only in very rare case the f(R) theories are distinguishable from general relativity by gravitational lensing effect at the 3rd order post-Newtonian approximation.

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arXiv2017

Gravity as an SU(1,1) gauge theory in four dimensions

We start with the Hamiltonian formulation of the first order action of pure gravity with a full $\mathfrak{sl}(2,\mathbb C)$ internal gauge symmetry. We make a partial gauge-fixing which reduces $\mathfrak{sl}(2,\mathbb C)$ to its sub-algebra $\mathfrak{su}(1,1)$. This case corresponds to a splitting of the space-time ${\cal M}=Σ\times \mathbb R$ where $Σ$ inherits an arbitrary Lorentzian metric of signature $(-,+,+)$. Then, we find a parametrization of the phase space in terms of an $\mathfrak{su}(1,1)$ commutative connection and its associated conjugate electric field. Following the techniques of Loop Quantum Gravity, we start the quantization of the theory and we consider the kinematical Hilbert space on a given fixed graph $Γ$ whose edges are colored with unitary representations of $\mathfrak{su}(1,1)$. We compute the spectrum of area operators acting of the kinematical Hilbert space: we show that space-like areas have discrete spectra, in agreement with usual $\mathfrak{su}(2)$ Loop Quantum Gravity, whereas time-like areas have continuous spectra. We conclude on the possibility to make use of this formulation of gravity to construct a holographic description of black holes in the framework of Loop Quantum Gravity.

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arXiv2016

Semi-classical analysis of black holes in Loop Quantum Gravity: Modelling Hawking radiation with volume fluctuations

We introduce the notion of fluid approximation of a quantum spherical black hole in the context of Loop Quantum Gravity. In this limit, the microstates of the black hole are intertwiners between "large" representations $s_i$ which typically scale as $s_i \sim \sqrt{a_H}$ where $a_H$ denotes the area of the horizon in Planck units. The punctures with large colors are, for the black hole horizon, similar to what are the fluid parcels for a classical fluid. We dub them puncels. Hence, in the fluid limit, the horizon is composed by puncels which are themselves interpreted as composed (in the sense of the tensor product) by a large number of more fundamental intertwiners. We study the spectrum of the euclidean volume acting on puncels and we compute its quantum fluctuations. Then, we propose an interpretation of black holes radiation based on the properties of the quantum fluctuations of the euclidean volume operator. We estimate a typical temperature of the black hole and we show that it scales as the Hawking temperature.

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