arXiv subjects

Hongwei Yu

Publications and source records attributed to Hongwei Yu.

At least 217 records · Page 12Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

Constraints on the unified dark energy-dark matter model from latest observational data

The generalized Chaplygin gas (GCG), is studied in this paper by using the latest observational data including 182 gold sample type Ia supernovae (Sne Ia) data, the ESSENCE Sne Ia data, the distance ratio from $z=0.35$ to $z=1089$ (the redshift of decoupling), the CMB shift parameter and the Hubble parameter data. Our results rule out the standard Chaplygin gas model ($α=1$) at the 99.7% confidence level, but allow for the $λCDM$ model ($α=0$) at the 68.3% confidence level. At a 95.4% confidence level, we obtain $w=-0.74_{-0.09}^{+0.10}$ and $α=-0.14_{-0.19}^{+0.30}$. In addition, we find that the phase transition from deceleration to acceleration occurs at redshift $z_{q=0}\sim 0.78-0.89$ at a $1σ$ confidence level for the GCG model.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect and spontaneous excitation of an accelerated atom interacting with a quantum scalar field

We investigate, from the point of view of a coaccelerated frame, the spontaneous excitation of a uniformly accelerated two-level atom interacting with a scalar field in a thermal state at a finite temperature $T$ and show that the same spontaneous excitation rate for the uniformly accelerated atom in the Minkowski vacuum obtained in the inertial frame can only be recovered in the coaccelerated frame assuming a thermal bath at the Fulling-Davies-Unruh temperature $T_{FDU}=a/2π$ for what appears to be the Minkowski vacuum to the inertial observer. Our discussion provides another example of a physical process different from those examined before in the literature to better understand the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2007

Spontaneous excitation of an accelerated multilevel atom in dipole coupling to the derivative of a scalar field

We study the spontaneous excitation of an accelerated multilevel atom in dipole coupling to the derivative of a massless quantum scalar field and separately calculate the contributions of the vacuum fluctuation and radiation reaction to the rate of change of the mean atomic energy of the atom. It is found that, in contrast to the case where a monopole like interaction between the atom and the field is assumed, there appear extra corrections proportional to the acceleration squared, in addition to corrections which can be viewed as a result of an ambient thermal bath at the Unruh temperature, as compared with the inertial case, and the acceleration induced correction terms show anisotropy with the contribution from longitudinal polarization being four times that from the transverse polarization for isotropically polarized accelerated atoms. Our results suggest that the effect of acceleration on the rate of change of the mean atomic energy is dependent not only on the quantum field to which the atom is coupled, but also on the type of the interaction even if the same quantum scalar field is considered.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2006

Generalized Chaplygin gas model: constraints from Hubble parameter versus Redshift Data

We examine observational constraints on the generalized Chaplygin gas (GCG) model for dark energy from the 9 Hubble parameter data points, the 115 SNLS Sne Ia data and the size of baryonic acoustic oscillation peak at redshift, $z=0.35$. At a 95.4% confidence level, a combination of three data sets gives $0.67\leq A_s\leq 0.83$ and $-0.21\leq α\leq 0.42$, which is within the allowed parameters ranges of the GCG as a candidate of the unified dark matter and dark energy. It is found that the standard Chaplygin gas model ($α=1$) is ruled out by these data at the 99.7% confidence level.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2006

Constraints on a variable dark energy model with recent observations

We place, by the maximum likelihood method, constraints on a variable dark energy model with the equation of state $w=w_0/[1+b\ln (1+z)]^2$ using some recent observational data, including the new Sne Ia data from the SNLS, the size of baryonic acoustic oscillation peak from SDSS and the CMB data from WMAP3. We find that the SNLS data favor models with $w_0$ around -1, in contrast to the Gold data set which favors a more negative $w_0$. By combining these three databases, we obtain that $Ω_m=0.27_{-0.038}^{+0.036}$, $w_0=-1.11_{-0.30}^{+0.21}$ and $b=0.31^{+ 0.71}_{-0.31}$ with $χ^2=110.4$ at the 95% confidence level. Our result suggests that a varying dark energy model and a crossing of the $w = -1$ line are favored, and the present value of the equation of state of dark energy is very likely less than -1.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Entanglement generation in atoms immersed in a thermal bath of external quantum scalar fields with a boundary

We examine the entanglement creation between two mutually independent two-level atoms immersed in a thermal bath of quantum scalar fields in the presence of a perfectly reflecting plane boundary. With the help of the master equation that describes the evolution in time of the atom subsystem obtained, in the weak-coupling limit, by tracing over environment (scalar fields) degrees of freedom, we find that the presence of the boundary may play a significant role in the entanglement creation in some circumstances and the new parameter, the distance of the atoms from the boundary, besides the bath temperature and the separation between the atoms, gives us more freedom in manipulating entanglement generation. Remarkably, the final remaining entanglement in the equilibrium state is independent of the presence of the boundary.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Spontaneous absorption of an accelerated hydrogen atom near a conducting plane in vacuum

We study, in the multipolar coupling scheme, a uniformly accelerated multilevel hydrogen atom in interaction with the quantum electromagnetic field near a conducting boundary and separately calculate the contributions of the vacuum fluctuation and radiation reaction to the rate of change of the mean atomic energy. It is found that the perfect balance between the contributions of vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction that ensures the stability of ground-state atoms is disturbed, making spontaneous transition of ground-state atoms to excited states possible in vacuum with a conducting boundary. The boundary-induced contribution is effectively a nonthermal correction, which enhances or weakens the nonthermal effect already present in the unbounded case, thus possibly making the effect easier to observe. An interesting feature worth being noted is that the nonthermal corrections may vanish for atoms on some particular trajectories.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2006

Can universe exit from phantom inflation due to gravitational back reaction?

The effects of the gravitational back reaction of cosmological perturbations are investigated in a phantom inflation model. The effective energy-momentum tensor of the gravitational back reaction of cosmological perturbations whose wavelengths are larger than the Hubble radius is calculated. Our results show that the effects of gravitational back reaction will counteract that of the phantom energy. It is demonstrated in a chaotic phantom inflation model that if the phantom field at the end of inflation is larger than a critical value determined by the necessary e-folds, the phantom inflation phase might be terminated by the gravitational back reaction.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2006

Spontaneous excitation of an accelerated atom in a spacetime with a reflecting plane boundary

We study a two-level atom in interaction with a real massless scalar quantum field in a spacetime with a reflecting boundary. The presence of the boundary modifies the quantum fluctuations of the scalar field, which in turn modifies the radiative properties of atoms. We calculate the rate of change of the mean atomic energy of the atom for both inertial motion and uniform acceleration. It is found that the modifications induced by the presence of a boundary make the spontaneous radiation rate of an excited inertial atom to oscillate near the boundary and this oscillatory behavior may offer a possible opportunity for experimental tests for geometrical (boundary) effects in flat spacetime. While for accelerated atoms, the transitions from ground states to excited states are found to be possible even in vacuum due to changes in the vacuum fluctuations induced by both the presence of the boundary and the acceleration of atoms, and this can be regarded as an actual physical process underlying the Unruh effect.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2006

Spontaneous excitation of an accelerated hydrogen atom coupled with electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations

We consider a multilevel hydrogen atom in interaction with the quantum electromagnetic field and separately calculate the contributions of the vacuum fluctuation and radiation reaction to the rate of change of the mean atomic energy of the atom for uniform acceleration. It is found that the acceleration disturbs the vacuum fluctuations in such a way that the delicate balance between the contributions of vacuum fluctuation and radiation reaction that exists for inertial atoms is broken, so that the transitions to higher-lying states from ground state are possible even in vacuum. In contrast to the case of an atom interacting with a scalar field, the contributions of both electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction to the spontaneous emission rate are affected by the acceleration, and furthermore the contribution of the vacuum fluctuations contains a non-thermal acceleration-dependent correction, which is possibly observable.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2006

Brownian motion of a charged test particle near a reflecting boundary at finite temperature

We discuss the random motion of charged test particles driven by quantum electromagnetic fluctuations at finite temperature in both the unbounded flat space and flat spacetime with a reflecting boundary and calculate the mean squared fluctuations in the velocity and position of the test particle. We show that typically the random motion driven by the quantum fluctuations is one order of magnitude less significant than that driven by thermal noise in the unbounded flat space. However, in the flat space with a reflecting plane boundary, the random motion of quantum origin can become much more significant than that of thermal origin at very low temperature.

hep-th↗

arXiv2006

Statefinder parameters for quintom dark energy model

We perform in this paper a statefinder diagnostic to a dark energy model with two scalar fields, called "quintom", where one of the scalar fields has a canonical kinetic energy term and the other has a negative one. Several kinds of potentials are discussed. Our results show that the statefinder diagnostic can differentiate quintom model with other dark energy models.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2005

Avoidance of Big Rip In Phantom Cosmology by Gravitational Back Reaction

The effects of the gravitational back reaction of cosmological perturbations are investigated in a cosmological model where the universe is dominated by phantom energy. We assume a COBE normalized spectrum of cosmological fluctuations at the present time and calculate the effective energy-momentum tensor of the gravitational back-reactions of cosmological perturbations whose wavelengths at the time when the back-reactions are evaluated are larger than the Hubble radius. Our results reveal that the effects of gravitational back-reactions will counteract that of phantom energy sooner or later and can become large enough to terminate the phantom dominated phase before the big rip as the universe evolves. This arises because the phase space of infrared modes grows very rapidly as we come close to the big rip.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Brownian motion of a charged test particle in vacuum between two conducting plates

The Brownian motion of a charged test particle caused by quantum electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations between two perfectly conducting plates is examined and the mean squared fluctuations in the velocity and position of the test particle are calculated. Our results show that the Brownian motion in the direction normal to the plates is reinforced in comparison to that in the single-plate case. The effective temperature associated with this normal Brownian motion could be three times as large as that in the single-plate case. However, the negative dispersions for the velocity and position in the longitudinal directions, which could be interpreted as reducing the quantum uncertainties of the particle, acquire positive corrections due to the presence of the second plate, and are thus weakened.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2004

Vacuum fluctuations and Brownian motion of a charged test particle near a reflecting boundary

We study the Brownian motion of a charged test particle coupled to electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations near a perfectly reflecting plane boundary. The presence of the boundary modifies the quantum fluctuations of the electric field, which in turn modifies the motion of the test particle. We calculate the resulting mean squared fluctuations in the velocity and position of the test particle. In the case of directions transverse to the boundary, the results are negative. This can be interpreted as reducing the quantum uncertainty which would otherwise be present.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2003

Quantum inequalities for the free Rarita-Schwinger fields in flat spacetime

Using the methods developed by Fewster and colleagues, we derive a quantum inequality for the free massive spin-${3\over 2}$ Rarita-Schwinger fields in the four dimensional Minkowski spacetime. Our quantum inequality bound for the Rarita-Schwinger fields is weaker, by a factor of 2, than that for the spin-${1\over 2}$ Dirac fields. This fact along with other quantum inequalities obtained by various other authors for the fields of integer spin (bosonic fields) using similar methods lead us to conjecture that, in the flat spacetime, separately for bosonic and fermionic fields, the quantum inequality bound gets weaker as the the number of degrees of freedom of the field increases. A plausible physical reason might be that the more the number of field degrees of freedom, the more freedom one has to create negative energy, therefore, the weaker the quantum inequality bound.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2003

Quantum states with negative energy density in the Dirac field and quantum inequalities

Energy densities of the quantum states that are superposition of two multi-electron-positron states are examined. It is shown that the energy densities can be negative only when two multi-particle states have the same number of electrons and positrons or when one state has one more electron-positron pair than the other. In the cases in which negative energy could arise, we find that the energy is that of a positive constant plus a propagating part which oscillates between positive and negative, and the energy can dip to negative at some places at for a certain period of time if the quantum states are properly manipulated. It is demonstrated that the negative energy densities satisfy the quantum inequality. Our results also reveal that for a given particle content, the detection of negative energy is an operation that depends on the frame where any measurement is to be performed. This suggests that the sign of energy density for a quantum state may be a coordinate-dependent quantity in quantum theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2003

Quantum fluctuations of lightcone in 4-dimensional spacetime with parallel plane boundaries

Quantum fluctuations of lightcone are examined in a 4-dimensional spacetime with two parallel planes. Both the Dirichlet and the Neumann boundary conditions are considered. In all the cases we have studied, quantum lightcone fluctuations are greater where the Neumann boundary conditions are imposed, suggesting that quantum lightcone fluctuations depend not only on the geometry and topology of the spacetime as has been argued elsewhere but also on boundary conditions. Our results also show that quantum lightcone fluctuations are larger here than that in the case of a single plane. Therefore, the confinement of gravitons in a smaller region by the presence of a second plane reinforces the quantum fluctuations and this can be understood as a consequence of the uncertainty principle.

gr-qc↗