arXiv subjects

Kinjalk Lochan

Publications and source records attributed to Kinjalk Lochan.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Cavity-controlled Inhibition of Decoherence in Accelerated Quantum Detectors

Vacuum fluctuations of quantum fields provide an unavoidable environment for any quantum system coupled to it. We study the interplay between boundary conditions and acceleration in determining decoherence of a two-level Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to a scalar field in a cylindrical cavity. We show that the decoherence rate closely follows the emission profile, and exhibits {\it Purcell-like} enhancement for both inertial and uniformly accelerated detectors. The acceleration induces an effective smearing of the resonant density of states, diluting the resonance enhancement for large accelerations while replacing the inertial off-resonant decay with an oscillatory behavior for small accelerations. For moderate accelerations, this interplay between cavity-induced and acceleration-assisted effects results in an extended region of cavity parameters where decoherence is strongly suppressed, particularly in regimes where the inertial detector otherwise experience strong decoherence. Thus, contrary to naive expectations, the Unruh thermality in a suitably engineered cavity can enhance rather than degrade quantum coherence, providing a very uncharacteristic feature of quantum fields in non-inertial frames.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Selective enhancement of quantum decay channels

In the decay of quantum particles under field theoretic consideration, the decay rate is typically a convolution of the density of modes the primary field is allowed to decay into and the allowed probability density for the field to decay into such modes. In free space, though many such processes show high amplitude of such transitions towards the infrared sector, the depletion of allowed mode density in that regime arrests the efficacy of such decays at low energies. Therefore in free space, in order to enhance the decay rate, one needs the transition probability density to be rich enough towards the high energy sector where mode density support is also high enough to make the rate sufficiently large. In this work we argue that in the controlled boundary condition environment e.g. in a cavity, the mode functions of product field receive significant support towards their infrared sector, boosting the probability (and hence rates) of low energy processes. The cavity geometry offers sweet spots in terms of resonant geometry around which the interaction of a primary field with product fields receives dramatic enhancement, significantly enlarging its decay rates. Therefore, a judicious selection of cavity geometry serves as a potential substitute to studying interesting processes at high energy. The results have direct relevance for the study of QED processes and implications for the study of exotic new physics are also discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Time-resolved and Superradiantly Amplified Unruh Effect

We identify low-acceleration conditions under which the Unruh effect manifests as an early superradiant burst in a collection of excited atoms. The resulting amplified Unruh signal is resolved from the inertial signal both in time and intensity. We demonstrate theoretically that these conditions are realized inside a sub-resonant cavity that highly suppresses the response of an inertial atom, while allowing significant response from an accelerated atom as, owing to the acceleration-induced spectral broadening, it can still couple to the available field modes. The setup thus selectively amplifies the modified field fluctuations underlying the Unruh effect into an early superradiant burst. In comparison, the field fluctuations perceived inertially would cause a superradiant burst much later. In this way, we simultaneously address the extreme acceleration requirement, the weak Unruh signal, and the dominance of the inertial signal, all within a single experimental arrangement.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Exact path integrals on half-line in quantum cosmology with a fluid clock and aspects of operator ordering ambiguity

We perform $\textit{exact}$ half-line path integral quantization of flat, homogeneous cosmological models containing a perfect fluid acting as an internal clock, in a $D+1$ dimensional minisuperspace setup. We also discuss certain classes of operator ordering ambiguity inherent in such quantization procedures and argue that a particular ordering prescription in the quantum theory can preserve two symmetries, namely arbitrary lapse rescalings and general covariance, which are already present at the classical level. As a result of this imposition, a large class of quantum Hamiltonians differing by operator ordering produces the same inner products between quantum states. This imposition of the two symmetries of the classical minisuperspace models leads to a unique prescription for writing the quantum Hamiltonian for minisuperspace dimension $D>2$. Interestingly, in the case of $D=1$, the lapse rescaling symmetry is lost in the quantum theory, leading to an essentially ambiguous description of the canonical theory. We provide general proof of this in the context of both canonical quantization and path integrals. We supply concrete examples to validate our findings further.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Are accelerated detectors sensitive to Planck scale changes?

One of the foremost concerns in the analysis of quantum gravity is whether the locations of classical horizons are stable under a full quantum analysis. In principle, any classical description, when interpolated to the microscopic level, can become prone to fluctuations. The curious question in that case is if there indeed are such fluctuations at the Planck scale, do they have any significance for physics taking place at scales much away from the Planck scale? In this work, we address the question of small scales and address whether there are definitive signatures of Planck scale shifts in the horizon structure. In a recent work (arXiv:2107.03406), it was suggested that in a nested sequence of Rindler causal wedges, the vacua of preceding Rindler frames appear thermally populated to a shifted Rindler frame. The Bogoliubov analysis relies on the global notion of the quantum field theory and turns out to be insensitive to the local character of these horizon shifts. We investigate this system by means of the Unruh-DeWitt detector and see if this local probe of the quantum field theory is sensitive enough to the shift parameters to reveal any microscopic effects. For the case of infinite-time response, we recover the thermal spectrum, thus reaffirming that the infinite-time response probes the global properties of the field. On the other hand, the finite-time response turns out to be sensitive to the shift parameter in a peculiar way that any detector with energy gap $Ωc/a \sim 1$ and is operational for timescale $T a/c \sim 1$ has a measurably different response for a macroscopic and microscopic shift of the horizon, giving us a direct probe to the tiniest separation between the Rindler wedges. Thus, this study provides an operational method to identify Planck scale effects that can be generalized to various other interesting gravitational settings.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

A nested sequence of inequivalent Rindler vacua : Universal Relic Thermality of Planckian origin

The Bogoliubov transformation connecting the standard inertial frame mode functions to the standard mode functions defined in the Rindler frame $R_0$, leads to the result that the inertial vacuum appears as a thermal state with temperature $T_0=a_0/2π$ where $a_0$ is the acceleration parameter of $R_0$. We construct an infinite family of nested Rindler-like coordinate systems $R_1, R_2, ...$ within the right Rindler wedge, with time coordinates $τ_1, τ_2, ...,$ and acceleration parameters $a_1, a_2, ...$ by shifting the origin along the inertial $x$-axis by amounts $\ell_1, \ell_2,\cdots$. We show that, apart from the inertial vacuum, the \textit{Rindler vacuum} of the frame $R_n$ also appears to be a thermal state in the frame $R_{n+1}$ with the temperature $a_{n+1}/2π$. \textit{In fact, the Rindler frame $R_{n+1}$ attributes to all the Rindler vacuum states of $R_1, R_2, ... R_n$, as well as to the inertial vacuum state, the same temperature $a_{n+1}/2π$.} We further show that our result is discontinuous in an essential way in the coordinate shift parameters. For a Rindler frame $R_i$, this thermality {\it turns on} with smallest non-zero $\ell_i$ allowed in the semiclassical framework and remains insensitive to $(\ell_i,a_{i-1})$ thereafter, indicating its universal Planckian origin. Similar structures can be introduced in the right wedge of any spacetime with bifurcate Killing horizon, like, for e.g., Schwarzschild spacetime. Apart from providing unsuppressed observables capturing Planck scale effects, these results have important implications for quantum gravity when flat spacetime is treated as the ground state of quantum gravity. (Truncated Abstract)

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Quantum Gravity signatures in late time Universe

In the cosmological settings, Quantum Gravity effects are typically understood to be limited towards very early phase of the universe, namely in the pre-inflationary era, with limited signatures spilling over into the succeeding inflationary era which gradually fade away as the universe transits into the subsequent radiation and matter driven expansion. In general scenarios as well, the imprints of possible quantum character of gravitons are typically so feeble that they are expected to remain buried under overwhelming noise from other stronger processes. In this work, we demonstrate that quantized gravitational perturbations cause strong observable effects in cosmological settings post the Last Scattering Surface (LSS) more prominently than any other classical or quantum processes. This counter-intuitive effect is facilitated by the fact that the quantum correlators of the gravitons {\it grow divergently large in the matter dominated era} unlike any other background fields leading to an abrupt rise in the processes mediated by correlators of quantum gravitons, which otherwise is way too feeble. The transitions between spherical harmonics states of a hydrogen atom guided by gravitons in a particular phase of the late time era of the universe, provides an example of such a process. Thus the newly formed atoms post LSS are expected to get excited from the vacuum fluctuations of gravitons quite efficiently in this era and also get de-excited to convert the vacuum fluctuations to an additional channel of energy influx into the evolution history. Such unavoidable processes provide an avenue of quantum graviton mediated process becoming important in the late time era, which has many interesting implications.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Strong Noninertial Radiative Shifts in Atomic Spectra at Low Accelerations

Despite numerous proposals investigating various properties of accelerated detectors in different settings, detecting the Unruh effect remains challenging due to the typically weak signal at achievable accelerations. For an atom with frequency gap $ω_0$, accelerated in free space, significant acceleration-induced modification of properties like transition rates and radiative energy shifts requires accelerations of the order of $ω_0 c$. In this paper, we make the case for a suitably modified density of field states to be complemented by a judicious selection of the system property to be monitored. We study the radiative energy-level shift in inertial and uniformly accelerated atoms coupled to a massless quantum scalar field inside a cylindrical cavity. Uniformly accelerated atoms experience thermal correlations in the inertial vacuum, and the radiative shifts are expected to respond accordingly. We show that the noninertial contribution to the energy shift can be isolated and significantly enhanced relative to the inertial contribution by suitably modifying the density of field modes inside a cylindrical cavity. Moreover, we demonstrate that monitoring the radiative energy shift, as compared to transition rates, allows us to reap a stronger purely-noninertial signal. We find that a purely-noninertial radiative shift as large as 50 times the inertial energy shift can be obtained at small, experimentally achievable accelerations ($ a \sim 10^{-9} ω_{0} c$) if the cavity's radius $R$ is specified with a relative precision of $δR/R_{0} \sim 10^{-7}$. Given that radiative shifts for inertial atoms have already been measured with high accuracy, we argue that the radiative energy-level shift is a promising observable for detecting Unruh thermality with current technology.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Bouncing and collapsing universes dual to late-time cosmological models

We use the Jordan frame-Einstein frame correspondence to explore dual universes with contrasting cosmological evolutions. We study the mapping between Einstein and Jordan frames where the Einstein frame universe describes the late-time evolution of the physical universe, which is driven by dark energy and non-relativistic matter. The Brans-Dicke theory of gravity is considered to be the dual scalar-tensor theory in the Jordan frame. We show that an Einstein frame universe, with cosmological evolution of the $Λ$CDM model, always corresponds to a bouncing Jordan frame universe governed by a Brans-Dicke theory. On the other hand, quintessence models of dark energy with non-relativistic matter component are shown to be always dual to a Brans-Dicke Jordan frame with a turn-around, i.e., a bounce or a collapse. The evolution of the equation of state of the quintessence field determines whether the turn-around is a bounce or a collapse. The point of the Jordan frame turn-around for all the cases can be tuned anywhere by choosing an appropriate Brans-Dicke parameter. This essentially leads to alternative descriptions of the late-time evolution of the physical universe, in terms of bouncing or collapsing Brans-Dicke universes in the Jordan frame. Therefore,the effect of dark energy can equivalently be seen as collapse of space in a conformally connected universe. We further study the stability of such conformal maps against linear perturbations. The effective bouncing and collapsing descriptions of the current accelerating universe may have interesting implications for the evolutions of perturbations and quantum fluctuations in the cosmological background.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Analyzing quantum gravity spillover in the semiclassical regime

One of the standard approaches of incorporating the quantum gravity (QG) effects into the semiclassical analysis is to adopt the notion of a quantum-corrected spacetime arising from the QG model. This procedure assumes that the expectation value of the metric variable effectively captures the relevant QG subtleties in the semiclassical regime. We investigate the viability of this effective geometry approach for the case of dust dominated and a dark energy dominated universe. We write the phase space expressions for the geometric observables and construct corresponding Hermitian operators. A general class of operator ordering of these observables is considered, and their expectation values are calculated for a unitarily evolving wave packet. In the case of dust dominated universe, the expectation value of the Hubble parameter matches the "semiclassical" expression, the expression computed from the scale factor expectation value. In the case of Ricci scalar, the relative difference between the semiclassical expression and quantum expectation is maximum at singularity and decays for late time. For a cosmological constant driven universe, the difference between the semiclassical expressions and the expectation value is most pronounced far away from the bounce point, hinting at the persistent quantum effect at the late time. The parameter related to the shape of the distribution appears as a control parameter in these models. In the limit of a sharply peaked distribution, the expectation value of the observables matches with their semiclassical counterpart, and the usage of effective geometry approach is justified.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Quenched Kitaev Chain: Analogous model of Gravitational Collapse

We investigate generalized thermalization in an isolated free Fermionic chain evolving from an out of equilibrium initial state through a sudden quench. We consider the quench where a Fermionic chain is broken into two disjoint chains. We focus on the evolution of the local observables namely, occupation number, nearest neighbor hopping, information sharing and out-of-time-order correlations after the quench and study the relaxation of the observable, leading to generalized Gibbs ensemble for the system in the thermodynamic limit though it has been argued that non-interacting or free Fermionic models in general do not relax to GGE. We obtain the light cone formed by the evolution of the observables along the Fermionic lattice chain due to the sudden quench which abides by the Lieb-Robinson bound in quantum systems. We also analytically study a simpler model which captures the essential features of the system. Our analysis strongly suggests that the internal interactions within the system do not remain of much importance once the quench is sufficiently strong.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2022

Unruh deWitt probe of late time revival of quantum correlations in Friedmann spacetimes

Unruh deWitt detectors are important constructs in studying the dynamics of quantum fields in any geometric background. Curvature also plays an important role in setting up the correlations of a quantum field in a given spacetime. For instance, massless fields are known to have large correlations in de Sitter space as well as in certain class of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universes. However, some of the correlations are secular in nature while some are dynamic and spacetime dependent. An Unruh deWitt detector responds to such divergences differently in different spacetimes. In this work, we study the response rate of Unruh deWitt detectors which interact with quantum fields in FRW spacetimes. We consider both conventionally as well as derivatively coupled Unruh deWitt detectors. Particularly, we consider their interaction with massless scalar fields in FRW spacetimes and nearly massless scalar fields in de Sitter spacetime. We discuss how the term which gives rise to the infrared divergence in the massless limit in de Sitter spacetime manifests itself at the level of the response rate of these Unruh deWitt detectors in a wide class of Friedmann spacetimes. To carry out this study, we use an equivalence between massless scalar fields in FRW spacetimes with massive scalar fields in de Sitter spacetime. Further, we show that while the derivative coupling regulates the divergence appearing in de Sitter spacetime, it does not completely remove them in matter dominated universe. This gives rise to large transitions in the detector which can be used as a probe of setting up of large correlations in late time era of the universe as well. We show that the coupling of hydrogen atoms with gravitational waves takes a form that is similar to derivatively coupled UdW detectors and hence has significant observational implications as a probe of late time revival of quantum correlators.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Unequal time Commutators in Friedmann universes: Deterministic evolution of massless fields

We analyze minimally coupled massless scalar field in a Friedmann (FRW) universe in conformal co-ordinates to model the evolution of tensor perturbations and study the structure of the Wightman function therein. Using a duality map from a power law FRW universe to the de Sitter universe for such fields we obtain unequal time commutation relations between quantum field variables. We demonstrate that the commutation relations are invariant under state change and/or vacuum state selection. Using such commutators it is then possible to construct out of time ordered commutators (OTOC) in the FRW universes. The OTOCs are supposed to suggest the onset of chaotic behavior during the quantum evolution, we see that in case of Friedmann universes, unlike the scalar perturbations, the causal structure arrests the growth of quantum tensor perturbations for all the relevant epochs of the universe e.g. the de Sitter phase, the radiation dominated and the matter dominated era. Therefore the semi classical results of having a large backreaction and omnipresent noise in certain branches of the Friedmann universes with massless fields such as the tensor perturbations remain robust and stable.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Cavity optimization for Unruh effect at small accelerations

One of the primary reasons behind the difficulty in observing the Unruh effect is that for achievable acceleration scales the finite temperature effects are significant only for the low frequency modes of the field. Since the density of field modes falls for small frequencies in free space, the field modes which are relevant for the thermal effects would be less in number to make an observably significant effect. In this work, we investigate the response of a Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to a massless scalar field which is confined in a long cylindrical cavity. The density of field modes inside such a cavity shows a {\it resonance structure} i.e. it rises abruptly for some specific cavity configurations. We show that an accelerating detector inside the cavity exhibits a non-trivial excitation and de-excitation rates for {\it small} accelerations around such resonance points. If the cavity parameters are adjusted to lie in a neighborhood of such resonance points, the (small) acceleration-induced emission rate can be made much larger than the already observable inertial emission rate. We comment on the possibilities of employing this detector-field-cavity system in the experimental realization of Unruh effect, and argue that the necessity of extremely high acceleration can be traded off in favor of precision in cavity manufacturing for realizing non-inertial field theoretic effects in laboratory settings.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Quantum theory of statistical radiation pressure in free space

Light is known to exert radiation pressure on any surface it is incident upon, via the transfer of momentum from the light to the surface. In general, this force is assumed to be pushing or repulsive in nature. In this paper, we present a complete quantum treatment of radiation pressure. We show that the interaction of an atom with light can lead to both repulsive and attractive forces due to the absorption and emission of photons, respectively. An atom prepared in the excited state initially will experience a pulling force when interacting with light. On the other hand, if the atom is prepared in the ground state then the force will be repulsive while having the same magnitude as in the earlier case. Therefore, for an ensemble of atoms, the direction of the net force will be decided by the excited and ground state populations. In the semi-classical treatment of light-matter interaction, the absorption and emission processes have the same probability. Therefore the magnitudes of the force in the two processes turn out to be the same. We obtain the effective emission profile for an excited atom interacting with a quantum electromagnetic field, and show that in the quantum treatment, despite these probabilities being different, the magnitudes of the two statistical forces remain the same. This can be explained by noting that the extra contribution in the emission process is due to the interaction of the atom with the vacuum modes of the electromagnetic field, which results in a symmetric emission profile, contributing to a net zero force on the atoms in an ensemble. We further identify the set of states of electromagnetic field which give rise to non-zero momentum transfer to the atom.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Geometric phase assisted enhancement of non-inertial cavity-QED effects

The state of a quantum system acquires a phase factor, called the geometric phase, when taken around a closed trajectory in the parameter space, which depends only on the geometry of the parameter space. Due to its sensitive nature, the geometric phase is instrumental in capturing weak effects such as the acceleration-induced non-inertial quantum field theoretic effects. In this paper, we study the geometric phase response of a circularly rotating detector inside an electromagnetic cavity. Using the cavity, the non-inertial contribution to the geometric phase can be isolated from or strengthened relative to the inertial contribution. We show that the accumulative nature of the geometric phase may facilitate the experimental observation of the resulting, otherwise feeble, non-inertial contribution to the modified field correlations inside the cavity. Specifically, we show that the atom acquires an experimentally detectable geometric phase at accelerations of the order of $\sim 10^{7}$ m/s$^2$ which is experimentally feasible.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Infrared signatures of quantum bounce in a minisuperspace analysis of Lema\^ıtre-Tolman-Bondi dust collapse

In the quantum treatment of collapsing matter, a viable mode analysis is supposed to give information regarding emission during the collapse. Nevertheless, partly owing to operator ordering ambiguities involved in a typical quantum gravity analysis, the availability of such well-defined modes is not guaranteed. We study the mode decomposition of the unitarily evolving wave packet constructed for the quantum model of spherically symmetric dust collapsing in a marginally bound Lema\^ıtre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) model. We identify the observable depicting mode decomposition, and using the freedom of operator ordering ambiguity, we obtain the Hermitian extension of this operator alongside the Hermitian Hamiltonian. After identifying incoming and outgoing modes with this operator's eigenstates, we estimate their contributions to the radiation profile. The infrared sector of this process demonstrates some characteristic features which turn out to be highly sensitive to the near-bounce dynamics of the dust cloud. Near the epoch of classical singularity, there is a significant contribution from incoming/outgoing modes of small wavenumber in the expanding/collapsing phase of the dust cloud, which keeps on decreasing as one moves away from the singularity. The information of the bounce is carried over to the infrared modes through a flip from largely incoming to largely outgoing radiation as the evolution progresses from collapsing to expanding phase, much before the information of bounce comes about to any observer. In the infrared sector, the saturation value of the amplitude marks the bounce radius. Thus, we argue that the information of the short scale physics is essentially carried over to the longest wavelength in this quantum gravity model, which we argue is rather more prominent for low energy processes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

$f(R)$ Dual Theories of Quintessence : Expansion-Collapse Duality

The accelerated expansion of the universe demands presence of an exotic matter, namely the dark energy. Though the cosmological constant fits this role very well, a scalar field minimally coupled to gravity, or quintessence, can also be considered as a viable alternative for the cosmological constant. We study $f(R)$ gravity models which can lead to an effective description of dark energy implemented by quintessence fields in Einstein gravity, using the Einstein frame-Jordan frame duality. For a family of viable quintessence models, the reconstruction of the $f(R)$ function in the Jordan frame consists of two parts. We first obtain a perturbative solution of $f(R)$ in the Jordan frame, applicable near the present epoch. Second, we obtain an asymptotic solution for $f(R)$, consistent with the late time limit of the Einstein frame if the quintessence field drives the universe. We show that for certain class of viable quintessence models, the Jordan frame universe grows to a maximum finite size, after which it begins to collapse back. Thus, there is a possibility that in the late time limit where the Einstein frame universe continues to expand, the Jordan frame universe collapses. The condition for this expansion-collapse duality is then generalized to time varying equations of state models, taking into account the presence of non-relativistic matter or any other component in the Einstein frame universe. This mapping between an expanding geometry and a collapsing geometry at the field equation level may have interesting potential implications on the growth of perturbations therein at late times.

gr-qc↗