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M. Reuter

Publications and source records attributed to M. Reuter.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2020

The Response Field and the Saddle Points of Quantum Mechanical Path Integrals

In quantum statistical mechanics, Moyal's equation governs the time evolution of Wigner functions and of more general Weyl symbols that represent the density matrix of arbitrary mixed states. A formal solution to Moyal's equation is given by Marinov's path integral. In this paper we demonstrate that this path integral can be regarded as the natural link between several conceptual, geometric, and dynamical issues in quantum mechanics. A unifying perspective is achieved by highlighting the pivotal role which the response field, one of the integration variables in Marinov's integral, plays for pure states even. The discussion focuses on how the integral's semiclassical approximation relates to its strictly classical limit; unlike for Feynman type path integrals, the latter is well defined in the Marinov case. The topics covered include a random force representation of Marinov's integral based upon the concept of "Airy averaging", a related discussion of positivity-violating Wigner functions describing tunneling processes, and the role of the response field in maintaining quantum coherence and enabling interference phenomena. The double slit experiment for electrons and the Bohm-Aharonov effect are analyzed as illustrative examples. Furthermore, a surprising relationship between the instantons of the Marinov path integral over an analytically continued ("Wick rotated") response field, and the complex instantons of Feynman-type integrals is found. The latter play a prominent role in recent work towards a Picard-Lefschetz theory applicable to oscillatory path integrals and the resurgence program.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2015

Participant and spectator scaling of spectator fragments in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 19.6 and 22.4 GeV

Spectator fragments resulting from relativistic heavy ion collisions, consisting of single protons and neutrons along with groups of stable nuclear fragments up to Nitrogen (Z=7), are measured in PHOBOS. These fragments are observed in Au+Au (sqrt(sNN)=19.6 GeV) and Cu+Cu (22.4 GeV) collisions at high pseudorapidity ($η$). The dominant multiply-charged fragment is the tightly bound Helium ($α$), with Lithium, Beryllium, and Boron all clearly seen as a function of collision centrality and pseudorapidity. We observe that in Cu+Cu collisions, it becomes much more favorable for the $α$ fragments to be released than Lithium. The yields of fragments approximately scale with the number of spectator nucleons, independent of the colliding ion. The shapes of the pseudorapidity distributions of fragments indicate that the average deflection of the fragments away from the beam direction increases for more central collisions. A detailed comparison of the shapes for $α$ and Lithium fragments indicates that the centrality dependence of the deflections favors a scaling with the number of participants in the collision.

nucl-ex↗
arXiv2015

Direct observation of the injection dynamics of a laser wakefield accelerator using few-femtosecond shadowgraphy

We present few-femtosecond shadowgraphic snapshots taken during the non-linear evolution of the plasma wave in a laser wakefield accelerator with transverse synchronized few-cycle probe pulses. These snapshots can be directly associated with the electron density distribution within the plasma wave and give quantitative information about its size and shape. Our results show that self-injection of electrons into the first plasma wave period is induced by a lengthening of the first plasma period. Three dimensional particle in cell simulations support our observations.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2012

Asymptotic Safety and Black Hole Thermodynamics

We present recent results on the non-perturbative renormalization group flow of Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) on spacetime manifolds with boundaries. As an application, novel quantum gravity corrections to the thermodynamics of black holes are discussed.

hep-th↗
arXiv2012

Running boundary actions, Asymptotic Safety, and black hole thermodynamics

Previous explorations of the Asymptotic Safety scenario in Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) by means of the effective average action and its associated functional renormalization group (RG) equation assumed spacetime manifolds which have no boundaries. Here we take a first step towards a generalization for non-trivial boundaries, restricting ourselves to action functionals which are at most of second order in the derivatives acting on the metric. We analyze two examples of truncated actions with running boundary terms: full fledged QEG within the single-metric Einstein-Hilbert (EH) truncation, augmented by a scale dependent Gibbons-Hawking (GH) surface term, and a bi-metric truncation for gravity coupled to scalar matter fields. The latter contains 17 running couplings, related to both bulk and boundary terms, whose beta-functions are computed in the induced gravity approximation. We find that the bulk and the boundary Newton constant, pertaining to the EH and GH term, respectively, show opposite RG running; proposing a scale dependent variant of the ADM mass we argue that the running of both couplings is consistent with gravitational anti-screening. We describe a simple device for counting the number of field modes integrated out between the infrared cutoff scale and the ultraviolet. This method makes it manifest that, in an asymptotically safe theory, there are effectively no field modes integrated out while the RG trajectory stays in the scaling regime of the underlying fixed point. As an application, we investigate how the semiclassical theory of Black Hole Thermodynamics gets modified by quantum gravity effects and compare the new picture to older work on `RG-improved black holes' which incorporated the running of the bulk Newton constant only. We find, for instance, that the black hole's entropy vanishes and its specific heat capacity turns positive at Planckian scales.

hep-th↗
arXiv2012

Renormalization Group Flow of the Holst Action

The renormalization group (RG) properties of quantum gravity are explored, using the vielbein and the spin connection as the fundamental field variables. The scale dependent effective action is required to be invariant both under space time diffeomorphisms and local frame rotations. The nonperturbative RG equation is solved explicitly on the truncated theory space defined by a three parameter family of Holst-type actions which involve a running Immirzi parameter. We find evidence for the existence of an asymptotically safe fundamental theory, probably inequivalent to metric quantum gravity constructed in the same way.

hep-th↗
arXiv2010

Phobos results on charged particle multiplicity and pseudorapidity distributions in Au+Au, Cu+Cu, d+Au, and p+p collisions at ultra-relativistic energies

Pseudorapidity distributions of charged particles emitted in $Au+Au$, $Cu+Cu$, $d+Au$, and $p+p$ collisions over a wide energy range have been measured using the PHOBOS detector at RHIC. The centrality dependence of both the charged particle distributions and the multiplicity at midrapidity were measured. Pseudorapidity distributions of charged particles emitted with $|η|<5.4$, which account for between 95% and 99% of the total charged-particle emission associated with collision participants, are presented for different collision centralities. Both the midrapidity density, $dN_{ch}/dη$, and the total charged-particle multiplicity, $N_{ch}$, are found to factorize into a product of independent functions of collision energy, $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$, and centrality given in terms of the number of nucleons participating in the collision, $N_{part}$. The total charged particle multiplicity, observed in these experiments and those at lower energies, assumes a linear dependence of $(\ln s_{_{NN}})^2$ over the full range of collision energy of $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$=2.7-200 GeV.

nucl-ex↗
arXiv2010

Quantum Gravity Effects in the Kerr Spacetime

We analyze the impact of the leading quantum gravity effects on the properties of black holes with nonzero angular momentum by performing a suitable renormalization group improvement of the classical Kerr metric within Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG). In particular we explore the structure of the horizons, the ergosphere, and the static limit surfaces as well as the phase space avilable for the Penrose process. The positivity properties of the effective vacuum energy momentum tensor are also discussed and the "dressing" of the black hole's mass and angular momentum are investigated by computing the corresponding Komar integrals. The pertinent Smarr formula turns out to retain its classical form. As for their thermodynamical properties, a modified first law of black hole thermodynamics is found to be satisfied by the improved black holes (to second order in the angular momentum); the corresponding Bekenstein-Hawking temperature is not proportional to the surface gravity.

hep-th↗
arXiv2010

Non-perturbative QEG Corrections to the Yang-Mills Beta Function

We discuss the non-perturbative renormalization group evolution of the gauge coupling constant by using a truncated form of the functional flow equation for the effective average action of the Yang-Mills-gravity system. Our result is consistent with the conjecture that Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) is asymptotically safe and has a vanishing gauge coupling constant at the non-trivial fixed point.

hep-th↗
arXiv2007

On the Possibility of Quantum Gravity Effects at Astrophysical Scales

The nonperturbative renormalization group flow of Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) is reviewed. It is argued that at large distances there could be strong renormalization effects, including a scale dependence of Newton's constant, which mimic the presence of dark matter at galactic and cosmological scales.

hep-th↗
arXiv2006

Vertex Reconstruction Using a Single Layer Silicon Detector

Typical vertex finding algorithms use reconstructed tracks, registered in a multi-layer detector, which directly point to the common point of origin. A detector with a single layer of silicon sensors registers the passage of primary particles only in one place. Nevertheless, the information available from these hits can also be used to estimate the vertex position, when the geometrical properties of silicon sensors and the measured ionization energy losses of the particles are fully exploited. In this paper the algorithm used for this purpose in the PHOBOS experiment is described. The vertex reconstruction performance is studied using simulations and compared with results obtained from real data. The very large acceptance of a single-layered multiplicity detector permits vertex reconstruction for low multiplicity events where other methods, using small acceptance subdetectors, fail because of insufficient number of registered primary tracks.

nucl-ex↗
arXiv2006

Quantum Gravity Effects in Rotating Black Holes

A set of features of the renormalization group improved Kerr spacetime taking into account the running of Newton's constant is presented. This set includes: Behavior of the critical surfaces and corrections to the mass and angular momentum of the Kerr black hole.

hep-th↗
arXiv2006

Spacetime Structure of an Evaporating Black Hole in Quantum Gravity

The impact of the leading quantum gravity effects on the dynamics of the Hawking evaporation process of a black hole is investigated. Its spacetime structure is described by a renormalization group improved Vaidya metric. Its event horizon, apparent horizon, and timelike limit surface are obtained taking the scale dependence of Newton's constant into account. The emergence of a quantum ergosphere is discussed. The final state of the evaporation process is a cold, Planck size remnant.

hep-th↗
arXiv2005

Do we Observe Quantum Gravity Effects at Galactic Scales?

The nonperturbative renormalization group flow of Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) is reviewed. It is argued that there could be strong renormalization effects at large distances, in particular a scale dependent Newton constant, which mimic the presence of dark matter at galactic and cosmological scales.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2005

Fractal Spacetime Structure in Asymptotically Safe Gravity

Four-dimensional Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) is likely to be an asymptotically safe theory which is applicable at arbitrarily small distance scales. On sub-Planckian distances it predicts that spacetime is a fractal with an effective dimensionality of 2. The original argument leading to this result was based upon the anomalous dimension of Newton's constant. In the present paper we demonstrate that also the spectral dimension equals 2 microscopically, while it is equal to 4 on macroscopic scales. This result is an exact consequence of asymptotic safety and does not rely on any truncation. Contact is made with recent Monte Carlo simulations.

hep-th↗
arXiv2005

From Big Bang to Asymptotic de Sitter: Complete Cosmologies in a Quantum Gravity Framework

Using the Einstein-Hilbert approximation of asymptotically safe quantum gravity we present a consistent renormalization group based framework for the inclusion of quantum gravitational effects into the cosmological field equations. Relating the renormalization group scale to cosmological time via a dynamical cutoff identification this framework applies to all stages of the cosmological evolution. The very early universe is found to contain a period of ``oscillatory inflation'' with an infinite sequence of time intervals during which the expansion alternates between acceleration and deceleration. For asymptotically late times we identify a mechanism which prevents the universe from leaving the domain of validity of the Einstein-Hilbert approximation and obtain a classical de Sitter era.

hep-th↗
arXiv2004

Quantum Gravity at Astrophysical Distances?

Assuming that Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) is the correct theory of gravity on all length scales we use analytical results from nonperturbative renormalization group (RG) equations as well as experimental input in order to characterize the special RG trajectory of QEG which is realized in Nature and to determine its parameters. On this trajectory, we identify a regime of scales where gravitational physics is well described by classical General Relativity. Strong renormalization effects occur at both larger and smaller momentum scales. The latter lead to a growth of Newton's constant at large distances. We argue that this effect becomes visible at the scale of galaxies and could provide a solution to the astrophysical missing mass problem which does not require any dark matter. We show that an extremely weak power law running of Newton's constant leads to flat galaxy rotation curves similar to those observed in Nature. Furthermore, a possible resolution of the cosmological constant problem is proposed by noting that all RG trajectories admitting a long classical regime automatically give rise to a small cosmological constant.

hep-th↗