arXiv subjects

Mikhail S. Volkov

Publications and source records attributed to Mikhail S. Volkov.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Ring wormholes via duality rotations

We apply duality rotations and complex transformations to the Schwarzschild metric to obtain wormhole geometries with two asymptotically flat regions connected by a throat. In the simplest case these are the well-known wormholes supported by phantom scalar field. Further duality rotations remove the scalar field to yield less well known vacuum metrics of the oblate Zipoy-Voorhees-Weyl class, which describe ring wormholes. The ring encircles the wormhole throat and can have any radius, whereas its tension is always negative and should be less than $-c^4/4G$. If the tension reaches the maximal value, the geometry becomes exactly flat, but the topology remains non-trivial and corresponds to two copies of Minkowski space glued together along the disk encircled by the ring. The geodesics are straight lines, and those which traverse the ring get to the other universe. The ring therefore literally produces a hole in space. Such wormholes could perhaps be created by negative energies concentrated in toroidal volumes, for example by vacuum fluctuations.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

The screening Horndeski cosmologies

We present a systematic analysis of homogeneous and isotropic cosmologies in a particular Horndeski model with Galileon shift symmetry, containing also a $Λ$-term and a matter. The model, sometimes called Fab Five, admits a rich spectrum of solutions. Some of them describe the standard late time cosmological dynamic dominated by the $Λ$-term and matter, while at the early times the universe expands with a constant Hubble rate determined by the value of the scalar kinetic coupling. For other solutions the $Λ$-term and matter are screened at all times but there are nevertheless the early and late accelerating phases. The model also admits bounces, as well as peculiar solutions describing "the emergence of time". Most of these solutions contain ghosts in the scalar and tensor sectors. However, a careful analysis reveals three different branches of ghost-free solutions, all showing a late time acceleration phase. We analyze the dynamical stability of these solutions and find that all of them are stable in the future, since all their perturbations stay bounded at late times. However, they all turn out to be unstable in the past, as their perturbations grow violently when one approaches the initial spacetime singularity. We therefore conclude that the model has no viable solutions describing the whole of the cosmological history, although it may describe the current acceleration phase. We also check that the flat space solution is ghost-free in the model, but it may acquire ghost in more general versions of the Horndeski theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Hairy black holes in the XX-th and XXI-st centuries

This is a brief summary of the most important hairy black hole solutions in 3+1 spacetime dimensions discovered over the last 25 years. These were first of all the Einstein-Yang-Mills black holes and their various generalizations including the Higgs field, the dilaton and the curvature corrections, and also the Skyrme black holes. More recently, these were black holes supporting a scalar field violating the energy conditions or non-minimally coupled to gravity, and also spinning black holes with massive complex scalar hair. Finally, these were black holes with massive graviton hair.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Giant wormholes in ghost-free bigravity theory

We study Lorentzian wormholes in the ghost-free bigravity theory described by two metrics, g and f. Wormholes can exist if only the null energy condition is violated, which happens naturally in the bigravity theory since the graviton energy-momentum tensors do not apriori fulfill any energy conditions. As a result, the field equations admit solutions describing wormholes whose throat size is typically of the order of the inverse graviton mass. Hence, they are as large as the universe, so that in principle we might all live in a giant wormhole. The wormholes can be of two different types that we call W1 and W2. The W1 wormholes interpolate between the AdS spaces and have Killing horizons shielding the throat. The Fierz-Pauli graviton mass for these solutions becomes imaginary in the AdS zone, hence the gravitons behave as tachyons, but since the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound is fulfilled, there should be no tachyon instability. For the W2 wormholes the g-geometry is globally regular and in the far field zone it becomes the AdS up to subleading terms, its throat can be traversed by timelike geodesics, while the f-geometry has a completely different structure and is not geodesically complete. There is no evidence of tachyons for these solutions, although a detailed stability analysis remains an open issue. It is possible that the solutions may admit a holographic interpretation.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

De Sitter vacua in ghost-free massive gravity theory

We present a simple procedure to obtain all de Sitter solutions in the ghost-free massive gravity theory by using the Gordon ansatz. For these solutions the physical metric can be conveniently viewed as describing a hyperboloid in 5D Minkowski space, while the flat reference metric depends on the Stuckelberg field $T(t,r)$ that satisfies the equation $(\partial_t{T})^2-(\partial_r T)^2=1$. This equation has infinitely many solutions, hence there are infinitely many de Sitter vacua with different physical properties. Only the simplest solution with $T=t$ has been previously studied since it is manifestly homogeneous and isotropic, but it is unstable. However, other solutions could be stable. We require the timelike isometry to be common for both metrics, and this gives physically distinguished solutions since only for them the canonical energy is time-independent. We conjecture that these solutions minimize the energy and are therefore stable. We also show that in some cases solutions can be homogeneous and isotropic in a non-manifest way such that their symmetries are not obvious. All of this suggests that the theory may admit viable cosmologies.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Energy in ghost-free massive gravity theory

The detailed calculations of the energy in the ghost-free massive gravity theory is presented. The energy is defined in the standard way within the canonical approach, but to evaluate it requires resolving the Hamiltonian constraints, which are known, in general, only implicitly. Fortunately, the constraints can be explicitly obtained and resolved in the spherically symmetric sector, which allows one to evaluate the energy. It turns out that the energy is positive for globally regular and asymptotically flat fields constituting the "physical sector" of the theory. In other cases the energy can be negative and even unbounded from below, which suggests that the theory could be still plagued with ghost instability. However, a detailed inspection reveals that the corresponding solutions of the constraints are either not globally regular or not asymptotically flat. Such solutions cannot describe initial data triggering ghost instability of the physical sector. This allows one to conjecture that the physical sector could actually be protected from the instability by a potential barrier separating it from negative energy states.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Stability of Minkowski space in ghost-free massive gravity theory

The energy in the ghost-free massive gravity theory is calculated via explicitly resolving the initial value constraints for spherically symmetric deformations of flat space. It turns out that the energy is positive in some cases, but in other cases it can be negative and even unbounded from below. This could suggest that ghost instability is present. However, it seems that the negative energy states cannot communicate with the positive energy sector since the corresponding solutions of the constraint equations are either not globally defined, not asymptotically flat, or singular. As a result, they cannot describe initial data for the decay of flat space. At the same time, for globally regular and asymptotically flat solutions of the constraints the energy is always found to be positive. All of this suggests that there is a physical sector of the theory where the energy is positive and the ghost is suppressed, so that the theory is stable. The negative energies show up only in disjoint sectors and thus should be harmless.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Hairy black holes in theories with massive gravitons

This is a brief survey of the known black hole solutions in the theories of ghost-free bigravity and massive gravity. Various black holes exist in these theories, in particular those supporting a massive graviton hair. However, it seems that solutions which could be astrophysically relevant are the same as in General Relativity, or very close to them. Therefore, the no-hair conjecture essentially applies, and so it would be hard to detect the graviton mass by observing black holes.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Anisotropic universes in the ghost-free bigravity

We study Bianchi cosmologies in the ghost-free bigravity theory assuming both metrics to be homogeneous and anisotropic, of the Bianchi class A, which includes types I,II,VI$_0$,VII$_0$,VIII, and IX. We assume the universe to contain a radiation and a non-relativistic matter, with the cosmological term mimicked by the graviton mass. We find that, for generic initial values leading to a late-time self-acceleration, the universe approaches a state with non-vanishing anisotropies. The anisotropy contribution to the total energy density decreases much slower than in General Relativity and shows the same falloff rate as the energy of a non-relativistic matter. The solutions show a singularity in the past, and in the Bianchi IX case the singularity is approached via a sequence of Kasner-like steps, which is characteristic for a chaotic behavior.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Self-accelerating cosmologies and hairy black holes in ghost-free bigravity and massive gravity

We present a survey of the known cosmological and black hole solutions in ghost-free bigravity and massive gravity theories. These can be divided into three classes. First, there are solutions with proportional metrics, which are the same as in General Relativity with a cosmological term, which can be positive, negative or zero. Secondly, for spherically symmetric systems, there are solutions with non-bidiagonal metrics. The g-metric fulfills Einstein equations with a positive cosmological term and a matter source, while the f-metric is anti-de Sitter. The third class contains solutions with bidiagonal metrics, and these can be quite complex. The time-dependent solutions describe homogeneous (isotropic or anisotropic) cosmologies which show a late-time self-acceleration or other types of behavior. The static solutions describe black holes with a massive graviton hair, and also globally regular lumps of energy. None of these are asymptotically flat. Including a matter source gives rise to asymptotically flat solutions which exhibit the Vainshtein mechanism of recovery of General Relativity in a finite region.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Stable Cosmic Vortons

We present for the first time solutions in the gauged $U(1)\times U(1)$ model of Witten describing vortons -- spinning flux loops stabilized against contraction by the centrifugal force. Vortons were heuristically described many years ago, however, the corresponding field theory solutions were not obtained and so the stability issue remained open. We construct explicitly a family of stationary vortons characterized by their charge and angular momentum. Most of them are unstable and break in pieces when perturbed. However, thick vortons with small radius preserve their form in the 3+1 non-linear dynamical evolution. This gives the first ever evidence of stable vortons and impacts several branches of physics where they could potentially exist. These range from cosmology, since vortons could perhaps contribute to dark matter, to QCD and condensed matter physics.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Exact self-accelerating cosmologies in the ghost-free massive gravity -- the detailed derivation

We present the detailed derivation of the recently announced most general cosmological solution with homogeneous and isotropic metric in the ghost-free massive gravity theory. We use the standard parametrization of the theory in terms of the matrix square root, and then show how the same results are recovered within the tetrad formulation. The solution obtained includes the matter source, it exists for generic values of the theory parameters, and it describes a universe that can be spatially open, closed, or flat, and that shows the late time acceleration due to the effective cosmological term mimicked by the graviton mass. The Stückelberg fields are inhomogeneous, which could probably give rise to inhomogeneous perturbations of the homogeneous and isotropic backgrounds, although this effect should be suppressed by the smallness of the graviton mass.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Exact self-accelerating cosmologies in the ghost-free bigravity and massive gravity

Within the theory of the ghost-free bigravity, we present the most general cosmological solution for which the physical metric is homogeneous and isotropic, while the second metric is inhomogeneous. The solution includes a matter source and exists for any values of the theory parameters. The physical metric describes a universe with the late time acceleration due to the effective cosmological term mimicked by the graviton mass. When perturbed, this universe should rest approximately homogeneous and isotropic in space regions small compared to the graviton Compton length. In the limit where the massless graviton decouples, the solution fulfills the equations of the ghost-free massive gravity.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Hairy black holes in the ghost-free bigravity theory

We study black holes in the recently proposed ghost-free theory with two gravitons, one of which is massive and another is massless. These black holes possess a regular event horizon which is common for both metrics and has the same values of the surface gravity and Hawking temperature with respect to each metric. The ratio of the event horizon radii measured by the two metrics is a free parameter that labels the solutions. We present a numerical evidence for their existence and find that they comprise several classes. Black holes within each class approach the same AdS-type asymptotic at infinity but differ from each other in the event horizon vicinity where the short-range massive modes reside. In addition, there are solutions showing a curvature singularity at a finite proper distance from the horizon. For some special solutions the graviton mass may become effectively imaginary, causing oscillations around the flat metric at infinity. The only asymptotically flat black hole we find -- the Schwarzschild solution obtained by identifying the two metrics -- seems to be exceptional, since changing even slightly its horizon boundary conditions completely changes the asymptotic behavior at infinity. We also construct globally regular solutions describing `lumps of pure gravity' which can be viewed as black hole remnants in the limit where the event horizon shrinks. Finally, adding a matter source we obtain globally regular and asymptotically flat solutions exhibiting the Vainstein mechanism of recovery of General Relativity in a finite region.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Cosmological solutions with massive gravitons in the bigravity theory

We present solutions describing homogeneous and isotropic cosmologies in the massive gravity theory with two dynamical metrics recently proposed in arXiv:1109.3515 and claimed to be ghost free. These solutions can be spatially open, closed, or flat, and at early times they are sourced by the perfect fluid, while the graviton mass typically manifests itself at late times by giving rise to a cosmological term. In addition, there are also exotic solutions, for which already at early times, when the matter density is high, the contribution of the graviton mass to the energy density is negative and large enough to screen that of the matter contribution. The total energy can then be negative, which may result in removing the initial singularity. For special parameter values there are also solutions for which the two metrics effectively decouple and evolve independently of each other. In the limit where one of the gravitational coupling constant vanishes, such special solutions reduce to those found in arXiv:1107.5504 within the theory where one of the metrics is flat.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Cosmological solutions with massive gravitons

We present solutions describing spatially closed, open, or flat cosmologies in the massive gravity theory within the recently proposed tetrad formulation. We find that the effect of the graviton mass is equivalent to introducing to the Einstein equations a matter source that can consist of several different matter types -- a cosmological term, quintessence, gas of cosmic strings, and non-relativistic cold matter.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

The Rubakov-Callan Scattering on the Supergravity Monopole

We study small perturbations around the supersymmetric CVMN monopole solution of the gauged supergravity in D=4. We find that the perturbation spectrum contains an infinite tower of Coulomb-type bound states both in the bosonic and fermionic parts of the supergravity multiplet. Due to supersymmetry, the eigenvalues are the same for the two bosonic parity sectors, as well as for the fermionic sector. We also find that the fermion scattering on the monopole is accompanied by isospin flip. This is analogous to the Rubakov-Callan effect of monopole catalysis of proton decay and suggests that there could be a similar effect of catalysis for decay of fermionic systems in supergravity.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Stability Analysis of Superconducting Electroweak Vortices

We carry out a detailed stability analysis of the superconducting vortex solutions in the Weinberg-Salam theory described in Nucl.Phys. B826 (2010) 174. These vortices are characterized by constant electric current $I$ and electric charge density $I_0$, for ${I}\to 0$ they reduce to Z strings. We consider the generic field fluctuations around the vortex and apply the functional Jacobi criterion to detect the negative modes in the fluctuation operator spectrum. We find such modes and determine their dispersion relation, they turn out to be of two different types, according to their spatial behavior. There are non-periodic in space negative modes, which can contribute to the instability of infinitely long vortices, but they can be eliminated by imposing the periodic boundary conditions along the vortex. There are also periodic negative modes, but their wavelength is always larger than a certain minimal value, so that they cannot be accommodated by the short vortex segments. However, even for the latter there remains one negative mode responsible for the homogeneous expansion instability. This mode may probably be eliminated when the vortex segment is bent into a loop. This suggests that small vortex loops balanced against contraction by the centrifugal force could perhaps be stable.

hep-th↗