arXiv subjects

Pierre Martinetti

Publications and source records attributed to Pierre Martinetti.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Designing the sound of a cut-off drum

The spectral action in noncommutative geometry naturally implements an ultraviolet cut-off, by counting the eigenvalues of a (generalized) Dirac operator lower than an energy of unification. Inverting the well known question "how to hear the shape of a drum ?", we ask what drum can be designed by hearing the truncated music of the spectral action ? This makes sense because the same Dirac operator also determines the metric, via Connes distance. The latter thus offers an original way to implement the high-momentum cut-off of the spectral action as a short distance cut-off on space. This is a non-technical presentation of the results of arXiv:1305.2605

math-ph↗

arXiv2014

Matrix Geometries Emergent from a Point

We describe a categorical approach to finite noncommutative geometries. Objects in the category are spectral triples, rather than unitary equivalence classes as in other approaches. This enables to treat fluctuations of the metric and unitary equivalences on the same footing, as representatives of particular morphisms in this category. We then show how a matrix geometry (Moyal plane) emerges as a fluctuation from one point, and discuss some geometric aspects of this space.

math-ph↗

arXiv2014

Deformations of the Canonical Commutation Relations and Metric Structures

Using Connes distance formula in noncommutative geometry, it is possible to retrieve the Euclidean distance from the canonical commutation relations of quantum mechanics. In this note, we study modifications of the distance induced by a deformation of the position-momentum commutation relations. We first consider the deformation coming from a cut-off in momentum space, then the one obtained by replacing the usual derivative on the real line with the h- and q-derivatives, respectively. In these various examples, some points turn out to be at infinite distance. We then show (on both the real line and the circle) how to approximate points by extended distributions that remain at finite distance. On the circle, this provides an explicit example of computation of the Wasserstein distance.

math-ph↗

arXiv2014

Spectral geometry with a cut-off: topological and metric aspects

Inspired by regularization in quantum field theory, we study topological and metric properties of spaces in which a cut-off is introduced. We work in the framework of noncommutative geometry, and focus on Connes distance associated to a spectral triple (A, H, D). A high momentum (short distance) cut-off is implemented by the action of a projection P on the Dirac operator D and/or on the algebra A. This action induces two new distances. We individuate conditions making them equivalent to the original distance. We also study the Gromov-Hausdorff limit of the set of truncated states, first for compact quantum metric spaces in the sense of Rieffel, then for arbitrary spectral triples. To this aim, we introduce a notion of "state with finite moment of order 1" for noncommutative algebras. We then focus on the commutative case, and show that the cut-off induces a minimal length between points, which is infinite if P has finite rank. When P is a spectral projection of $D$, we work out an approximation of points by non-pure states that are at finite distance from each other. On the circle, such approximations are given by Fejer probability distributions. Finally we apply the results to Moyal plane and the fuzzy sphere, obtained as Berezin quantization of the plane and the sphere respectively.

math-ph↗

arXiv2014

Higgs mass in Noncommutative Geometry

In the noncommutative geometry approach to the standard model, an extra scalar field - initially suggested by particle physicist to stabilize the electroweak vacuum - makes the computation of the Higgs mass compatible with the 126 GeV experimental value. We give a brief account on how to generate this field from the Majorana mass of the neutrino, following the principles of noncommutative geometry.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Grand Symmetry, Spectral Action, and the Higgs mass

In the context of the spectral action and the noncommutative geometry approach to the standard model, we build a model based on a larger symmetry. With this "grand symmetry" it is natural to have the scalar field necessary to obtain the Higgs mass in the vicinity of 126 GeV. This larger symmetry mixes gauge and spin degrees of freedom without introducing extra fermions. Requiring the noncommutative space to be an almost commutative geometry (i.e. the product of manifold by a finite dimensional internal space) gives conditions for the breaking of this grand symmetry to the standard model.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Noncommutative gauge theories on $\mathbb{R}^2_θ$ as matrix models

We study a class of noncommutative gauge theory models on 2-dimensional Moyal space from the viewpoint of matrix models and explore some related properties. Expanding the action around symmetric vacua generates non local matrix models with polynomial interaction terms. For a particular vacuum, we can invert the kinetic operator which is related to a Jacobi operator. The resulting propagator can be expressed in terms of Chebyschev polynomials of second kind. We show that non vanishing correlations exist at large separations. General considerations on the kinetic operators stemming from the other class of symmetric vacua, indicates that only one class of symmetric vacua should lead to fast decaying propagators. The quantum stability of the vacuum is briefly discussed.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Noncommutative geometry of the Moyal plane: translation isometries, Connes' distance on coherent states, Pythagoras equality

We study the metric aspect of the Moyal plane from Connes' noncommutative geometry point of view. First, we compute Connes' spectral distance associated with the natural isometric action of R^2 on the algebra of the Moyal plane A. We show that the distance between any state of A and any of its translated is precisely the amplitude of the translation. As a consequence, we obtain the spectral distance between coherent states of the quantum harmonic oscillator as the Euclidean distance on the plane. We investigate the classical limit, showing that the set of coherent states equipped with Connes' spectral distance tends towards the Euclidean plane as the parameter of deformation goes to zero. The extension of these results to the action of the symplectic group is also discussed, with particular emphasize on the orbits of coherent states under rotations. Second, we compute the spectral distance in the double Moyal plane, intended as the product of (the minimal unitization of) A by C^2. We show that on the set of states obtained by translation of an arbitrary state of A, this distance is given by Pythagoras theorem. On the way, we prove some Pythagoras inequalities for the product of arbitrary unital & non-degenerate spectral triples. Applied to the Doplicher-Fredenhagen-Roberts model of quantum spacetime [DFR], these two theorems show that Connes' spectral distance and the DFR quantum length coincide on the set of states of optimal localization. Some of the results of this paper can be thought as a continuation of arXiv:0912.0906, as well as a companion to arXiv:1106.0261.

math-ph↗

arXiv2012

On Pythagoras' theorem for products of spectral triples

We discuss a version of Pythagoras theorem in noncommutative geometry. Usual Pythagoras theorem can be formulated in terms of Connes' distance, between pure states, in the product of commutative spectral triples. We investigate the generalization to both non pure states and arbitrary spectral triples. We show that Pythagoras theorem is replaced by some Pythagoras inequalities, that we prove for the product of arbitrary (i.e. non-necessarily commutative) spectral triples, assuming only some unitality condition. We show that these inequalities are optimal, and provide non-unital counter-examples inspired by K-homology.

math-ph↗

arXiv2012

Towards a Monge-Kantorovich metric in noncommutative geometry

We investigate whether the identification between Connes' spectral distance in noncommutative geometry and the Monge-Kantorovich distance of order 1 in the theory of optimal transport - that has been pointed out by Rieffel in the commutative case - still makes sense in a noncommutative framework. To this aim, given a spectral triple (A, H, D) with noncommutative A, we introduce a "Monge-Kantorovich"-like distance W_D on the space of states of A, taking as a cost function the spectral distance d_D between pure states. We show in full generality that d_D is never greater than W_D, and exhibit several examples where the equality actually holds true, in particular on the unit two-ball viewed as the state space of the algebra of complex 2-by-2 matrices. We also discuss W_D in a two-sheet model (product of a manifold by C^2), pointing towards a possible interpretation of the Higgs field as a cost function that does not vanish on the diagonal.

math-ph↗

arXiv2012

Length and distance on a quantum space

This contribution is an introduction to the metric aspect of noncommutative geometry, with emphasize on the Moyal plane. Starting by questioning "how to define a standard meter in a space whose coordinates no longer commute?", we list several recent results regarding Connes's spectral distance calculated between eigenstates of the quantum harmonic oscillator arXiv:0912.0906, as well as between coherent states arXiv:1110.6164. We also question the difference (which remains hidden in the commutative case) between the spectral distance and the notion of quantum length inherited from the length operator defined in various models of noncommutative space-time (DFR and θ-Minkowski). We recall that a standard procedure in noncommutative geometry, consisting in doubling the spectral triple, allows to fruitfully confront the spectral distance with the quantum length. Finally we refine the idea of discrete vs. continuous geodesics in the Moyal plane, introduced in arXiv:1106.0261.

math-ph↗

arXiv2012

Minimal length in quantum space and integrations of the line element in Noncommutative Geometry

We question the emergence of a minimal length in quantum spacetime, comparing two notions that appeared at various points in the literature: on the one side, the quantum length as the spectrum of an operator L in the Doplicher Fredenhagen Roberts (DFR) quantum spacetime, as well as in the canonical noncommutative spacetime; on the other side, Connes' spectral distance in noncommutative geometry. Although on the Euclidean space the two notions merge into the one of geodesic distance, they yield distinct results in the noncommutative framework. In particular on the Moyal plane, the quantum length is bounded above from zero while the spectral distance can take any real positive value, including infinity. We show how to solve this discrepancy by doubling the spectral triple. This leads us to introduce a modified quantum length d'_L, which coincides exactly with the spectral distance d_D on the set of states of optimal localization. On the set of eigenstates of the quantum harmonic oscillator - together with their translations - d'_L and d_D coincide asymptotically, both in the high energy and large translation limits. At small energy, we interpret the discrepancy between d'_L and d_D as two distinct ways of integrating the line element on a quantum space. This leads us to propose an equation for a geodesic on the Moyal plane.

math-ph↗

arXiv2012

Emergence of time in quantum gravity: is time necessarily flowing ?

We discuss the emergence of time in quantum gravity, and ask whether time is always "something that flows"'. We first recall that this is indeed the case in both relativity and quantum mechanics, although in very different manners: time flows geometrically in relativity (i.e. as a flow of proper time in the four dimensional space-time), time flows abstractly in quantum mechanics (i.e. as a flow in the space of observables of the system). We then ask the same question in quantum gravity, in the light of the thermal time hypothesis of Connes and Rovelli. The latter proposes to answer the question of time in quantum gravity (or at least one of its many aspects), by postulating that time is a state dependent notion. This means that one is able to make a notion of time-as-an-abstract-flow - that we call the thermal time - emerge from the knowledge of both: 1) the algebra of observables of the physical system under investigation, 2) a state of thermal equilibrium of this system. Formally, this thermal time is similar to the abstract flow of time in quantum mechanics, but we show in various examples that it may have a concrete implementation either as a geometrical flow, or as a geometrical flow combined with a non-geometric action. This indicates that in quantum gravity, time may well still be "something that flows" at some abstract algebraic level, but this does not necessarily imply that time is always and only "something that flows" at the geometric level.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2011

The spectral distance on the Moyal plane

We study the noncommutative geometry of the Moyal plane from a metric point of view. Starting from a non compact spectral triple based on the Moyal deformation A of the algebra of Schwartz functions on R^2, we explicitly compute Connes' spectral distance between the pure states of A corresponding to eigenfunctions of the quantum harmonic oscillator. For other pure states, we provide a lower bound to the spectral distance, and show that the latest is not always finite. As a consequence, we show that the spectral triple [20] is not a spectral metric space in the sense of [5]. This motivates the study of truncations of the spectral triple, based on M_n(C) with arbitrary integer n, which turn out to be compact quantum metric spaces in the sense of Rieffel. Finally the distance is explicitly computed for n=2.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

A View on Optimal Transport from Noncommutative Geometry

We discuss the relation between the Wasserstein distance of order 1 between probability distributions on a metric space, arising in the study of Monge-Kantorovich transport problem, and the spectral distance of noncommutative geometry. Starting from a remark of Rieffel on compact manifolds, we first show that on any - i.e. non-necessary compact - complete Riemannian spin manifolds, the two distances coincide. Then, on convex manifolds in the sense of Nash embedding, we provide some natural upper and lower bounds to the distance between any two probability distributions. Specializing to the Euclidean space $R^n$, we explicitly compute the distance for a particular class of distributions generalizing Gaussian wave packet. Finally we explore the analogy between the spectral and the Wasserstein distances in the noncommutative case, focusing on the standard model and the Moyal plane. In particular we point out that in the two-sheet space of the standard model, an optimal-transport interpretation of the metric requires a cost function that does not vanish on the diagonal. The latest is similar to the cost function occurring in the relativistic heat equation.

math.OA↗

arXiv2009

Geometric modular action for disjoint intervals and boundary conformal field theory

In suitable states, the modular group of local algebras associated with unions of disjoint intervals in chiral conformal quantum field theory acts geometrically. We translate this result into the setting of boundary conformal QFT and interpret it as a relation between temperature and acceleration. We also discuss aspects ("mixing" and "charge splitting") of geometric modular action for unions of disjoint intervals in the vacuum state.

math-ph↗

arXiv2009

Line element in quantum gravity: the examples of DSR and noncommutative geometry

We question the notion of line element in some quantum spaces that are expected to play a role in quantum gravity, namely non-commutative deformations of Minkowski spaces. We recall how the implementation of the Leibniz rule forbids to see some of the infinitesimal deformed Poincare transformations as good candidates for Noether symmetries. Then we recall the more fundamental view on the line element proposed in noncommutative geometry, and re-interprete at this light some previous results on Connes' distance formula.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2009

Conformal mapping of Unruh temperature

Thanks to a local interpetation of the KMS condition, the mapping from (unbounded) wedge regions of Minkowski space-time to (bounded) double-cone regions is extended to the Unruh temperature associated to relevant observers in both regions. A previous result, the diamond's temperature, is shown to be proportional to the inverse of the conformal factor (Weyl rescaling of the metric) of this map. One thus explains from a mathematical point of view why an observer with finite lifetime experiences the vacuum as a thermal state whatever his acceleration, even vanishing.

gr-qc↗