arXiv subjects

Raphael Bousso

Publications and source records attributed to Raphael Bousso.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Information Content of Gravitational Radiation and the Vacuum

Known entropy bounds, and the Generalized Second Law, were recently shown to imply bounds on the information arriving at future null infinity. We complete this derivation by including the contribution from gravitons. We test the bounds in classical settings with gravity and no matter. In Minkowski space, the bounds vanish on any subregion of the future boundary, independently of coordinate choices. More generally, the bounds vanish in regions where no gravitational radiation arrives. In regions that do contain Bondi news, the bounds are compatible with the presence of information, including the information stored in gravitational memory. All of our results are consistent with the equivalence principle, which states that empty Riemann-flat spacetime regions contain no classical information. We also discuss the possibility that Minkowski space has an infinite vacuum degeneracy labeled by a choice of Bondi coordinates (a classical parameter, if physical). We argue that this degeneracy cannot have any observational consequences if the equivalence principle holds. Our bounds are consistent with this conclusion.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Asymptotic Entropy Bounds

We show that known entropy bounds constrain the information carried off by radiation to null infinity. We consider distant, planar null hypersurfaces in asymptotically flat spacetime. Their focussing and area loss can be computed perturbatively on a Minkowski background, yielding entropy bounds in terms of the energy flux of the outgoing radiation. In the asymptotic limit, we obtain boundary versions of the Quantum Null Energy Condition, of the Generalized Second Law, and of the Quantum Bousso Bound.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Generalized Second Law for Cosmology

We conjecture a novel Generalized Second Law that can be applied in cosmology, regardless of whether an event horizon is present: the generalized entropy increases monotonically outside of certain hypersurfaces we call past Q-screens. A past Q-screen is foliated by surfaces whose generalized entropy (sum of area and entanglement entropy) is stationary along one future null direction and increasing along the other. We prove that our Generalized Second Law holds in spacetimes obeying the Quantum Focussing Conjecture. An analogous law applies to future Q-screens, which appear inside evaporating black holes and in collapsing regions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Proof of the Quantum Null Energy Condition

We prove the Quantum Null Energy Condition (QNEC), a lower bound on the stress tensor in terms of the second variation in a null direction of the entropy of a region. The QNEC arose previously as a consequence of the Quantum Focussing Conjecture, a proposal about quantum gravity. The QNEC itself does not involve gravity, so a proof within quantum field theory is possible. Our proof is somewhat nontrivial, suggesting that there may be alternative formulations of quantum field theory that make the QNEC more manifest. Our proof applies to free and superrenormalizable bosonic field theories, and to any points that lie on stationary null surfaces. An example is Minkowski space, where any point $p$ and null vector $k^a$ define a null plane $N$ (a Rindler horizon). Given any codimension-2 surface $Σ$ that contains $p$ and lies on $N$, one can consider the von Neumann entropy $S_\text{out}$ of the quantum state restricted to one side of $Σ$. A second variation $S_\text{out}^{\prime\prime}$ can be defined by deforming $Σ$ along $N$, in a small neighborhood of $p$ with area $\cal A$. The QNEC states that $\langle T_{kk}(p) \rangle \ge \frac{\hbar}{2π} \lim_{{\cal A}\to 0}S_\text{out}^{ \prime\prime}/{\cal A}$.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Proof of a New Area Law in General Relativity

A future holographic screen is a hypersurface of indefinite signature, foliated by marginally trapped surfaces with area $A(r)$. We prove that $A(r)$ grows strictly monotonically. Future holographic screens arise in gravitational collapse. Past holographic screens exist in our own universe; they obey an analogous area law. Both exist more broadly than event horizons or dynamical horizons. Working within classical General Relativity, we assume the null curvature condition and certain generiticity conditions. We establish several nontrivial intermediate results. If a surface $σ$ divides a Cauchy surface into two disjoint regions, then a null hypersurface $N$ that contains $σ$ splits the entire spacetime into two disjoint portions: the future-and-interior, $K^+$; and the past-and-exterior, $K^-$. If a family of surfaces $σ(r)$ foliate a hypersurface, while flowing everywhere to the past or exterior, then the future-and-interior $K^+(r)$ grows monotonically under inclusion. If the surfaces $σ(r)$ are marginally trapped, we prove that the evolution must be everywhere to the past or exterior, and the area theorem follows. A thermodynamic interpretation as a Second Law is suggested by the Bousso bound, which relates $A(r)$ to the entropy on the null slices $N(r)$ foliating the spacetime. In a companion letter, we summarize the proof and discuss further implications.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

A Quantum Focussing Conjecture

We propose a universal inequality that unifies the Bousso bound with the classical focussing theorem. Given a surface $σ$ that need not lie on a horizon, we define a finite generalized entropy $S_\text{gen}$ as the area of $σ$ in Planck units, plus the von Neumann entropy of its exterior. Given a null congruence $N$ orthogonal to $σ$, the rate of change of $S_\text{gen}$ per unit area defines a quantum expansion. We conjecture that the quantum expansion cannot increase along $N$. This extends the notion of universal focussing to cases where quantum matter may violate the null energy condition. Integrating the conjecture yields a precise version of the Strominger-Thompson Quantum Bousso Bound. Applied to locally parallel light-rays, the conjecture implies a Quantum Null Energy Condition: a lower bound on the stress tensor in terms of the second derivative of the von Neumann entropy. We sketch a proof of this novel relation in quantum field theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

A New Area Law in General Relativity

We report a new area law in General Relativity. A future holographic screen is a hypersurface foliated by marginally trapped surfaces. We show that their area increases monotonically along the foliation. Future holographic screens can easily be found in collapsing stars and near a big crunch. Past holographic screens exist in any expanding universe and obey a similar theorem, yielding the first rigorous area law in big bang cosmology. Unlike event horizons, these objects can be identified at finite time and without reference to an asymptotic boundary. The Bousso bound is not used, but it naturally suggests a thermodynamic interpretation of our result.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Anthropic Origin of the Neutrino Mass from Cooling Failure

The sum of active neutrino masses is well constrained, $58$ meV $\leq m_ν\lesssim 0.23$ eV, but the origin of this scale is not well understood. Here we investigate the possibility that it arises by environmental selection in a large landscape of vacua. Earlier work had noted the detrimental effects of neutrinos on large scale structure. However, using Boltzmann codes to compute the smoothed density contrast on Mpc scales, we find that dark matter halos form abundantly for $m_ν\gtrsim 10$ eV. This finding rules out an anthropic origin of $m_ν$, unless a different catastrophic boundary can be identified. Here we argue that galaxy formation becomes inefficient for $m_ν\gtrsim 10$ eV. We show that in this regime, structure forms late and is dominated by cluster scales, as in a top-down scenario. This is catastrophic: baryonic gas will cool too slowly to form stars in an abundance comparable to our universe. With this novel cooling boundary, we find that the anthropic prediction for $m_ν$ agrees at better than $2σ$ with current observational bounds. A degenerate hierarchy is mildly preferred.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Inflation After False Vacuum Decay: New Evidence from BICEP2

Last year we argued that if slow-roll inflation followed the decay of a false vacuum in a large landscape, the steepening of the scalar potential between the inflationary plateau and the barrier generically leads to a potentially observable suppression of the scalar power spectrum at large distances. Here we revisit this analysis in light of the recent BICEP2 results. Assuming that both the BICEP2 B-mode signal and the Planck analysis of temperature fluctuations hold up, we find that the data now discriminate more sharply between our scenario and $Λ$CDM. Nonzero tensor modes exclude standard $Λ$CDM with notable but not yet conclusive confidence: at $\sim 3.8\,σ$ if $r\approx0.2$, or at $\sim 3.5\,σ$ if $r=0.15$. Of the two steepening models of our previous work, one is now ruled out by existing bounds on spatial curvature. The other entirely reconciles the tension between BICEP2 and Planck. Upcoming $EE$ polarization measurements have the potential to rule out unmodified $Λ$CDM decisively. Next generation Large Scale Structure surveys can further increase the significance. More precise measurements of $BB$ at low $\ell$ will help distinguish our scenario from other explanations. If steepening is confirmed, the prospects for detecting open curvature increase but need not be large.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Entropy on a null surface for interacting quantum field theories and the Bousso bound

We study the vacuum-subtracted von Neumann entropy of a segment on a null plane. We argue that for interacting quantum field theories in more than two dimensions, this entropy has a simple expression in terms of the expectation value of the null components of the stress tensor on the null interval. More explicitly $ΔS = 2π\int d^{d-2}y \int_0^1 dx^+\, g(x^+)\, \langle T_{++}\rangle$, where $g(x^+)$ is a theory-dependent function. This function is constrained by general properties of quantum relative entropy. These constraints are enough to extend our recent free field proof of the quantum Bousso bound to the interacting case. This unusual expression for the entropy as the expectation value of an operator implies that the entropy is equal to the modular Hamiltonian, $ΔS = \langle ΔK \rangle $, where $K$ is the operator in the right hand side. We explain how this equality is compatible with a non-zero value for $ΔS$. Finally, we also compute explicitly the function $g(x^+)$ for theories that have a gravity dual.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Proof of a Quantum Bousso Bound

We prove the generalized Covariant Entropy Bound, $ΔS\leq (A-A')/4G\hbar$, for light-sheets with initial area $A$ and final area $A'$. The entropy $ΔS$ is defined as a difference of von Neumann entropies of an arbitrary state and the vacuum, with both states restricted to the light-sheet under consideration. The proof applies to free fields, in the limit where gravitational backreaction is small. We do not assume the null energy condition. In regions where it is violated, we find that the bound is protected by the defining property of light-sheets: that their null generators are nowhere expanding.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Multi-Vacuum Initial Conditions and the Arrow of Time

Depending on the type and arrangement of metastable vacua in the theory, initial conditions in a de Sitter vacuum with arbitrarily large entropy can be compatible with the observed arrow of time, if the causal patch or related measures are used to regulate divergences. An important condition, however, is that the initial vacuum cannot produce observers from rare fluctuations (Boltzmann brains). Here we consider more general initial conditions where multiple vacua have nonzero initial probability. We examine whether the prediction of an arrow of time is destroyed by a small initial admixture of vacua that can produce Boltzmann brains. We identify general criteria and apply them to two nontrivial examples of such initial probability distributions. The Hartle-Hawking state is superexponentially dominated by the vacuum with smallest positive cosmological constant, so one might expect that other initial vacua can be neglected; but in fact, their inclusion drastically narrows the range of theory parameters for which an arrow of time is predicted. The dominant eigenvector of the global rate equation of eternal inflation is dominated by the longest-lived metastable vacuum. If an arrow of time emerges in the single-initial-vacuum approximation, then we find that this conclusion survives the admixture of other initial vacua. By global-local measure duality, this result amounts to a successful consistency test of certain global cutoffs, including light-cone time and scale-factor time.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Null Geodesics, Local CFT Operators and AdS/CFT for Subregions

We investigate the nature of the AdS/CFT duality between a subregion of the bulk and its boundary. In global AdS/CFT in the classical G_N=0 limit, the duality reduces to a boundary value problem that can be solved by restricting to one-point functions of local operators in the CFT. We show that the solution of this boundary value problem depends continuously on the CFT data. In contrast, the AdS-Rindler subregion cannot be continuously reconstructed from local CFT data restricted to the associated boundary region. Motivated by related results in the mathematics literature, we posit that a continuous bulk reconstruction is only possible when every null geodesic in a given bulk subregion has an endpoint on the associated boundary subregion. This suggests that a subregion duality for AdS-Rindler, if it exists, must involve nonlocal CFT operators in an essential way.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Measurements without Probabilities in the Final State Proposal

The black hole final state proposal reconciles the infalling vacuum with the unitarity of the Hawking radiation, but only for some experiments. We study experiments that first verify the exterior, then the interior purification of the same Hawking particle. (This is the same protocol that renders the firewall paradox operationally meaningful in standard quantum mechanics.) We show that the decoherence functional fails to be diagonal, even upon inclusion of external "pointer" systems. Hence, probabilities for outcomes of these measurements are not defined. We conclude that the final state proposal does not offer a consistent alternative to the firewall hypothesis.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Inflation after False Vacuum Decay: Observational Prospects after Planck

We assess two potential signals of the formation of our universe by the decay of a false vacuum. Negative spatial curvature is one possibility, but the window for its detection is now small. However, another possible signal is a suppression of the CMB power spectrum at large angles. This arises from the steepening of the effective potential as it interpolates between a flat inflationary plateau and the high barrier separating us from our parent vacuum. We demonstrate that these two effects can be parametrically separated in angular scale. Observationally, the steepening effect appears to be excluded at large l; but it remains consistent with the slight lack of power below l about 30 found by the WMAP and Planck collaborations. We give two simple models which improve the fit to the Planck data; one with observable curvature and one without. Despite cosmic variance, we argue that future CMB polarization and most importantly large-scale structure observations should be able to corroborate the Planck anomaly if it is real. If we further assume the specific theoretical setting of a landscape of metastable vacua, as suggested by string theory, we can estimate the probability of seeing a low-l suppression in the CMB. There are significant theoretical uncertainties in such calculations, but we argue the probability for a detectable suppression may be as large as O(1), and in general is significantly larger than the probability of seeing curvature.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Firewalls From Double Purity

The firewall paradox is often presented as arising from double entanglement, but I argue that more generally the paradox is double purity. Near-horizon modes are purified by the interior, in the infalling vacuum. Hence they cannot also be pure alone, or in combination with any third system, as demanded by unitarity. This conflict arises independently of the Page time, for entangled and for pure states. It implies that identifications of Hilbert spaces cannot resolve the paradox. Traditional complementarity requires the unitary identification of infalling matter with a scrambled subsystem of the Hawking radiation. Extending this map to the infalling vacuum overdetermines the out-state. More general complementarity maps ("A=R_B", "ER=EPR") founder when the near-horizon zone is pure. I argue that pure-zone states span the microcanonical ensemble, and that this suffices to make the horizon a special place. I advocate that the ability to detect the horizon locally, rather than the degree or probability of violence, is what makes firewalls problematic. Conversely, if the production of matter at the horizon can be dynamically understood and shown to be consistent, then firewalls do not constitute a violation of the equivalence principle.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Frozen Vacuum

Modes just outside the horizon of a typical old black hole are thermally entangled with distant Hawking radiation. This precludes their entangled purity with interior modes, leading to a firewall. Identifying the interior with the distant radiation ("A=R_B", "ER=EPR") can resolve the entanglement conflict. But the map must adjust for any interactions, or else the firewall will reappear if the Hawking radiation scatters off the CMB. With a self-correcting map, an infalling observer is unable to excite the vacuum near the horizon. This allows the horizon to be locally detected and so violates the equivalence principle.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Why Comparable? A Multiverse Explanation of the Dark Matter-Baryon Coincidence

The densities of dark and baryonic matter are comparable: ζ= ρ_D / ρ_B ~ O(1). This is surprising because they are controlled by different combinations of low-energy physics parameters. Here we consider the probability distribution over ζin the landscape. We argue that the Why Comparable problem can be solved without detailed anthropic assumptions, and independently of the nature of dark matter. Overproduction of dark matter suppresses the probability like 1/(1+ζ), if the causal patch is used to regulate infinities. This suppression can counteract a prior distribution favoring large ζ, selecting ζ~ O(1). This effect not only explains the Why Comparable coincidence but also renders otherwise implausible models of dark matter viable. For the special case of axion dark matter, Wilczek and independently Freivogel have already noted that a 1/(1+ζ) suppression prevents overproduction of a GUT-scale QCD axion. If the dark matter is the LSP, the effect can explain the moderate fine-tuning of the weak scale in simple supersymmetric models.

hep-th↗