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Sarben Sarkar

Publications and source records attributed to Sarben Sarkar.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

The $\omega$-Effect from a Multimode Squeezed Graviton State

The $\omega$-effect in entangled neutral-meson systems provides a sensitive probe of CPT violation induced by quantum-gravitational environments. In open quantum systems, interactions with inaccessible gravitational degrees of freedom can render the reduced meson dynamics non-unitary, causing the CPT operator to become ill-defined, even when the underlying microscopic Hamiltonian is CPT invariant. We present a microscopic derivation of the $\omega$-effect arising from a multimode squeezed gravitational environment generated by an axion cloud around a Kerr black hole. Using the Takagi decomposition of the associated complex symmetric squeezing kernel, the graviton field is expressed in terms of independent squeezed supermodes possessing anomalous correlators. These correlators provide a microscopic quantum counterpart of the stochastic fluctuations that appear in earlier D-particle foam descriptions of the $\omega$-effect, replacing phenomenological variances of flavour-changing D-particle recoil by calculable graviton correlation functions. After tracing over the graviton bath, the anomalous correlators and the weak-interactions-induced mixing combine to generate transitions between the antisymmetric and symmetric two-meson sectors. This results in a small exchange-symmetric admixture, parametrised by $\omega$, in the otherwise antisymmetric EPR state. We obtain an explicit expression for $\omega$ in terms of a sum over Takagi supermodes weighted by their squeezing amplitudes and phases together with the weak-interaction flavour-mixing matrix element. The resulting framework suggests that the $\omega$-effect may be a generic signature of non-classical states of gravitational environments, extending beyond the specific axion-cloud scenario considered here. The observability of the $\omega$-effect from other astrophysical and microscopic black-hole sources is discussed.

gr-qc

Self-Gravitating Magnetic Monopoles and Dyons in String-Inspired Models: Structure and Stability

We present classical magnetic--monopole (MM) and dyon solutions induced by global monopoles in string-inspired gravitational models. Although several ingredients of the construction have appeared previously, we examine a new synthesis via their organised use in a self-gravitating finite-energy monopole/dyon system with explicit mass, charge, core and stability diagnostics. The global monopole provides the topological seed, while the dilaton, Kalb--Ramond (KR) axion and Born--Infeld (BI) electromagnetic (EM) sector supply the string-inspired dressing. Two related branches are analysed: (i) a dilaton--BI magnetic branch, distinct from earlier constructions, and (ii) a dyonic extension in which the KR axion couples electric and magnetic sectors through an axion-Pontryagin-anomaly interaction. In both cases BI dynamics regularises the EM self-energy within a self-gravitating global-monopole construction, and the solutions possess a de Sitter core, a positive ADM-mass parameter range and satisfy the standard energy conditions. A further novel feature is a limiting branch in which the ADM mass tends to zero while the magnetic charge remains finite, the configuration being supported by magnetic charge and de Sitter core pressure.We also examine stability diagnostics. The stress--energy tensor gives finite force components and an outward-pointing radial force, indicating absence of core collapse within the mechanical stability criterion. In the exterior analytic region we analyse gauge-invariant EM perturbations using the Gervalle-Volkov framework. The helicity modes $\psi_\pm$ obey a self-adjoint Sturm--Liouville system. MM helicities decouple, while dyons exhibit axion-induced helicity mixing and birefringent polarisation structure. Positivity of the EM helicity block provides a necessary long-range stability diagnostic; the full coupled Einstein-matter spectral problem is discussed

hep-th

How Much Can Gravitons Be Squeezed?

Quantum Gravity remains elusive, largely because its observable effects are suppressed by powers of the Planck scale. Direct detection of single gravitons is widely believed to be impossible. Here we propose a concrete astrophysical mechanism that may overcome this suppression. We show that superradiant axion-like-particle clouds surrounding rotating black holes can generate multimode squeezed states of gravitons containing up to $10^6$ - $10^7$ correlated quanta. Such states exhibit distinctive polarization correlations and quantum-noise signatures that could be detectable in future gravitational-wave interferometers. Observation of these signatures would constitute direct evidence for the quantum nature of gravitational radiation. Conversely, their absence can place constraints on axion-cloud lifetimes. Our approach also provides a test of General Relativity as an effective field theory.

gr-qc

On the stability of Born-Infeld-regularised electroweak monopoles

The Cho-Maison monopole provides a monopole solution of the electroweak field equations, but possesses an infinite classical energy due to the Maxwell form of the hypercharge sector. Motivated by string-inspired effective field theories, we study the perturbative stability of the Cho-Maison monopole when the hypercharge kinetic term is regularised by a Born-Infeld extension, which renders the monopole energy finite. Focusing on the bosonic electroweak theory with an unmodified $SU(2)_L$ sector and a Born-Infeld U(1)_Y sector, we analyze linear fluctuations about the regularised monopole background. Using a complex tetrad and a spin-weighted harmonic decomposition, we reduce the fluctuation equations to coupled radial Schroedinger-type eigenvalue problems and examine the spectrum of the resulting operators. We extend the separation-of-variables framework developed by Gervalle and Volkov to this non-linear gauge-field setting. We show that, after appropriate gauge fixing and constraint elimination, the Born-Infeld deformation preserves the angular channel structure of the Maxwell theory and leads to a self-adjoint Sturm-Liouville type problem for the stability of the radial modes, with modified radial coefficients determined by the background Born-Infeld profile. The resulting operator represents a smooth deformation of the Maxwell case and retains positive kinetic weight. Our results provide plausible evidence for the stability of the Born-Infeld deformed monopole and, most importantly, a systematic framework for future numerical or variational studies aimed at a definitive spectral analysis.

hep-th

The axion coupling accelerates the Universe through PT-symmetric phases

The conjecture by two of the authors (N.E.M. and S.S.) that a \cPT-symmetric phase plays a role in understanding singular renormalisation group (RG) flows for a Chern-Simons (CS) gauge theory of axions, has been reexamined and significantly improved. We have used the more complete Wetterich equation, which includes gravitational couplings in a systematic way from the start, to understand the emergence of this phase. The singular structure of the RG flows has persisted on including gravitational-couplings, thereby offering further support to the conjecture that \cPT -symmetric phases of (repulsive) gravity characterise string-effective CS gravitational theories, where the axion is the massless string-model independent axion, which can also play a role of a totally-antisymmetric torsion degree of freedom. This has suggested a novel interpretation of the currently observed acceleration of the expansion of the Universe in terms of such a phase at large (cosmological) scales.

gr-qc

Axions, Black Holes and the Detection of Gravitons: from Astrophysics to Cosmology

We review a novel scenario for the emergence of spin-polarisation entangled squeezed graviton states from superradiant axionic clouds in the neighborhood of astrophysical rotating black holes (BHs). The entangled squeezed graviton states are produced by both, conventional General-Relativity (GR) type axion-gravity interactions, and gravitational Chern-Simons (gCS) anomalous terms coupled to axions, which are non-trivial in the presence of rotating BHs. The two kinds of terms have different-symmetry contributions to the entangled squeezed states. The squeezing parameter is estimated in a weak-quantum-gravity framework. Some phenomenology with respect to current and future interferometric detection devices is discussed. Importantly, current data from LIGO/Virgo Experiments can impose upper-bound constraints on the value of the squeezing parameter and, thus, on the lifetime of the axionic clouds. In addition to the above rather direct-detection possibility of squeezed gravitons, there is also the possibility of indirect detection of quantum gravitons in Cosmology, given that chiral quantum gravitational-wave (GW) perturbations in the primordial Universe may imply condensation of gCS terms. This, in turn, leads to inflation of running vacuum type, with in principle observable patterns in the profile of the GW produced during the post-inflationary early radiation era, as well as the potential of alleviating cosmic tensions in the current era.

gr-qc

Photon-Mediated Hybridization and Dissipative Transport in a Cavity-QED Ring-Acceptor Architecture

We investigate excitation transfer in an engineered cavity QED transport architecture consisting of an N-site donor ring coupled coherently to a central acceptor and driven by a single quantized photon mode. The system evolves under a Lindblad master equation including spontaneous loss and pure dephasing. In the ordered symmetric limit, the dynamics reduce exactly to a photon-bright mode-acceptor trimer, allowing closed-form analytic expressions for transfer efficiencies and mode-resolved losses. We demonstrate that near-unity efficiency arises from photon-mediated hybridization that generates a dark transport channel in which ring population is strongly suppressed. This cavity-induced mechanism bypasses dissipative dark modes of the ring and is distinct from conventional excitonic transport or environmentally assisted quantum transport (ENAQT). Static disorder in photon-ring coupling activates lossy ring modes through hybridization, while intra-ring coupling primarily shifts spectral crossings and can restore efficiency by separating dissipative channels. The model is interpreted as a tunable quantum-optical transport device. Our analytic reduction provides clear design principles for engineered quantum transport networks operating in cavity-QED platforms.

physics.optics

Squeezed gravitons from superradiant axion fields around rotating black holes

We propose, in (3+1)-dimensional spacetimes, a novel astrophysical source of squeezed graviton states, due to superradiant axionic clouds surrounding rotating (Kerr-type) black holes (BH). The microscopic origin of these axions is diverse, ranging from the Kalb-Ramond (model-independent) axions and compactification axions in string theory, to \cm contorted geometries exemplified by a totally antisymmetric component of torsion in Einstein-Cartan theory. The axion fields couple to chiral gauge and gravitational Chern-Simons (CS) anomaly terms in the effective gravitational actions. In the presence of a Kerr BH background, such axions lead, upon acquiring a mass, to superradiance and the production of pairs of entangled gravitons in a squeezed state. The specific microscopic origin of the axions is not important, provided they are massive. This multimode squeezed-graviton state is examined through a Takagi-like decomposition, used in quantum optics. In the effective action it is shown that squeezing effects associated with conventional general relativity (GR) dominate, by many orders of magnitude, the corresponding effects due to the CS gravitational anomaly terms. For a sufficiently long lifetime of the axionic cloud of the BH, we find that significant squeezing (quantified through the average number of gravitons with respect to the appropriate vacuum) can be produced from the GR effects. It is also demonstrated explicitly that the structure of the entangled states (when the latter are expressed in a left-right polarization basis) depends highly on whether the GR or the anomalous CS effects produce the entanglement.

gr-qc

Superradiant Axionic Black-Hole Clouds as Seeds for Graviton Squeezing

It is shown that both, standard general relativity (GR) and Chern-Simons (CS) gravity, the latter containing chiral gravitational anomaly terms, seed the production of pairs of entangled gravitons in a multi-mode squeezed state. This involves the interaction of gravitons with the axionic cloud surrounding a superradiant Kerr (rotating) black hole background. The order of magnitude of the squeezing effect, specifically the number of graviton excitations in the squeezed vacuum, is estimated in the non-relativistic limit, relevant for the superradiance process. It is found analytically that the squeezing from the GR process of annihilation of two axions into two gravitons, dominates, by many orders of magnitude, that coming from the axion decay into two gravitons, induced by the higher-derivative CS term. It is also shown that significant squeezing effects are produced in the case of long-lived axionic clouds, whose lifetimes are much longer than the timescale for which superradiance is effective. A brief discussion on current exclusion (for the first time) of very-long axion-cloud lifetimes, through comparison of our results with current LIGO data, as well as potential detection of such effects in future interferometers is also given

gr-qc

Quantum Excitation Transfer in an Artificial Photosynthetic Light-Harvesting System

We analytically derive transfer probabilities and efficiencies for an artificial light-harvesting photosynthetic system, which consists of a ring coupled to a central acceptor. For an incident photon pair, we find near-perfect single excitation transfer efficiency with negligible double excitation transfer in the weak coupling regime. In the strong coupling regime, single excitation transfer efficiency was greater than 90%, while the double excitation efficiency was approximately 50%. We have found that the three main factors which determine high transfer efficiencies are large acceptor probabilities, long acceptor decay times, and strong photon-ring coupling. A possible implementation of the theoretical framework to bio-inspired solar energy devices is also discussed.

physics.chem-ph

Phases of quartic scalar theories and PT symmetry

For quantum mechanical anharmonic oscillator-type Hamiltonians, it is shown that there is a relation between the energy eigenvalues of parity symmetric and PT-symmetric phases for weak coupling. The possibility of such a relation was conjectured by Ai, Bender and Sarkar on examining the imaginary part of the ground state energy using path integrals. In the weak coupling limit, we show that the conjecture is true also for the real part of the ground state energy and of the excited state energies. However, the conjecture is false for strong coupling. The analogous relation for partition functions in zero spacetime dimensions is valid for many cases. However $O(N)$ symmetric multi-component scalar fields, with $N>1$ and a quartic interaction, do not satisfy the conjecture for zero and one dimensional spacetime. The possibility that the conjecture is valid, for a single component field theory in higher dimensional spacetimes, is discussed in a simplified model.

quant-ph

Chern-Simons gravity and PT Symmetry

This paper considers the possibility that, starting from a relativistic Hermitian quantum field theory in the ultraviolet (UV) regime, and applying a non-perturbative renormalization-group (RG) flow, we arrive at a situation where there are infrared (IR) singularities in the RG flow of couplings. The latter can be resolved by assuming that the theory can have a phase described by a related non-Hermitian PT-symmetric modification in the IR. The UV-to-IR (Hermitian-to-PT-symmetric) transition can occur in a single renormalization-group flow of the pertinent couplings, as demonstrated in concrete examples. When embedded in a gravitational setting such a transition can lead to a repulsive gravity phase. If there is a RG flow to a repulsive PT -symmetric gravity, then this would be an alternative to dark energy. The discussion here is presented in the context of a string-inspired Chern-Simons gravitational effective action, which involves a pseudoscalar (axion-like) field coupled to Abelian gauge fields and gravity; it may also hold more generally in gravity with torsion. The validity of such a scenario in realistic theories might alleviate the need for de Sitter phases in the current epoch of cosmological evolution, thus avoiding their associated conceptual and technical complications.

hep-th

PT symmetric fermionic particle oscillations in even dimensional representations

We describe a novel class of quantum mechanical particle oscillations in both relativistic and non-relativistic systems based on $PT$ symmetry and $T^2=-1$ (relevant for fermions), where $P$ is parity and $T$ is time reversal. The Hamiltonians are chosen at the outset to be self-adjoint with respect to a PT inner product. The quantum mechanical time evolution is based on a modified $CPT$ inner product constructed in terms of a suitable $C$ operator. The resulting quantum mechanical evolution is shown to be unitary and probability is conserved by the oscillations.

quant-ph

Piecewise linear potentials for false vacuum decay and negative modes

We study bounce solutions and associated negative modes in the class of piecewise linear triangular-shaped potentials that may be viewed as approximations of smooth potentials. In these simple potentials, the bounce solution and action can be obtained analytically for a general spacetime dimension $D$. The eigenequations for the fluctuations around the bounce are universal and have the form of a Schr\"odinger-like equation with delta-function potentials. This Schr\"odinger equation is solved exactly for the negative modes whose number is confirmed to be one. The latter result may justify the usefulness of such piecewise linear potentials in the study of false vacuum decay.

hep-ph

False vacuum decay rates, more precisely

We develop a method for accurately calculating vacuum decay rates beyond the thin-wall regime in a pure scalar field theory at the one-loop level of the effective action. It accounts for radiative effects resulting from quantum corrections to the classical bounce, including gradient effects stemming from the inhomogeneity of the bounce background. To achieve this, it is necessary to compute not only the functional determinant of the fluctuation operator in the background of the classical bounce but also its functional derivative evaluated at the classical bounce. The former is efficiently calculated using the Gel'fand-Yaglom method. We illustrate how the latter can also be calculated with the same method, combined with a computation of various Green's functions.

hep-ph

New classes of solutions for Euclidean scalar field theories

This paper presents new classes of exact radial solutions to the nonlinear ordinary differential equation that arises as a saddle-point condition for a Euclidean scalar field theory in $D$-dimensional spacetime. These solutions are found by exploiting the dimensional consistency of the radial differential equation for a single {\it massless} scalar field, which allows one to transform to an autonomous equation. For massive theories the radial equation is not exactly solvable but the massless solutions provide useful approximations to the results for the massive case. The solutions presented here depend on the power of the interaction and on the spatial dimension, both of which may be noninteger. Scalar equations arising in the study of conformal invariance fit into this framework and classes of new solutions are found. These solutions exhibit two distinct behaviours as $D\to2$ from above.

hep-th

Renormalisation group flows connecting a $4-ε$ dimensional Hermitian field theory to a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric theory for a fermion coupled to an axion

The renormalisation group flow of a Hermitian field theory is shown to have trajectories which lead to a non-Hermitian Parity-Time ($\mathcal{PT}$) symmetric field theory for an axion coupled to a fermion in spacetime dimensions $D=4-ε$, where $ε>0 $. In this renormalisable field theory, the Dirac fermion field has a Yukawa coupling $g$ to a pseudoscalar (axion) field and there is quartic pseudoscalar self-coupling $u$. The robustness of this finding is established by considering flows between $ε$ dpependent Wilson-Fisher fixed points and also by working to \emph{three loops} in the Yukawa coupling and to \emph{two loops} in the quartic scalar coupling. The flows in the neighbourhood of the non-trivial fixed points are calculated using perturbative analysis, together with the $ε$ expansion. The global flow pattern indicates flows from positive $u$ to negative $u$; there are no flows between real and imaginary $g$. Using summation techniques we demonstrate a possible non-perturbative $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric saddle point for $D=3$.

hep-th

Wilsonian approach to the interaction $ϕ^2(iϕ)^\varepsilon$

We study the renormalisation of the non-Hermitian $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric scalar field theory with the interaction $ϕ^2(iϕ)^\varepsilon$ using the Wilsonian approach and without any expansion in $\varepsilon$. Specifically, we solve the Wetterich equation in the local potential approximation, both in the ultraviolet regime and with the loop expansion. We calculate the scale-dependent effective potential and its infrared limit. The theory is found to be renormalisable at the one-loop level only for integer values of $\varepsilon$, a result which is not yet established within the $\varepsilon$-expansion. Particular attention is therefore paid to the two interesting cases $\varepsilon=1,2$, and the one-loop beta functions for the coupling associated with the interaction $iϕ^3$ and $-ϕ^4$ are computed. It is found that the $-ϕ^4$ theory has asymptotic freedom in four-dimensional spacetime. Some general properties for the Euclidean partition function and $n$-point functions are also derived.

hep-th