arXiv subjects

Teodora Oniga

Publications and source records attributed to Teodora Oniga.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2018

Cosmic quantum optical probing of quantum gravity through a gravitational lensLens

We consider the nonunitary quantum dynamics of neutral massless scalar particles used to model photons around a massive gravitational lens. The gravitational interaction between the lensing mass and asymptotically free particles is described by their second-quantized scattering wavefunctions. Remarkably, the zero-point spacetime fluctuations can induce significant decoherence of the scattered states with spontaneous emission of gravitons, thereby reducing the particles' coherence as well as energy. This new effect suggests that, when photon polarizations are negligible, such quantum gravity phenomena could lead to measurable anomalous redshift of recently studied astrophysical lasers through a gravitational lens in the range of black holes and galaxy clusters.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

Quantum principle of sensing gravitational waves: From the zero-point fluctuations to the cosmological stochastic background of spacetime

We carry out a theoretical investigation on the collective dynamics of an ensemble of correlated atoms, subject to both vacuum fluctuations of spacetime and stochastic gravitational waves. A general approach is taken with the derivation of a quantum master equation capable of describing arbitrary confined nonrelativistic matter systems in an open quantum gravitational environment. It enables us to relate the spectral function for gravitational waves and the distribution function for quantum gravitational fluctuations and to indeed introduce a new spectral function for the zero-point fluctuations of spacetime. The formulation is applied to two-level identical bosonic atoms in an off-resonant high-$Q$ cavity that effectively inhibits undesirable electromagnetic delays, leading to a gravitational transition mechanism through certain quadrupole moment operators. The overall relaxation rate before reaching equilibrium is found to generally scale collectively with the number $N$ of atoms. However, we are also able to identify certain states of which the decay and excitation rates with stochastic gravitational waves and vacuum spacetime fluctuations amplify more significantly with a factor of $N^2$. Using such favourable states as a means of measuring both conventional stochastic gravitational waves and novel zero-point spacetime fluctuations, we determine the theoretical lower bounds for the respective spectral functions. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings on future observations of gravitational waves of a wider spectral window than currently accessible. Especially, the possible sensing of the zero-point fluctuations of spacetime could provide an opportunity to generate initial evidence and further guidance of quantum gravity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Unitary Representations of the Translational Group Acting as Local Diffeomorphisms of Space-Time

We develop a new mathematical approach to diffeomorphism invariant quantum states for the quantisation of general field theories such as general relativity and modified gravity. Treating quantum fields as fibre bundles, we discuss operators acting on the fibre algebra that defines a Hilbert space. The algebras of two types of operators are considered in detail, namely the observables as generic physical variables and the quantum operators suitable for describing symmetries and transformations. We then introduce generalised quantum states of these operators and examine their properties. By establishing a link between the commutativity and group cohomology of the translational group as a subgroup of the Poincare group, we show that this leads to the construction of quantum states invariant under the action of the translational group, as the local gauge group of diffeomorphisms, with unitary representations.

math-ph↗

arXiv2017

Quantum coherence, radiance, and resistance of gravitational systems

We develop a general framework for the open dynamics of an ensemble of quantum particles subject to spacetime fluctuations about the flat background. An arbitrary number of interacting bosonic and fermionic particles are considered. A systematic approach to the generation of gravitational waves in the quantum domain is presented that recovers known classical limits in terms of the quadrupole radiation formula and backreaction dissipation. Classical gravitational emission and absorption relations are quantized into their quantum field theoretical counterparts in terms of the corresponding operators and quantum ensemble averages. Certain arising consistency issues related to factor ordering have been addressed and resolved. Using the theoretical formulation established here with numerical simulations in the quantum regime, we discuss potential new effects including decoherence through the spontaneous emission of gravitons and collectively amplified radiation of gravitational waves by correlated quantum particles.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Spacetime foam induced collective bundling of intense fields

The influence of spacetime foam on a broad class of bosonic fields with arbitrary numbers of particles in the low energy regime is investigated. Based on recently formulated general description of open quantum gravitational systems, we analyse the propagation of scalar, electromagnetic, and gravitational waves on both long and short time scales with respect to their mean frequencies. For the long time propagation, the Markov approximation is employed that neglects the effects of initial conditions of these waves. In this case, despite intuitively expected decoherence and dissipation from the noisy spacetime, we show that such phenomena turn out to be completely suppressed for scalar bosons, photons, and gravitons, which are coupled to gravity but otherwise free. The short time effects are then recovered through the transient non-Markovian evolution. Focusing on scalar bosons in initially incoherent states, we find that the resulting quantum dissipation depend strongly on the distribution of the particle momentum states. We further identify a hitherto undiscovered collective anti-dissipation mechanism for a large number of particles. The surprising new effect tends to "bundle" identical particles within a sharply distributed momentum states having a width inversely proportional to the particle number due to the thermal fluctuations, or its square root due to the vacuum fluctuations of spacetime.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Ergodic Theory and the Structure of Noncommutative Space-Time

We develop further our fibre bundle construct of non-commutative space-time on a Minkowski base space. We assume space-time is non-commutative due to the existence of additional non-commutative algebraic structure at each point x of space-time, forming a quantum operator 'fibre algebra' A(x). This structure then corresponds to the single fibre of a fibre bundle. A gauge group acts on each fibre algebra locally, while a 'section' through this bundle is then a quantum field of the form {A(x); x in M} with M the underlying space-time manifold. In addition, we assume a local algebra O(D) corresponding to the algebra of sections of such a principal fibre bundle with base space a finite and bounded subset of space-time, D. The algebraic operations of addition and multiplication are assumed defined fibrewise for this algebra of sections. We characterise 'ergodic' extremal quantum states of the fibre algebra invariant under the subgroup T of local translations of space-time of the Poincare group P in terms of a non-commutative extension of entropy applied to the subgroup T. We also characterise the existence of T- invariant states by generalizing to the non-commutative case Kakutani's work on wandering projections. This leads on to a classification of the structure of the local algebra O(D) by using a 'T-Twisted' equivalence relation, including a full analysis of the T-type III case. In particular we show that O(D) is T-type III if and only if the crossed product algebra O(D)xT is type III in the sense of Murray-von Neumann.

math-ph↗

arXiv2016

Quantum dynamics of bound states under spacetime fluctuations

With recent developments in high-precision quantum measurements, the question of whether observations of decoherence from spacetime fluctuations are accessible experimentally arises. Here we investigate the dynamics of bound states interacting with an environment of gravitons under the Markov approximation. The corresponding Lindblad master equation is presented that enables gravitational decoherence and dissipation due to zero-point spacetime fluctuations to be analyzed. Specifically, we consider a one-dimensional cavity of massless scalar particles that models a light beam with negligible spin polarizations being reflected between two free masses. Numerical simulations have been performed to illustrate the wave-modal dependent decoherence and dissipation of such a configuration. We further demonstrate the existence of nontrivial collective effects akin to superradiance, providing amplifications of gravitational decoherence for a large number of identical bosonic particles.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Quantum gravitational decoherence of light and matter

Real world quantum systems are open to perpetual influence from the wider environment. Quantum gravitational fluctuations provide a most fundamental source of the environmental influence through their universal interactions with all forms of energy and matter causing decoherence. This may have subtle implications on precision laboratory experiments and astronomical observations and could limit the ultimate capacities for quantum technologies prone to decoherence. To establish the essential physical mechanism of decoherence under weak spacetime fluctuations, we carry out a sequence of analytical steps utilizing the Dirac constraint quantization and gauge invariant influence functional techniques, resulting in a general master equation of a compact form, that describes an open quantum gravitational system with arbitrary bosonic fields. An initial application of the theory is illustrated by the implied quantum gravitational dissipation of light as well as (non)relativistic massive or massless scalar particles. Related effects could eventually lead to important physical consequences including those on a cosmological scale and for a large number of correlated particles.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Towards quantum gravity measurement by cold atoms

We propose an experiment for the measurement of gravitational effect on cold atoms by applying a one-dimensional vertically sinusoidal oscillation to the magneto-optical trap; and observe the signature of low quantum energy shift of quantum bound states as a consequence of gravitational fluctuation. To this end, we present brief details of the experiment on a BEC, and a simplistic calculation of the Gross-Pitaevskii solution using Thomas-Fermi approximation with focus on the density of the BEC, for the time-dependent perturbation. Moreover, we calculate the power induced by quantum gravity on a generic atomic ensemble. We also address the possible challenges for the measurement of the expected results. And finally, we discuss the prospect of further developing this experiment towards measuring the effect of quantum spacetime fluctuations on cold atoms.

quant-ph↗