arXiv subjects

Viqar Husain

Publications and source records attributed to Viqar Husain.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Quantum gravity of dust collapse: shock waves from black holes

We study the quantum gravitational collapse of spherically symmetric pressureless dust. Using an effective equation derived from a polymer quantization in the connection-triad phase space variables of general relativity, we find numerically, for a variety of initial dust configurations, that (i) trapped surfaces form and disappear as an initially collapsing density profile evolves into an outgoing shockwave; (ii) black hole lifetime is proportional to the square of its mass; and (iii) there is no mass inflation at inner apparent horizons. These results provide a substantially different view of black hole formation and subsequent evolution than found from semiclassical analyses.

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arXiv2021

Quantum backreaction on a classical universe

We study a first-order formulation for the coupled evolution of a quantum scalar field and a classical Friedmann universe. The model is defined by a state dependent hamiltonian constraint and the time dependent Schrödinger equation for the scalar field. We solve the resulting non-linear equations numerically for initial data consisting of a Gaussian scalar field state and gravity phase space variables. This gives a self-consistent semiclassical evolution that includes non-perturbative ``backreaction" due to particle production. We compare the results with the evolution of a quantum scalar field on a fixed background, and find that the backreaction modifies both particle production and cosmological expansion, and that these effects remain bounded.

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arXiv2020

Monte Carlo simulation of cosmologies with dust

The quantum theory of the Friedmann cosmological model with dust and cosmological constant ($Λ$) is not exactly solvable analytically. We apply Path Integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) techniques to study its quantum dynamics using the physical Hamiltonian corresponding to the dust field as a clock. We study (i) quantum fluctuations around classical paths and (ii) formulate the analogues of the no-boundary and tunnelling proposals and simulate the ground state wave functions. For $Λ< 0$ a unique ground state wave function exists. For $Λ> 0$ the physical Hamiltonian is not bounded below, but the path integral for the propagator is convergent over a range of Euclidean time $T$. We investigate the properties of the convergent propagator. The path integral can be made convergent for all values of $T$ by restricting the integral over paths with action greater than equal to zero. We explore the consequences of such a choice.

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arXiv2020

Physical Hamiltonian for mimetic gravity

Starting from a local action for mimetic gravity that includes higher derivatives of a scalar field $ϕ$, we derive a gauge-fixed canonical action of the theory in the ADM canonical formalism in the time gauge $ϕ=t$. This reduced action reveals (i) a non-vanishing conserved physical Hamiltonian that is a sum of two terms, the expression for the Hamiltonian constraint of general relativity and a function of the expansion scalar, and (ii) a reduced symplectic structure that geometrically provides the Dirac brackets. As applications of our general analysis, we compute the physical Hamiltonians and canonical equations for perturbations around Minkowski spacetime, homogeneous cosmologies, and spherically symmetric spacetimes.

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arXiv2020

Cosmological perturbation theory with matter time

We study cosmological perturbation theory with scalar field and pressureless dust in the Hamiltonian formulation, with the dust field chosen as a matter-time gauge. The corresponding canonical action describes the dynamics of the scalar field and metric degrees of freedom with a non-vanishing physical Hamiltonian and spatial diffeomorphism constraint. We construct a momentum space Hamiltonian that describes linear perturbations, and show that the constraints to this order form a first class system. We then write the Hamiltonian as a function of certain gauge invariant canonical variables and show that it takes the form of an oscillator with time dependent mass and frequency coupled to an ultralocal field. We compare our analysis with other Hamiltonian approaches to cosmological perturbation theory that do not use dust time.

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arXiv2020

Matter-Geometry entanglement in quantum cosmology

We present a study of the evolution of entanglement entropy of matter and geometry in quantum cosmology. For a variety of Gaussian initial states and their linear combinations, and with evolution defined with respect to a relational time, we show numerically that (i) entanglement entropy increases rapidly at very early times, and subsequently saturates to a constant non-zero value, and (ii) that the saturation value of this entropy is a linear function of the energy associated to the quantum state: $S_{\text{ent}}^ψ= γ\langle \hat{H} \rangle_ψ$. These results suggest a remnant of quantum entanglement in the macroscopic Universe from the era of the Big Bang, independent of the initial state parameters, and a "First Law" associated with matter-gravity entanglement entropy in quantum gravity.

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arXiv2018

Semiclassical cosmology with back reaction: the Friedmann-Schrodinger equation and inflation

We propose and study a semi-classical cosmological system akin to the Newton-Schrödinger equation where matter field evolution is determined by time dependent Schrödinger equation. The resulting dynamics is one where the scale factor self-consistently informs the quantum evolution of the scalar field wave function via the Friedmann equation. We study various potentials, and show that for each case, inflation arises naturally, without fine-tuning, for arbitrary initial wave functions for the scalar field. Furthermore, due to zero-point quantum fluctuations of the scalar field, the equation of state $P=-ρ$ arises dynamically at late times for all initial states and potentials.

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arXiv2018

Does quantum gravity relate the constants of nature?

The central equation of quantum gravity is the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. We give an argument suggesting that exact solutions of this equation give a surface in the space of coupling constants. This provides a mechanism for determining the cosmological constant as a function of the gravitational and other interaction constants. We demonstrate the idea by computing one such surface in a cosmological model.

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arXiv2018

Gravity, time and varying constants

There are theories which implement the idea that the constants of nature may be "time dependent." These introduce new fields representing "evolving constants," in addition to physical fields. We argue that dynamical matter coupling constants can arise naturally in non-perturbative matter-gravity theories, after a choice of global time is made. We illustrate the idea in scalar field cosmology with spatial volume as a global clock, and compute the time dependence of the scalar mass and self-interaction coupling constants.

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arXiv2018

The Universe as an Oscillator

We apply the idea of using a matter time gauge in quantum gravity to quantum cosmology. For the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) Universe with dust and cosmological constant $Λ$, we show that the dynamics maps exactly to the simple harmonic oscillator in the dust-time gauge. For $Λ>0$ the oscillator frequency is imaginary, for $Λ<0$ it is real, and for $Λ=0$ the Universe is a free particle. This result provides (i) a simple demonstration of non-perturbative singularity avoidance in quantum gravity for all $Λ$, (ii) an exact Lorentzian Hartle-Hawking wave function, and (iii) gives the present age of the Universe as the characteristic decay time of the propagator.

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arXiv2018

Quantum gravitational collapse as a Dirac particle on the half-line

We show that the quantum dynamics of a thin spherical shell in general relativity is equivalent to the Coulomb-Dirac equation on the half line. The Hamiltonian has a one-parameter family of self-adjoint extensions with a discrete energy spectrum $|E| < m$, and a continuum of scattering states for $|E|>m$, where $m$ is the rest mass of the shell and $E$ is the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner mass. For sufficiently large $m$, the ground state energy level is negative. This suggests that classical positivity of energy does not survive quantization. The scattering states provide a realization of singularity avoidance. We speculate on the consequences of these results for black hole radiation.

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arXiv2017

On the Penrose inequality in anti-deSitter space

For asymptotically flat spacetimes the Penrose inequality gives an initial data test for the weak cosmic censorship hypothesis. We give a formulation of this inequality for asymptotically anti-deSitter (AAdS) spacetimes, and show that the inequality holds for time asymmetric data in spherical symmetry. Our analysis is motivated by the constant-negative-spatial-curvature form of the AdS black hole metric.

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arXiv2017

Mixmaster dynamics in the dust time gauge

We study the Hamiltonian dynamics of the dust-Bianchi IX universe in dust time gauge. This model has three physical metric degrees of freedom, with evolution determined by a time-independent physical Hamiltonian. This approach gives a new physical picture where dust-Bianchi IX dynamics is described by oscillations between dust-Kasner solutions, rather than between vacuum-Kasner solutions. We derive a generalized transition law between these phases, which has a matter component. Sufficiently close to a singularity, we show that this law reduces to the vacuum Belinski-Khalatnikov-Lifshitz map. We include an analysis with dust and a scalar field. Lastly, we describe a path integral quantization using the dust-time physical Hamiltonian and derive an effective action for the dust-Kasner model by integrating out the anisotropy degrees of freedom.

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arXiv2017

Semiclassical cosmology with polymer matter

In loop quantum cosmology, polymer quantization is applied to gravity and Schrodinger quantization to matter. This approach misses interesting cosmological dynamics coming from the polymer quantization of matter. We demonstrate this in semiclassical cosmology with a scalar field and pressureless dust: gravity is kept classical, dust is used to fix the time gauge, and polymer quantization effects are isolated in the scalar field. The resulting dynamics shows a period of inflation, both with and without a scalar potential, and the emergence of a classical universe at late times. Since gravity is not quantized, the cosmological singularity is not resolved, but our results suggest that polymer quantization of both gravity and matter are important for a complete picture.

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arXiv2017

The information recovery problem

The issue of unitary evolution during creation and evaporation of a black hole remains controversial. We~argue that some prominent cures are more troubling than the disease, demonstrate that their central element---forming of the event horizon before the evaporation begins---is not necessarily true, and describe a fully coupled matter-gravity system which is manifestly unitary.

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arXiv2016

Low energy Lorentz violation from modified dispersion at high energies

Many quantum theories of gravity propose Lorentz violating dispersion relations of the form $ω= |k|\, f(|k|/M)$, with recovery of approximate Lorentz invariance at energy scales much below $M$. We show that a quantum field with this dispersion predicts drastic low energy Lorentz violation in atoms modelled as Unruh-DeWitt detectors, for any $f$ that dips below unity somewhere. As an example, we show that polymer quantization motivated by loop quantum gravity predicts such Lorentz violation below current ion collider rapidities.

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arXiv2016

Ground state of the universe and the cosmological constant. A nonperturbative analysis

The physical Hamiltonian of a gravity-matter system depends on the choice of time, with the vacuum naturally identified as its ground state. We study the expanding universe with scalar field in the volume time gauge. We show that the vacuum energy density computed from the resulting Hamiltonian is a non-linear function of the cosmological constant and time. This result provides a new perspective on the relation between time, the cosmological constant, and vacuum energy.

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arXiv2016

Linearized gravity with matter time

We study general relativity with pressureless dust in the canonical formulation, with the dust field chosen as a matter-time gauge. The resulting theory has three physical degrees of freedom in the metric field. The linearized canonical theory reveals two graviton modes and a scalar mode. We find that the graviton modes remain Lorentz covariant despite the time gauge, and that the scalar mode is ultralocal. We discuss also a modification of the theory to include a parameter in the Hamiltonian analogous to that in Horava-Lifshitz models. In this case the scalar mode is no longer ultralocal, and acquires a propagation speed dependent on the deformation parameter.

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