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At least 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

A principle of maximum ignorance for semiclassical gravity

The principle of maximum ignorance posits that the coarse-grained description of a system is maximally agnostic about its underlying microscopic structure. We briefly review this principle for random matrix theory and for the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. We then apply this principle in holography to construct ensembles of random mixed states. This leads to an ensemble of microstates which models our microscopic ignorance, and which on average reproduces the effective semiclassical physics of a given bulk state. We call this ensemble the state-averaging ansatz. The output of our model is a prediction for semiclassical contributions to variances and higher statistical moments over the ensemble of microstates. The statistical moments provide coarse-grained — yet gravitationally non-perturbative — information about the microstructure of the individual states of the ensemble. We show that these contributions exactly match the on-shell action of known wormhole configurations of the gravitational path integral. These results strengthen the view that wormholes simply parametrize the ignorance of the microstructure of a fundamental state, given a fixed semiclassical bulk description.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Growth of accretion driven scalar hair around Kerr black holes

We report that Scalar fields around compact objects are of interest for scalar-tensor theories of gravity and dark matter models consisting of a massive scalar, e.g., axions. We study the behavior of a scalar field around a Kerr black hole with nontrivial asymptotic boundary conditions - both nonzero density and nonzero angular momentum. Starting from an initial radially homogeneous configuration, a scalar cloud is accreted, which asymptotes to known stationary configurations over time. We study the cloud growth for different parameters including black hole spin, scalar field mass, and the scalar field density and angular momentum far from the black hole. We characterize the transient growth of the mass and angular momentum in the cloud, and the spatial profile of the scalar around the black hole, and relate the results of fully nonlinear simulations to an analytic perturbative expansion. We also highlight the potential for these accreted clouds to create monochromatic gravitational wave signals - similar to the signals from superradiant clouds, although significantly weaker in amplitude.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Schrödinger evolution of two-dimensional black holes

This paper systematically treats the evolving quantum state for two-dimensional black holes, with particular focus on the CGHS model, but also elucidating features generalizing to higher dimensions. This is done in Schrödinger picture(s), to exhibit the dynamic evolution of the state at intermediate times. After a review of classical solutions, also connecting to descriptions of higher-dimensional black holes, it overviews the canonical quantum treatment of the full evolution, including gravitational dynamics. Derived in an approximation to this, following conversion to “perturbation picture”, is the evolution of the quantum matter on the background geometry. Features of the evolving matter state are described, based on choice of a time slicing to put the evolution into ADM form. The choices of slicing as well as coordinates on the slices result in different quantum “pictures” for treating the evolution. If such a description is based on smooth trans-horizon slices, that avoids explicit reference to ultra-planckian modes familiar from traditional treatments, and exhibits the Hawking excitations as emerging from a “quantum atmosphere” with thickness comparable to the inverse temperature. Detailed study of the state exhibits the entanglement structure between Hawking quanta and the partner excitations inside the black hole, and the corresponding “missing information”. This explicit description also allows direct study of the evolution and features, e.g. as seen by infalling observers, of these partner excitations, helping to address various puzzles with them. Explicit treatment of the evolving state, and its extension to higher dimensions, provides further connections to information theory and a starting point for study of corrections that can unitarize evolution, arising from new quantum gravity effects — whether wormholes or something entirely different.

2D Gravity↗
DOE OSTI2021

Rescuing a black hole in the large- q coupled SYK model

In this paper, we develop a general effective theory for two copies of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model with a time-dependent bilinear coupling. For a quantum quench problem with an initial state of the thermofield double state, we show how the evolution of the system is described by a complex reparametrization field with a classical Hamiltonian. We study correlation functions in this system and compare the large-q theory with the bulk low energy effective theory. In particular, we study the special case of a “rescued black hole”, which describes how a time-evolved thermofield double state can evolve to the ground state of a coupled SYK model by a carefully tuned time-dependent coupling. In the low energy region, there is a holographic dual interpretation, which is a geometry that crosses over from an eternal black hole to a global AdS2 vacuum. This family of geometries allow us to access the bulk region that would be the black hole interior without the rescue process. By comparing the large-q and low energy theory, we find that even in the low energy region the deviation from the low energy theory cannot be neglected if the rescue process starts late. This provides evidence that the low energy effective theory of the bulk fails near the inner horizon of the black hole. We note the possibility of a connection to a two-dimensional analog of the higher-dimensional black hole singularity.

2D Gravity↗
DOE OSTI2023

Gauge-invariant gravitational waves in matter beyond linearized gravity

Modeling the propagation of gravitational waves (GWs) in media other than vacuum is complicated by the gauge freedom of linearized gravity in that, once nonlinearities are taken into consideration, gauge artifacts can cause spurious acceleration of the matter. To eliminate these artifacts, we propose how to keep the theory of dispersive GWs gauge-invariant beyond the linear approximation and, in particular, obtain an unambiguous gauge-invariant expression for the energy–momentum of a GW in a dispersive medium. Using analytic tools from plasma physics, we propose an exactly gauge-invariant 'quasilinear' theory, in which GWs are governed by linear equations and also affect the background metric on scales large compared to their wavelength. As a corollary, the gauge-invariant geometrical optics of linear dispersive GWs in a general background is formulated. As an example, we show how the well-known properties of vacuum GWs are naturally and concisely yielded by our theory in a manifestly gauge-invariant form. We also show how the gauge invariance can be maintained within a given accuracy to an arbitrary order in the GW amplitude. These results are intended to form a physically meaningful framework for studying dispersive GWs in matter.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Replica wormhole and information retrieval in the SYK model coupled to Majorana chains

Motivated by recent studies of the information paradox in (1+1)-D anti-de Sitter spacetime with a bath described by a (1+1)-D conformal field theory, we study the dynamics of second Ŕenyi entropy of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model (χ) coupled to a Majorana chain bath (ψ). The system is prepared in the thermofield double (TFD) state and then evolved by HL + HR. For small system-bath coupling, we find that the second Rényi entropy $S^(2)_{χL,χR}$ of the SYK model undergoes a first order transition during the evolution. In the sense of holographic duality, the long-time solution corresponds to a “replica wormhole”. The transition time corresponds to the Page time of a black hole coupled to a thermal bath. We further study the information scrambling and retrieval by introducing a classical control bit, which controls whether or not we add a perturbation in the SYK system. The mutual information between the bath and the control bit shows a positive jump at the Page time, indicating that the entanglement wedge of the bath includes an island in the holographic bulk.

1/N Expansion↗
DOE OSTI2025

Tidal Love numbers of analog black holes

Tidal Love numbers quantify the conservative static response of compact objects to external tidal fields, and are found to vanish exactly for asymptotically flat black holes in four-dimensional general relativity. Many aspects of the physics of black holes have an analog in the theory of supersonic acoustic flows, including the existence of an event horizon and associated phenomena, such as quasinormal modes and superradiance. In this paper, we investigate the tidal Love numbers of acoustic black holes in different number of dimensions. We find that they exhibit a number of similar properties as higher-dimensional general relativistic black holes, such as logarithmic running with radial distance, and vanishing tidal response for special multipole moments. As a result, we show that the latter is a consequence of ladder symmetries, analogous to those identified for black holes.

Classical black holes↗
NASA NTRS2003

Combustion Of Interacting Droplet Arrays In Microgravity

Theory and experiments involving single droplet combustion date back to 1953, with the first microgravity work appearing in 1956. The problem of a spherical droplet burning in an infinite, quiescent microgravity environment is a classical problem in combustion research with the classical solution appearing in nearly every textbook on combustion. The microgravity environment offered by ground-based facilities such as drop towers and space-based facilities is ideal for studying the problem experimentally. A recent review by Choi and Dryer shows significant advances in droplet combustion have been made by studying the problem experimentally in microgravity and comparing the results to one dimensional theoretical and numerical treatments of the problem. Studying small numbers of interacting droplets in a well-controlled geometry represents a logical step in extending single droplet investigations to more practical spray configurations. Studies of droplet interactions date back to Rex and co-workers, and were recently summarized by Annamalai and Ryan. All previous studies determined the change in the burning rate constant, k, or the flame characteristics as a result of interactions. There exists almost no information on how droplet interactions a effect extinction limits, and if the extinction limits change if the array is in the diffusive or the radiative extinction regime. Thus, this study examined experimentally the effect that droplet interactions have on the extinction process by investigating the simplest array configuration, a binary droplet array. The studies were both in normal gravity, reduced pressure ambients and microgravity facilities. The microgravity facilities were the 2.2 and 5.2 second drop towers at the NASA Glenn Research Center and the 10 second drop tower at the Japan Microgravity Center. The experimental apparatus and the data analysis techniques are discussed in detail elsewhere.

Dietrich, D. L.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Non-supersymmetric $AdS_6$ and the swampland

We discuss infinite families of non-supersymmetric AdS 6 solutions in Type IIB string theory. They are siblings of supersymmetric solutions which are associated with (p,q) 5-brane webs and holographically dual to 5d SCFTs engineered by those brane webs. The non-supersymmetric backgrounds carry identical 5-brane charges and are connected to the supersymmetric ones by RG flows. We study the stability of the non-supersymmetric solutions, identifying perturbative and non-perturbative decay channels for all the backgrounds explicitly available. We also identify likely decay mechanisms for solutions that have not been constructed explicitly but may be expected to exist based on brane web considerations. Finally, we exclude scale separation by constructing universal spin 2 modes with masses comparable to the mass-scale of the cosmological constant.

supersymmetry breaking↗
DOE OSTI2021

Gravity loop integrands from the ultraviolet

We demonstrate that loop integrands of (super-)gravity scattering amplitudes possess surprising properties in the ultraviolet (UV) region. In particular, we study the scaling of multi-particle unitarity cuts for asymptotically large momenta and expose an improved UV behavior of four-dimensional cuts through seven loops as compared to standard expectations. For N=8 supergravity, we show that the improved large momentum scaling combined with the behavior of the integrand under BCFW deformations of external kinematics uniquely fixes the loop integrands in a number of non-trivial cases. In the integrand construction, all scaling conditions are homogeneous. Therefore, the only required information about the amplitude is its vanishing at particular points in momentum space. This homogeneous construction gives indirect evidence for a new geometric picture for graviton amplitudes similar to the one found for planar N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. We also show how the behavior at infinity is related to the scaling of tree-level amplitudes under certain multi-line chiral shifts which can be used to construct new recursion relations.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Inverted c-functions in thermal states

We first compute the effect of a chiral anomaly, charge, and a magnetic field on the entanglement entropy in $\mathcal{N}$ = 4 Super-Yang-Mills theory at strong coupling via holography. Depending on the width of the entanglement strip the entanglement entropy probes energy scales from the ultraviolet to the infrared energy regime of this quantum field theory (QFT) prepared in a given state. From the entanglement entropy, we compute holographic c-functions and demonstrate an inverted c-theorem for them. That is, these c-functions in generic thermal states monotonically increase towards the infrared (IR) energy regime. This is in contrast to the c-functions in vacuum states which decrease along the renormalization group flow towards the IR regime of a renormalizable QFT. Furthermore, in thermal states and in the IR limit, the c-functions behave thermally, growing proportionally to the value of the thermal entropy. The chiral anomaly affects the c-functions more in the IR regime, and its effect is peaked at an intermediate value of the magnetic field at a fixed chemical potential and temperature.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Large-d phase transitions in holographic mutual information

In the AdS/CFT correspondence, the entanglement entropy of subregions in the boundary CFT is conjectured to be dual to the area of a bulk extremal surface at leading order in G N in the holographic limit. Under this dictionary, distantly separated regions in the CFT vacuum state have zero mutual information at leading order, and only attain nonzero mutual information at this order when they lie close enough to develop significant classical and quantum correlations. Previously, the separation at which this phase transition occurs for equal-size ball-shaped regions centered at antipodal points on the boundary was known analytically only in 3 spacetime dimensions. Inspired by recent explorations of general relativity at large- d , we compute the separation at which the phase transition occurs analytically in the limit of infinitely many spacetime dimensions, and find that distant regions cannot develop large correlations without collectively occupying the entire volume of the boundary theory. We interpret this result as illustrating the spatial decoupling of holographic correlations in the large- d limit, and provide intuition for this phenomenon using results from quantum information theory. We also compute the phase transition separation numerically for a range of bulk spacetime dimensions from 4 to 21, where analytic results are intractable but numerical results provide insight into the dimension-dependence of holographic correlations. For bulk dimensions above 5, our exact numerical results are well approximated analytically by working to next-to-leading order in the large- d expansion.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Fuzzy spheres in stringy matrix models: quantifying chaos in a mixed phase space

We consider a truncation of the BMN matrix model to a configuration of two fuzzy spheres, described by two coupled non-linear oscillators dependent on the mass parameter μ. The classical phase diagram of the system generically (μ ≠ 0) contains three equilibrium points: two centers and a center-saddle; as μ → 0 the system exhibits a pitchfork bifurcation. We demonstrate that the system is exactly integrable in quadratures for μ = 0, while for very large values of μ, it approaches another integrable point characterized by two harmonic oscillators. The classical phase space is mixed, containing both integrable islands and chaotic regions, as evidenced by the classical Lyapunov spectrum. At the quantum level, we explore indicators of early and late time chaos. The eigenvalue spacing is best described by a Brody distribution, which interpolates between Poisson and Wigner distributions; it dovetails, at the quantum level, the classical results and reemphasizes the notion that the quantum system is mixed. We also study the spectral form factor and the quantum Lyapunov exponent, as defined by out-of-time-ordered correlators. These two indicators of quantum chaos exhibit weak correlations with the Brody distribution. We speculate that the behavior of the system as μ → 0 dominates the spectral form factor and the quantum Lyapunov exponent, making these indicators of quantum chaos less effective in the context of a mixed phase space.

AdS-CFT correspondence↗
DOE OSTI2020

Matter couplings and equivalence principles for soft scalars

Scalar effective field theories with enhanced soft limits behave in many ways like gauge theories and gravity. In particular, symmetries fix the structure of interactions and the tree-level S-matrix in both types of theories. We explore how this analogy persists in the presence of matter by considering theories with additional fields coupled to the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) scalar or the special galileon in a way that is consistent with their symmetries. Using purely on-shell arguments, we show that these theories obey analogues of the S-matrix equivalence principle whereby all matter fields must couple to the DBI scalar or the special galileon through a particular quartic vertex with a universal coupling. These equivalence principles imply the universality of the leading double soft theorems in these theories, which are scalar analogues of Weinberg’s gravitational soft theorem, and can be used to rule out interactions with massless higher-spin fields when combined with analogues of the generalized Weinberg-Witten theorem. We verify in several examples that amplitudes with external matter fields nontrivially exhibit enhanced single soft limits and we show that such amplitudes can be constructed using soft recursion relations when they have sufficiently many external DBI or special galileon legs, including amplitudes with massive higher-spin fields. As part of our analysis we construct a recently conjectured special galileon-vector effective field theory.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Non-invertible global symmetries and completeness of the spectrum

It is widely believed that consistent theories of quantum gravity satisfy two basic kinematic constraints: they are free from any global symmetry, and they contain a complete spectrum of gauge charges. For compact, abelian gauge groups, completeness follows from the absence of a 1-form global symmetry. However, this correspondence breaks down for more general gauge groups, where the breaking of the 1-form symmetry is insufficient to guarantee a complete spectrum. We show that the correspondence may be restored by broadening our notion of symmetry to include non-invertible topological operators, and prove that their absence is sufficient to guarantee a complete spectrum for any compact, possibly disconnected gauge group. In addition, we prove an analogous statement regarding the completeness of twist vortices: codimension-2 objects defined by a discrete holonomy around their worldvolume, such as cosmic strings in four dimensions. We discuss how this correspondence is modified in various, more general contexts, including non-compact gauge groups, Higgsing of gauge theories, and the addition of Chern-Simons terms. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results for the Swampland program, as well as the phenomenological implications of the existence of twist strings.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

A theoretical study of the upper bound of surface elevation variance in the Phillips initial stage during wind-wave generation

The resonance mechanism in the initial of wind-wave generation proposed by Phillips is a foundation of wind-wave generation theory, but a precise theoretical quantification of wave energy growth in this initial stage has not been obtained yet after more than six decades of research. In this study, we aim to address this knowledge gap by developing an analytical approach based on a novel complex analysis method to theoretically investigate the temporal evolution of the wave energy in the Phillips initial stage. We quantitatively derive and analyse the growth behaviour of the surface wave energy and obtain an analytical solution for its upper bound. Our result highlights the crucial effects of surface tension. Because the phase velocity of gravity–capillary waves has a minimal value at a critical wavenumber, gravity–capillary waves and gravity waves (which neglect surface tension) exhibit distinct resonance curve properties and wave energy growth behaviours. For gravity waves, the resonance curve extends indefinitely; for gravity–capillary waves, it either forms a finite-length curve or does not exist, depending on the wind speed. The leading-order term of the upper-bound solution of the energy of gravity waves increases linearly over time, while for gravity–capillary waves, the term increases linearly over time under strong wind conditions but remains finite under weak wind conditions. This theoretical study provides an analytical framework for the generation of wind-waves in the Phillips initial stage, which may inspire further theoretical, numerical and experimental research.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Scattering amplitudes for all masses and spins

We introduce a formalism for describing four-dimensional scattering amplitudes for particles of any mass and spin. This naturally extends the familiar spinor-helicity formalism for massless particles to one where these variables carry an extra SU(2) little group index for massive particles, with the amplitudes for spin Sparticles transforming as symmetric rank 2S tensors. We systematically characterise all possible three particle amplitudes compatible with Poincare symmetry. Unitarity, in the form of consistent factorization, imposes algebraic conditions that can be used to construct all possible four-particle tree amplitudes. This also gives us a convenient basis in which to expand all possible four-particle amplitudes in terms of what can be called “spinning polynomials”. Many general results of quantum field theory follow the analysis of four-particle scattering, ranging from the set of all possible consistent theories for massless particles, to spin-statistics, and the Weinberg-Witten theorem. We also find a transparent understanding for why massive particles of sufficiently high spin cannot be “elementary”. The Higgs and Super-Higgs mechanisms are naturally discovered as an infrared unification of many disparate helicity amplitudes into a smaller number of massive amplitudes, with a simple understanding for why this can’t be extended to Higgsing for gravitons. We illustrate a number of applications of the formalism at one-loop, giving few-line computations of the electron (g - 2) as well as the beta function and rational terms in QCD. “Off-shell” observables like correlation functions and form-factors can be thought of as scattering amplitudes with external “probe” particles of general mass and spin, so all these objects — amplitudes, form factors and correlators, can be studied from a common on-shell perspective.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

TCC in the interior of moduli space and its implications for the string landscape and cosmology

We consider the classical Friedmann-Robertson-Walker solutions that describe a universe undergoing a transition from an accelerating expansion phase in the past to an eternal decelerating expansion phase in the future, driven by a scalar field evolving in a potential energy landscape. We show that any solution for which the accelerating phase violates the Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture (TCC), even in the interior of moduli space, never approaches the asymptotic vacuum with zero particles. Based on the assumption that the effective field theory must be valid for the vacuum on the asymptotic boundary, as motivated by holography and string theory, we argue that (multi-field) scalar potentials with such solutions are disallowed, thus strengthening the case for TCC. In particular, assuming the regularity of the future vacuum state in the string landscape, we derive results that imply a new set of highly-nonlinear constraints across the string landscape which in the absence of certain meta-stable vacua make realizing inflation impossible.

Cosmological models↗