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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Islands in cosmology

A quantum extremal island suggests that a region of spacetime is encoded in the quantum state of another system, like the encoding of the black hole interior in Hawking radiation. We study conditions for islands to appear in general spacetimes, with or without black holes. They must violate Bekenstein’s area bound in a precise sense, and the boundary of an island must satisfy several other information-theoretic inequalities. These conditions combine to impose very strong restrictions, which we apply to cosmological models. We find several examples of islands in crunching universes. In particular, in the four-dimensional FRW cosmology with radiation and a negative cosmological constant, there is an island near the turning point when the geometry begins to recollapse. In a two-dimensional model of JT gravity in de Sitter spacetime, there are islands inside crunches that are encoded at future infinity or inside bubbles of Minkowski spacetime. Finally, we discuss simple tensor network toy models for islands in cosmology and black holes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Capturing the Page curve and entanglement dynamics of black holes in quantum computers

Quantum computers are emerging technologies expected to become important tools for exploring various aspects of fundamental physics in the future. Therefore, we pose the question of whether quantum computers can help us to study the Page curve and the black hole information dynamics, which has been a key focus in fundamental physics. In this regard, we rigorously examine the qubit transport model, a toy qubit model of black hole evaporation on IBM’s superconducting quantum computers, to shed light on this question. Specifically, we implement the quantum simulation of the scrambling dynamics in black holes using an efficient random unitary circuit. Furthermore, we employ the swap-based many-body interference protocol and the randomized measurement protocol to measure the entanglement entropy of Hawking radiation qubits in this model. Finally, by incorporating quantum error mitigation techniques into our challenging implementation of entanglement entropy measurement protocols on the IBM quantum hardware, we accurately determine the Rényi entropy in the qubit transport model, thus showcasing the utility of quantum computers for future investigations of complex quantum systems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Black-hole powered quantum coherent amplifier

Abstract Atoms falling into a black hole (BH) through a cavity are shown to enable coherent amplification of light quanta powered by the BH-gravitational vacuum energy. This process can harness the BH energy towards useful purposes, such as propelling a spaceship trapped by the BH. The process can occur via transient amplification of a signal field by falling atoms that are partly excited by Hawking radiation reflected by an orbiting mirror. In the steady-state regime of thermally equilibrated atoms that weakly couple to the field, this amplifier constitutes a BH-powered quantum heat engine. The envisaged effects substantiate the thermodynamic approach to BH acceleration radiation.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2021

Constraints on MeV dark matter and primordial black holes: Inverse Compton signals at the SKA

Here we investigate the possibilities for probing MeV dark matter (DM) particles and primordial black holes (PBHs) (for masses ~ 10 15 –10 17 g) at the upcoming radio telescope SKA, using photon signals from the Inverse Compton (IC) effect within a galactic halo. Pair-annihilation or decay of MeV DM particles (into e + e - pairs) or Hawking radiation from a population of PBHs generates mildly relativistic e ± which can lead to radio signals through the IC scattering on low energy cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons. We study the ability of SKA to detect such signals coming from nearby ultra-faint dwarf galaxies Segue I and Ursa Major II as well as the globular cluster ω-cen and the Coma cluster. We find that with ~ 100 hours of observation, the SKA improves the Planck constraints on the DM annihilation/decay rate and the PBH abundance for masses in the range ~ 1 to few tens of MeV and above 10 15 to 10 17 g, respectively. Importantly, the SKA limits are independent of the assumed magnetic fields within the galaxies. Previously allowed regions of diffusion parameters of MeV electrons inside a dwarf galaxy that give rise to observable signals at the SKA are also excluded. For objects like dwarf galaxies, predicted SKA constraints depend on both the DM and diffusion parameters. Independent observations in different frequency bands, e.g., radio and γ-ray frequencies, may break this degeneracy and thus enable one to constrain the combined parameter space of DM and diffusion. However, the constraints are independent of diffusion parameters for galaxy clusters such as Coma.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Gravitational baryogenesis and dark matter from light black holes

Here we study a scenario in which the baryon asymmetry is created through Hawking radiation from primordial black holes via a dynamically-generated chemical potential. This mechanism can also be used to generate the observed dark matter abundance, regardless of whether or not the black holes fully evaporate. In the case that evaporation ceases, the observed dark matter abundance is generically comprised of both relic black holes and an asymmetric dark matter component. We show that this two-component dark matter scenario can simultaneously account for the observed baryon asymmetry and the cosmological dark matter, a possibility which evades constraints on either individual candidate.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Double copy root of Hawking thermality

The Hawking radiation spectrum from a collapsing null shell can be derived via the double copy of a simpler gauge theory calculation. Analyzing the non-abelian Yang-Mills root of this process, we demonstrate that the radiation spectrum is thermal in the color charge eigenvalue 𝜆, not energy. Considering the 𝑆⁢𝑈⁡(𝑁 𝑐 ) gauge theory in the large 𝑁 𝑐 limit, we find the differential spectrum ⅆ⁢𝑁/ⅆ⁢𝜆 is a product of the gravitationally familiar Planck-like factor and the color phase space density, modeled here as the Wigner semicircle from random matrix theory. This reveals that apparent energy thermality in gravity is the direct dual of charge thermality in its underlying non-abelian gauge theory.

Carrasco, John Joseph M. [Northwestern University,↗
DOE OSTI2022

Correlating gravitational wave and gamma-ray signals from primordial black holes

Asteroid-mass primordial black holes (PBHs) can explain the observed dark matter abundance while being consistent with the current indirect detection constraints. These PBHs can produce gamma-ray signals from Hawking radiation that are within the sensitivity of future measurements by the AMEGO and e-ASTROGAM experiments. PBHs which give rise to such observable gamma-ray signals have a cosmic origin from large primordial curvature fluctuations. There must then be a companion, stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background produced by the same curvature fluctuations. We demonstrate that the resulting GW signals will be well within the sensitivity of future detectors such as LISA, DECIGO, BBO, and the Einstein Telescope. The multimessenger signal from the observed gamma-rays and GWs will allow a precise measurement of the primordial curvature perturbation that produces the PBH. Indeed, so we argue that the resulting correlation between the two types of observations can provide a smoking-gun signal of PBHs.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Constraints on late-forming exploding black holes

Black holes can be produced in collapse of small-scale dark matter structures, which can happen at any time from the early to present-day Universe. Microstructure black holes (MSBHs) can have a wide range of masses. Here, small MSBHs evaporate via Hawking radiation with lifetimes shorter than the age of the Universe, but they are not subject to the usual early-Universe bounds on the abundance of small primordial black holes. We investigate the possible signal of such a population of exploding, late-forming black holes, constraining their abundance with observations from diffuse extragalactic gamma- and x-ray sources, the Galactic Center, and dwarf spheroidal galaxies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Nonsingular black holes as dark matter

It is commonly assumed that low-mass primordial black holes cannot constitute a significant fraction of the dark matter in our universe due to their predicted short lifetimes from the conventional Hawking radiation and evaporation process. Assuming physical black holes are nonsingular—likely due to quantum gravity or other high-energy physics—we demonstrate that a large class of nonsingular black holes have finite evaporation temperatures. This can lead to slowly evaporating low-mass black holes or to remnant mass states that circumvent traditional evaporation constraints. As a proof of concept, we explore the limiting curvature hypothesis and the evaporation process of a nonsingular black hole solution in two-dimensional dilaton gravity. We identify generic features of the radiation profile and compare them with known regular black holes, such as the Bardeen solution in four dimensions. Remnant masses are proportional to the fundamental length scale, and we argue that slowly evaporating low-mass nonsingular black holes, or remnants, are viable dark matter candidates. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Firewalls from General Covariance

I define “horizon normalcy” as the approximate validity of semiclassical gravity and effective field theory for the description of observers that approach or cross a black hole horizon. If black holes return information, then horizon normalcy must fail substantially, at least in some global states. It has been proposed that horizon normalcy persists, so long as the Hawking radiation remains in a computationally simple state. Here I argue that state-dependent horizon normalcy—independent of the underlying mechanism and independent of the class of radiation states asserted to guarantee normalcy—requires a breakdown of general covariance far from the black hole, or else horizon normalcy will depend on the infinite future of the exterior. This is because the radiation can be in different states at different events, all spacelike to the horizon crossing event whose normalcy is at stake. I discuss a related effect in AdS/CFT, and I argue that its resolution by timefolds is of no help here.

General relativity↗
DOE OSTI2024

Particle production by a relativistic semitransparent mirror of finite size and thickness

Production of massless scalar particles by a relativistic semitransparent mirror of finite transverse size and longitudinal thickness in (1+3)D flat spacetime is studied. The derived particle spectrum formula is applied to two specific trajectories. One is the gravitational collapse trajectory invoked in (1+1)D perfectly reflecting moving mirror literature to mimic Hawking radiation, and the other is the plasma mirror trajectory proposed to be realizable in future experiments. It is found that the finiteness of the transverse size leads to diffraction, while the nontrivial thickness amplifies the production rate. We also estimated the particle yield as ~ 3000 in a 20-day data acquisition based on the parameters invoked in the proposed AnaBHEL experiment.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Kerr black hole evaporation and Page curve

In this paper, we compute the black hole entropy and the entanglement entropy of Hawking radiations due to photons during the evaporation of a 4D asymptotically flat Kerr black hole. The Page curve for the Kerr black hole is obtained in the original way à la Page, and it qualitatively mimics the curve for the Schwarzschild black hole but has some new features.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
DOE OSTI2021

QED with the electron as a very small black-hole-like object

We pursue a simple semi-classical particle-based picture of QED in which the electron is assumed to contain a point massless and chargeless core that interacts with the electromagnetic vacuum in ways that are not dissimilar to the manner in which small black holes may interact with photons. Modifications are made to obtain known properties of the electron including the presence of rest energy, Lamb shift, magnetic moments (both free and bound), charge, Larmor emission, and vacuum polarization. The present study does not provide proofs but is rather an attempt to reverse-engineer the photon-electron and black-hole-electron interaction properties needed to match experimental observations. The ease by which many QED observables can be reproduced suggests further study of the presented framework may be warranted. Future detailed analysis of the exchange of long wavelength Hawking radiation between a pair of small black holes will be of particular interest.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS2011

Constraining the Braneworld with Gravitational Wave Observations

Some braneworld models may have observable consequences that, if detected, would validate a requisite element of string theory. In the infinite Randall-Sundrum model (RS2), the AdS radius of curvature, L, of the extra dimension supports a single bound state of the massless graviton on the brane, thereby reproducing Newtonian gravity in the weak-field limit. However, using the AdS/CFT correspondence, it has been suggested that one possible consequence of RS2 is an enormous increase in Hawking radiation emitted by black holes. We utilize this possibility to derive two novel methods for constraining L via gravitational wave measurements. We show that the EMRI event rate detected by LISA can constrain L at the approximately 1 micron level for optimal cases, while the observation of a single galactic black hole binary with LISA results in an optimal constraint of L less than or equal to 5 microns.

McWilliams, Sean T.↗
NASA NTRS2021

Near future MeV telescopes can discover asteroid-mass primordial black hole dark matter

Primordial black holes (PBHs), formed out of large over densities in the early Universe, are a viable dark matter (DM) candidate over a broad range of masses. Ultralight, asteroid-mass PBHs with masses around1017g are particularly interesting as current observations allow them to constitute the entire DM density. PBHs in this mass range emit∼MeV photons via Hawking radiation which can directly be detected by the gamma ray telescopes, such as the upcoming AMEGO. In this work we forecast how well an instrument with the sensitivity of AMEGO will be able to detect, or rule out, PBHs as a DM candidate, by searching for their evaporating signature when marginalizing over the Galactic and extra-Galactic gamma-ray back-grounds. We find that an instrument with the sensitivity of AMEGO could exclude nonrotating PBHs as the only DM component for masses up to7×1017g at 95% confidence level for a monochromatic mass distribution, improving upon current bounds by nearly an order of magnitude. The forecasted constraints are more stringent for PBHs that have rotation, or which follow extended mass distributions

Anupam Ray↗
NASA NTRS1991

Remote sensing of regional pyroclastic deposits on the north central portion of the lunar nearside

High-resolution 3.0-cm radar data for the Rima Bode regional pyroclastic deposit and a number of UV-visible reflectance spectra for regional pyroclastic deposits on the north-central portion of the lunar nearside are analyzed and compared to existing data. The data obtained indicate that small craters in this deposit excavated loose unwelded pyroclastic particles, suggesting that welded layers or lenses do not exist at depths within the deposit's core area. The 70-cm radar data indicate that the Roma Bode deposit is thinner than the pyroclastic unit on the Aristarchus Plateau. The surfaces of all these regional pyroclastic deposits are dominated by ilmenite-rich black spheres, and contamination by low-Ti, nonpyroclastic debris appears to be minimal. The fine-grained block-free uncontaminated Rima Bode would be ideal for lunar mining operations and for rapidly covering lunar base modules with an adequate thickness of shielding material for protection from meteorite impact and space radiation.

Hawke, B. R.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Quantum Information Science in High Energy Physics at the Large Hadron Collider (Final Report-QuantISED)

We pursue scientific research at the interface of High Energy Physics and Quantum Information Science. This includes studies of thermal radiation and quantum entanglement in high-energy collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), with special emphasis on entanglement entropy and the Higgs boson. This project has also been extended to include quantum entanglement and charged current weak interactions using Fermilab results. And most recently, we have begun tests of the temporal entanglement using LHC data. Collider experiments such as proton-proton collisions at the LHC yield hadrons that exhibit an exponential behavior at low transverse momenta. This surprising behavior is seen in data from both the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. We attribute this phenomenon to quantum entanglement between the regions in the nucleon wave function. The exponential component to the transverse momentum distribution is a result of thermal radiation that is akin to Hawking or Unruh radiation that should exist at the event horizon of astrophysical black holes and neutron stars. The Principal Investigator, in collaboration with a theoretical physicist at Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory, and with Yale University students, has shown evidence for this thermal radiation in several production and decay processes in the ATLAS and CMS data, and its connection to entanglement entropy (O.K. Baker and D.E Kharzeev, Phys. Rev. D 98, 054007 (2018)), including even the Higgs boson sector. Interestingly, this thermal behavior is also seen in momentum distributions of charged current weak interactions according to our studies. These findings suggest a deep connection between quantum entanglement (entanglement entropy) and thermalization in both hadron collisions at the energy frontier and neutrino scattering at the intensity frontier. We have confirmed the proposed relation between the effective temperature and the hard-scattering scale at lower energies using the most recent LHC data for the following systems: Higgs bosons, top quarks, and charged hadrons. Additionally, we have results for hadron production in neutrino scattering from nuclei using Fermilab weak interaction data. This study is carried out using data from the MINERvA collaboration. In those cases where entanglement is expected, there is an exponential component to the momentum distribution, while this component is absent in those processes where no entanglement is expected. This research thus tests the hypothesis about a link between quantum entanglement and thermalization in strong and weak interactions. See Phys Lett B 811, 135948 (2020). We also initiated research applying a quantum search algorithm (Grover's Algorithm) to LHC data. This quantum algorithm was used to show how rare events in LHC data can be searched for in large, unsorted databases, with quadratic speedup compared to classical search algorithms on classical computers. See "Application of a Quantum Search Algorithm to High- Energy Physics Data at the Large Hadron Collider", arXiv:2010.00649 [quant-ph].

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Möbius mirrors

An accelerating boundary (mirror) acts as a horizon and black hole analog, radiating energy with some particle spectrum. In this work, we demonstrate that a Möbius transformation on the null coordinate advanced time mirror trajectory uniquely keeps invariant not only the energy flux but the particle spectrum. We clarify how the geometric entanglement entropy is also invariant. The transform allows generation of families of dynamically distinct trajectories, including $\mathcal{PT}$ -symmetric ones, mapping from the eternally thermal mirror to the de Sitter horizon, and different boundary motions corresponding to Kerr or Schwarzschild black holes

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗