Space and Time Averaged Quantum Stress Tensor Fluctuations
| Autor: | L. H. Ford, Peter Wu, Enrico D. Schiappacasse |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | Helsinki Institute of Physics |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
High Energy Physics - Theory
Vacuum state Degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry) Thermal fluctuations FOS: Physical sciences General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) kosmologia 114 Physical sciences 01 natural sciences General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 0103 physical sciences Minkowski space 010306 general physics kvanttifysiikka Eigenvalues and eigenvectors Quantum fluctuation Physics Quantum Physics 010308 nuclear & particles physics Cauchy stress tensor Mathematical analysis gravitaatio High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) gravitaatioaallot Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Scalar field |
| Zdroj: | Physical Review |
| DOI: | 10.48550/arxiv.2104.04446 |
| Popis: | We extend previous work on the numerical diagonalization of quantum stress tensor operators in the Minkowski vacuum state, which considered operators averaged in a finite time interval, to operators averaged in a finite spacetime region. Since real experiments occur over finite volumes and durations, physically meaningful fluctuations may be obtained from stress tensor operators averaged by compactly supported sampling functions in space and time. The direct diagonalization, via a Bogoliubov transformation, gives the eigenvalues and the probabilities of measuring those eigenvalues in the vacuum state, from which the underlying probability distribution can be constructed. For the normal-ordered square of the time derivative of a massless scalar field in a spherical cavity with finite degrees of freedom, analysis of the tails of these distributions confirms previous results based on the analytical treatment of the high moments. We find that the probability of large vacuum fluctuations is reduced when spatial averaging is included, but the tail still decreases more slowly than exponentially as the magnitude of the measured eigenvalues increases, suggesting vacuum fluctuations may not always be subdominant to thermal fluctuations and opening up the possibility of experimental observation under the right conditions. Comment: 32 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. V2: updated to version published in Physical Review D |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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