A homogenization theorem for Langevin systems with an application to Hamiltonian dynamics

This paper studies homogenization of stochastic differential systems. The standard example of this phenomenon is the small mass limit of Hamiltonian systems. We consider this case first from the heuristic point of view, stressing the role of detailed balance and presenting the heuristics based on a multiscale expansion. This is used to propose a physical interpretation of recent results by the authors, as well as to motivate a new theorem proven here. Its main content is a sufficient condition, expressed in terms of solvability of an associated partial differential equation ("the cell problem"), under which the homogenization limit of an SDE is calculated explicitly. The general theorem is applied to a class of systems, satisfying a generalized detailed balance condition with a position-dependent temperature.Comment: 32 page

Hawking radiation from extremal and non-extremal black holes

The relationship between Hawking radiation emitted by non extremal and extremal Reissner Nordstrom black holes is critically analyzed. A careful study of a series of regular collapsing geometries reveals that the stress energy tensor stays regular in the extremal limit and is smoothly connected to that of non extremal black holes. The unexpected feature is that the late time transients which played little role in the non extremal case are necessary to preserve the well defined character of the flux in the extremal case. The known singular behavior of the static energy density of extremal black holes is recovered from our series by neglecting these transients, when performing what turns out to be an illegitimate late time limit. Although our results are derived in two dimensional settings, we explain why they should also apply to higher dimensional black holes.Comment: 18 pages, late

Novel black hole bound states and entropy

We solve for the spectrum of the Laplacian as a Hamiltonian on $\mathbb{R}^{2}-\mathbb{D}$ and in $\mathbb{R}^{3}-\mathbb{B}$. A self-adjointness analysis with $\partial\mathbb{D}$ and $\partial\mathbb{B}$ as the boundary for the two cases shows that a general class of boundary conditions for which the Hamiltonian operator is essentially self-adjoint are of the mixed (Robin) type. With this class of boundary conditions we obtain "bound state" solutions for the Schroedinger equation. Interestingly, these solutions are all localized near the boundary. We further show that the number of bound states is finite and is in fact proportional to the perimeter or area of the removed \emph{disc} or \emph{ball}. We then argue that similar considerations should hold for static black hole backgrounds with the horizon treated as the boundary.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, approximate formula for energy spectrum added at the end of section 2.1 along with additional minor changes to comply with the version accepted in PR

How red is a quantum black hole?

Radiating black holes pose a number of puzzles for semiclassical and quantum gravity. These include the transplanckian problem -- the nearly infinite energies of Hawking particles created near the horizon, and the final state of evaporation. A definitive resolution of these questions likely requires robust inputs from quantum gravity. We argue that one such input is a quantum bound on curvature. We show how this leads to an upper limit on the redshift of a Hawking emitted particle, to a maximum temperature for a black hole, and to the prediction of a Planck scale remnant.Comment: 3 pages, essay for the Gravity Research Foundatio

Very Light Cosmological Scalar Fields from a Tiny Cosmological Constant

We discuss a mechanism which generates a mass term for a scalar field in an expanding universe. The mass of this field turns out to be generated by the cosmological constant and can be naturally small if protected by a conformal symmetry which is however broken in the gravitational sector. The mass is comparable today to the Hubble time. This scalar field could thus impact our universe today and for example be at the origin of a time variation of the couplings and masses of the parameters of the standard model.Comment: 11 page

Soliton Solutions to the Einstein Equations in Five Dimensions

We present a new class of solutions in odd dimensions to Einstein's equations containing either a positive or negative cosmological constant. These solutions resemble the even-dimensional Eguchi-Hanson--(anti)-de Sitter ((A)dS) metrics, with the added feature of having Lorentzian signatures. They provide an affirmative answer to the open question as to whether or not there exist solutions with negative cosmological constant that asymptotically approach AdS$_{5}/\Gamma$, but have less energy than AdS$_{5}/\Gamma$. We present evidence that these solutions are the lowest-energy states within their asymptotic class.Comment: 9 pages, Latex; Final version that appeared in Phys. Rev. Lett; title changed by journal from original title "Eguchi-Hanson Solitons

Dark Matter from R^2-gravity

The modification of Einstein gravity at high energies is mandatory from a quantum approach. In this work, we point out that this modification will necessarily introduce new degrees of freedom. We analyze the possibility that these new gravitational states can provide the main contribution to the non-baryonic dark matter of the Universe. Unfortunately, the right ultraviolet completion of gravity is still unresolved. For this reason, we will illustrate this idea with the simplest high energy modification of the Einstein-Hilbert action: R^2-gravity.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Vacuum Energy Density for Massless Scalar Fields in Flat Homogeneous Spacetime Manifolds with Nontrivial Topology

Although the observed universe appears to be geometrically flat, it could have one of 18 global topologies. A constant-time slice of the spacetime manifold could be a torus, Mobius strip, Klein bottle, or others. This global topology of the universe imposes boundary conditions on quantum fields and affects the vacuum energy density via Casimir effect. In a spacetime with such a nontrivial topology, the vacuum energy density is shifted from its value in a simply-connected spacetime. In this paper, the vacuum expectation value of the stress-energy tensor for a massless scalar field is calculated in all 17 multiply-connected, flat and homogeneous spacetimes with different global topologies. It is found that the vacuum energy density is lowered relative to the Minkowski vacuum level in all spacetimes and that the stress-energy tensor becomes position-dependent in spacetimes that involve reflections and rotations.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figure

Quantum Energy Teleportation with Electromagnetic Field: Discrete vs. Continuous Variables

It is well known that usual quantum teleportation protocols cannot transport energy. Recently, new protocols called quantum energy teleportation (QET) have been proposed, which transport energy by local operations and classical communication with the ground states of many-body quantum systems. In this paper, we compare two different QET protocols for transporting energy with electromagnetic field. In the first protocol, a 1/2 spin (a qubit) is coupled with the quantum fluctuation in the vacuum state and measured in order to obtain one-bit information about the fluctuation for the teleportation. In the second protocol, a harmonic oscillator is coupled with the fluctuation and measured in order to obtain continuous-variable information about the fluctuation. In the spin protocol, the amount of teleported energy is suppressed by an exponential damping factor when the amount of input energy increases. This suppression factor becomes power damping in the case of the harmonic oscillator protocol. Therefore, it is concluded that obtaining more information about the quantum fluctuation leads to teleporting more energy. This result suggests a profound relationship between energy and quantum information.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretica

Collapse of Vacuum Bubbles in a Vacuum

Motivated by the discovery of a plenitude of metastable vacua in a string landscape and the possibility of rapid tunneling between these vacua, we revisit the dynamics of a false vacuum bubble in a background de Sitter spacetime. We find that there exists a large parameter space that allows the bubble to collapse into a black hole or to form a wormhole. This may have interesting implications to inflationary physics.Comment: 8 pages including 6 figures, LaTex; references adde