English

Is Quantum Spacetime Foam Unstable?

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2010-01-06 v1

Abstract

A very simple wormhole geometry is considered as a model of a mode of topological fluctutation in Planck-scale spacetime foam. Quantum dynamics of the hole reduces to quantum mechanics of one variable, throat radius, and admits a WKB analysis. The hole is quantum-mechanically unstable: It has no bound states. Wormhole wave functions must eventually leak to large radii. This suggests that stability considerations along these lines may place strong constraints on the nature and even the existence of spacetime foam.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9210017,
  title  = {Is Quantum Spacetime Foam Unstable?},
  author = {Ian H. Redmount and Wai-Mo Suen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9210017},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

15 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-22T12:48:03.685Z