Related papers: Torque Anomaly in Quantum Field Theory
Recently, it was suggested that there was some sort of breakdown of quantum field theory in the presence of boundaries, manifesting itself as a torque anomaly. In particular, Fulling et al. used the finite energy-momentum-stress tensor in…
In an attempt to understand a recently discovered torque anomaly in quantum field theory with boundaries, we calculate the Casimir energy and torque of a scalar field subject to Dirichlet boundary conditions on an annular sector defined by…
Quantum fields are known to violate all the pointwise energy conditions of classical general relativity. We review the subject of quantum energy inequalities: lower bounds satisfied by weighted averages of the stress-energy tensor, which…
Perfectly conducting boundaries, and their Dirichlet counterparts for quantum scalar fields, predict nonintegrable energy densities. A more realistic model with a finite ultraviolet cutoff yields two inconsistent values for the force on a…
In inhomogeneous dielectric media the divergence of the electromagnetic stress is related to the gradients of \varepsilon and \mu, which is a consequence of Maxwell's equations. Investigating spherically symmetric media we show that this…
The low energy effective action of gravity in any even dimension generally acquires non-local terms associated with the trace anomaly, generated by the quantum fluctuations of massless fields. The local auxiliary field description of this…
It is shown that different pairs of stress-energy and spin tensors of quantum relativistic fields related by a pseudo-gauge transformation, i.e. differing by a divergence, imply different mean values of physical quantities in…
The problem of anisotropic pressures arising as a consequence of the spatial symmetry breaking introduced by an external magnetic field in quantum systems is discussed. The role of the conservation of energy and momentum of external fields…
The conformal anomaly (also known as the stress-energy trace anomaly) of an interacting quantum theory, associated with violation of Weyl (conformal) symmetry by quantum effects, can be amended if one endows the theory with a dilatation…
The anomaly of a quantum field theory is an expression of its projective nature. This starting point quickly leads to its manifestation as a special kind of field theory: a once-categorified invertible theory. We arrive at this statement…
Gott spacetime has closed timelike curves, but no locally anomalous stress-energy. A complete orthonormal set of eigenfunctions of the wave operator is found in the special case of a spacetime in which the total deficit angle is $2\pi$. A…
Topology enters in quantum field theory (qft) in multiple forms: one of the most important, in non-abelian gauge theories, being in the identification of the $\theta$ vacuum in QCD. A very relevant aspect of this connection is through the…
It is shown that different couples of stress-energy and spin tensors of quantum relativistic fields, which would be otherwise equivalent, are in fact inequivalent if the second law of thermodynamics is taken into account. The proof of the…
The weak energy condition is known to fail in general when applied to expectation values of the the energy momentum tensor in flat space quantum field theory. It is shown how the usual counter arguments against its validity are no longer…
Motivated by a desire to understand quantum fluctuation energy densities and stress within a spatially varying dielectric medium, we examine the vacuum expectation value for the stress tensor of a scalar field with arbitrary conformal…
We present a model in which the breackdown of conformal symmetry of a quantum stress-tensor due to the trace anomaly is related to a cosmological effect in a gravitational model. This is done by characterizing the traceless part of the…
We discuss the theoretical basis for the search of the possible experimental manifestations of the torsion field at low energies. First, the quantum field theory in an external gravitational field with torsion is reviewed. The…
We present a numerical calculation of the expectation value of the quantum angular-momentum current flux density for a scalar field in the Unruh state near the inner horizon of a Kerr-de Sitter black hole. Our results indicate that this…
A stationary body that is out of thermal equilibrium with its environment, and for which the electric susceptibility is non-reciprocal, experiences a quantum torque. This arises from the spatially non-symmetric electrical response of the…
We derive the anomalous transformation law of the quantum stress tensor for a 2D massless scalar field coupled to an external dilaton. This provides a generalization of the Virasoro anomaly which turns out to be consistent with the trace…