Related papers: A Note on Boltzmann Brains
We explore non-adiabatic particle production in a de Sitter universe for a scalar spectator field, by allowing the effective mass $m^2(t)$ of this field and the cosmic time interval between non-adiabatic events to vary stochastically. Two…
We study particle decay in de Sitter space-time as given by first order perturbation theory in a Lagrangian interacting quantum field theory. We study in detail the adiabatic limit of the perturbative amplitude and compute the "phase space"…
One of the basic assumptions underlying Bell's theorem is the causal arrow of time, having to do with temporal order rather than spatial separation. Nonetheless, the physical assumptions regarding causality are seldom studied in this…
We investigate back reaction in de Sitter space in an approach where only states that are observationally accessible are included in the density matrix. Using the Bunch-Davies vacuum as the initial condition we find for a conformal scalar…
We argue that if de Sitter space is indeed represented by a finite dimensional quantum system, then semi-classical considerations, combined with the fundamental principles of quantum measurement theory, imply that any theoretical model of…
We show that global de Sitter space is unstable to particle creation, even for a massive free field theory with no self-interactions. The O(4,1) de Sitter invariant state is a definite phase coherent superposition of particle and…
Based on a calculation of neural decoherence rates, we argue that that the degrees of freedom of the human brain that relate to cognitive processes should be thought of as a classical rather than quantum system, i.e., that there is nothing…
Bianchi cosmologies are ``natural'' anisotropic extensions of the Friedmann universes and they have long been used to investigate the cosmological implications of anisotropy. The latter introduces new ingredients to the standard scenarios,…
A central idea in understanding brains and building artificial intelligence is that structure determines function. Yet, how the brain's complex structure arises from a limited set of genetic instructions remains a key question. The ultra…
Supercritical string theories in D>10 dimensions with no moduli are described, generalizing the asymmetric orientifold construction of one of the authors. By taking the number of dimensions to be large and turning on fluxes, dilaton…
We investigate when effective theories of a scalar field on (quasi-)de Sitter background break down through the stochastic formalism. We derive the Fokker-Planck equation leaving the second order time derivative of the scalar field.…
The restricted Boltzmann machine is a basic machine learning tool able, in principle, to model the distribution of some arbitrary dataset. Its standard training procedure appears however delicate and obscure in many respects. We bring some…
The Hamiltonian of classical anti-de Sitter gravity is a pure boundary term on-shell. If this remains true in non-perturbative quantum gravity then i) boundary observables will evolve unitarily in time and ii) the algebra of boundary…
In a recent paper [J. P. M. Pitelli, Phys. Rev. D {\bf 99}, 108701 (2019)], one of us showed that the vacuum state associated to conformal fields on a Poicar\'e patch of anti-de Sitter spacetime is not $\text{AdS}$ invariant for fields…
Bubbles of nothing are a class of vacuum decay processes present in some theories with compactified extra dimensions. We investigate the existence and properties of bubbles of nothing in models where the scalar pseudomoduli controlling the…
Owing to the existence of an invariant length at the Planck scale, Einstein special relativity breaks down at that scale. A possible solution to this problem is arguably to replace the Poincar\'e invariant Einstein special relativity by a…
We study the alpha vacua of de Sitter space by considering the decay rate of the inflaton field coupled to a scalar field placed in an alpha vacuum. We find an {\em alpha dependent} Bose enhancement relative to the Bunch-Davies vacuum and,…
A possibility to describe quantum gravitational fluctuations of the spacetime background is provided by virtual $D$-branes. These effects may induce a tiny violation of the Lorentz invariance (as well as a possible violation of the…
We study the dynamics of a point particle in a periodic array of spherical scatterers, and construct a stochastic process that governs the time evolution for random initial data in the limit of low scatterer density (Boltzmann-Grad limit).…
Any quantum theory of gravity which treats the gravitational constant as a dynamical variable has to address the issue of superpositions of states corresponding to different eigenvalues. We show how the unobservability of such…