Related papers: Probability Distributions for Space and Time Avera…
The fluctuations of spacetime geometries at finite temperature are evaluated within the linearized theory of gravity. These fluctuations are described by the probability distribution of various configurations of the gravitational field. The…
A "geometric" intepretation of probability is proposed, modelled on the treatment of tense in 4-dimensional spacetime. It is applied to Everett's approach to quantum mechanics, as formulated in terms of consistent histories. Standard…
A polymer chain pinned in space exerts a fluctuating force on the pin point in thermal equilibrium. The average of such fluctuating force is well understood from statistical mechanics as an entropic force, but little is known about the…
We study the energy density and pressure of a relativistic thermal gas of massless fermions on four-dimensional Minkowski and anti-de Sitter space-times using relativistic kinetic theory. The corresponding quantum field theory quantities…
In a recent paper, Buniy et al. have argued that a possible discretization of spacetime leads to an unavoidable discretization of the state space of quantum mechanics. In this paper, we show that this conclusion is not limited to quantum…
The probability operator for a generic non-equilibrium quantum system is derived. The corresponding stochastic, dissipative Schr\"odinger equation is also given. The dissipative and stochastic propagators are linked by the…
We study a phenomenon occuring in various areas of quantum physics, in which an observable density (such as an energy density) which is classically pointwise nonnegative may assume arbitrarily negative expectation values after quantisation,…
Particle theorists typically use expectation values to study the quantum back-reaction on inflation, whereas many cosmologists stress the stochastic nature of the process. While expectation values certainly give misleading results for some…
As revealed by space-time probing, mechanics and field theory come out as complementary descriptions for motions in space-time. In particular, quantum fields exert a radiation pressure on scatterers which results in mechanical effects that…
Relaxation in the time correlation between operators is studied. Quantized chaotic systems are shown to have distinct relaxation fluctuations that are universal and can be usefully modelled by Random Matrix Theory. Various quantized maps…
We calculate the expectation values of the stress-energy bitensor defined at two different spacetime points $x, x'$ of a massless, minimally coupled scalar field with respect to a quantum state at finite temperature $T$ in a flat…
The mean value of the stress-energy tensor of a given quantum field theory at global thermodynamic equilibrium in a curved space-time can be expressed in terms of the derivatives of the Killing four-temperature field and the derivatives of…
We numerically analyse quantum survival probability fluctuations in an open, classically chaotic system. In a quasi-classical regime, and in the presence of classical mixed phase space, such fluctuations are believed to exhibit a fractal…
Measurement is a fundamental notion in the usual approximate quantum mechanics of measured subsystems. Probabilities are predicted for the outcomes of measurements. State vectors evolve unitarily in between measurements and by reduction of…
We consider time-dependent relaxation of observables in quantum systems of chaotic and regular type. We show that the spread of the wave function in the Hilbert space is determined by the survival probability which is known to have…
We consider a massive scalar field living on the recently found exact quantum space-time corresponding to vacuum spherically symmetric loop quantum gravity. The discreteness of the quantum space time naturally regularizes the scalar field,…
We discuss the limits of validity of the semiclassical theory of gravity in which a classical metric is coupled to the expectation value of the stress tensor. It is argued that this theory is a good approximation only when the fluctuations…
In the framework of the method of constraint system quantization, a quantum gravitational system (QGS) with the maximally symmetric geometry is studied. The state vector of the QGS satisfies the set of wave equations which describes the…
We propose a method for calculating vacuum fluctuations on the background of a spherical impulsive gravitational wave which results in a finite expression for the vacuum expectation value of the stress-energy tensor. The method is based on…
We present an extension of quantum field theory to the case when the spacetime topology fluctuates (spacetime foam). In this extension the number of bosonic fields becomes a variable and the ground state is characterized by a finite…