Related papers: Space and Time Averaged Quantum Stress Tensor Fluc…
Large vacuum fluctuations of a quantum stress tensor operator can be described by the asymptotic behavior of the probability distribution of the time or spacetime averaged operator. Here we focus on the case of stress tensor operators…
We extend previous work on quantum stress tensor operators which have been averaged over finite time intervals to include averaging over finite regions of space as well. The space and time averaging can be viewed as describing a measurement…
A meaningful probability distribution for measurements of a quantum stress tensor operator can only be obtained if the operator is averaged in time or in spacetime. This averaging can be regarded as a description of the measurement process.…
Observing physical effects of large quantum stress tensor fluctuations requires knowledge of the interactions between the probe and the particles of the underlying quantum fields. The quantum stress tensor operators must first be averaged…
This is a review of recent work on quantum fluctuations of the electric field and of stress tensor operators and their physical effects. The probability distribution for vacuum fluctuations of the electric field is Gaussian, but that for…
We study the fluctuations of the stress tensor for a massless scalar field in two and four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime in the vacuum state. Covariant expressions for the stress tensor correlation function are obtained as sums of…
We apply recent results on the probability distribution for quantum stress tensor fluctuations to the problem of barrier penetration by quantum particles. The probability for large stress tensor fluctuations decreases relatively slowly with…
This paper is a continuation of a study of the properties and applications of quantum stress tensor fluctuations. Here we treat the vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic energy-momentum flux operator which as been averaged in space and…
Recent work has shown that the stress tensor components, such as energy density or pressure, of a quantum field can be subject to large vacuum fluctuations. The energy density or pressure must be averaged in time before the fluctuations can…
We treat the probability distributions for quadratic quantum fields, averaged with a Lorentzian test function, in four-dimensional Minkowski vacuum. These distributions share some properties with previous results in two-dimensional…
For quantum fields on a curved spacetime with an Euclidean section, we derive a general expression for the stress energy tensor two-point function in terms of the effective action. The renormalized two-point function is given in terms of…
The quantum fluctuation of the stress tensor of a quantum field are discussed, as are the resulting spacetime metric fluctuations. Passive quantum gravity is an approximation in which gravity is not directly quantized, but fluctuations of…
Quantum fluctuations of electromagnetic radiation pressure are discussed. We use an approach based on the quantum stress tensor to calculate the fluctuations in velocity and position of a mirror subjected to electromagnetic radiation. Our…
We calculate the vacuum fluctuation of the stress tensor of a higher-derivative theory around a thin cosmic string. To this end, we adopt the method to obtain the stress tensor from the effective action developed by Gibbons et al. By their…
We treat the effects of quantum field fluctuations on the decay of a meta-stable state of a self-coupled scalar field. We consider two varieties of field fluctuations and their potential effects in a semiclassical description. The first are…
We investigate the time behavior of the fragmentation model with Kolmogorov time scales and space contraction resembling the random $\beta$-model of turbulence. The space averages computed at any instant using the entire spatial realization…
The vacuum state -- or any other state of finite energy -- is not an eigenstate of any smeared (averaged) local quantum field. The outcomes (spectral values) of repeated measurements of that averaged local quantum field are therefore…
We analyze the quantum fluctuations of vacuum stress tensors and spacetime curvatures, using the framework of linear response theory which connects these fluctuations to dissipation mechanisms arising when stress tensors and spacetime…
The probability distributions for the smeared energy densities of quantum fields, in the two and four-dimensional Minkowski vacuum are discussed. These distributions share the property that there is a lower bound at a finite negative value,…
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…