Related papers: Covariant singularities: a brief review
Contrary to what is often stated, a fundamental spacetime discreteness need not contradict Lorentz invariance. A causal set's discreteness is in fact locally Lorentz invariant, and we recall the reasons why. For illustration, we introduce a…
Consider a smooth projective curve and a given embedding into projective space via a sufficiently positive line bundle. We can form the secant variety of $k$-planes through the curve. These are singular varieties, with each secant variety…
Diffeomorphism invariance is often considered to be a hallmark of the theory of general relativity (GR). But closer analysis reveals that this cannot be what makes GR distinctive. The concept of diffeomorphism invariance can be defined in…
We analyze how the hypotheses of Penrose's singularity theorem (1965) are modified by the action of disformal transformations (defined in terms of light-like vectors) upon a given space-time metric. In particular, we investigate the…
We give a covariant characterisation of the Penrose plane wave limit: the plane wave profile matrix $A(u)$ is the restriction of the null geodesic deviation matrix (curvature tensor) of the original spacetime metric to the null geodesic,…
We have recently argued that if one introduces a relational time in quantum mechanics and quantum gravity, the resulting quantum theory is such that pure states evolve into mixed states. The rate at which states decohere depends on the…
We review the status of (scalar) quantum field theory on curved spacetimes using a novel formulation in terms of non linear functionals over the smooth configuration fields. In particular, this entails also a new foundation of locally…
General covariance is a crucial notion in the study of field theories in curved spacetime. A field theory defined with respect to a semi-Riemannian metric is generally covariant if two metrics which are related by a diffeomorphism produce…
Higgs fields on gauge-natural prolongations of principal bundles are defined by invariant variational problems and related canonical conservation laws along the kernel of a gauge-natural Jacobi morphism.
Quantum fields do not satisfy the pointwise energy conditions that are assumed in the original singularity theorems of Penrose and Hawking. Accordingly, semiclassical quantum gravity lies outside their scope. Although a number of…
In the framework of special relativity, all particles are point-like or string-like. This nature of particles has caused the divergence difficulties in quantum field, string and superstring theories. In the framework of special relativity,…
In the past decade the phenomenology of quantum gravity has been dominated by the search of violations of Lorentz invariance. However, there are very serious arguments that led us to assume that this invariance is a symmetry in Nature. This…
Three major misconceptions concerning quantized tachyon fields: the energy spectrum unbounded from below, the frame-dependent and unstable vacuum state, and the non-covariant commutation rules, are shown to be a result of misrepresenting…
Commuting and noncommuting space-time coordinates in a class of deformed special relativity theories are investigated. Their momentum space representation, transformation behaviour, space-time algebra, invariants and the corresponding field…
Two alternative interpretations of the quantum collapse are proposed: a time-ordered and a timeless one. The time-ordered interpretation implies that the speed of light can be defined in an absolute way, while the timeless quantum collapse…
The framework of locally covariant quantum field theory is discussed, motivated in part using "ignorance principles". It is shown how theories can be represented by suitable functors, so that physical equivalence of theories may be…
We present a review of the two prominent singularity theorems due to Penrose and Hawking, as well as their physical interpretation. Their usage is discussed in detail for the Schwarzschild spacetime with positive and negative mass. First,…
We study the behavior of black hole singularities across the Hawking-Page phase transitions, uncovering possible connections between the physics inside and outside the horizon. We focus on the case of spacelike singularities in…
Assuming the Bousso bound, we prove a singularity theorem: if the light rays entering a hyperentropic region contract, then at least one light ray must be incomplete. "Hyperentropic" means that the entropy of the region exceeds the…
As the theory is subject to a section condition, coordinates in double field theory do not represent physical points in an injective manner. We argue that a physical point should be rather one-to-one identified with a `gauge orbit' in the…