Related papers: Spontaneous Transitions in Quantum Mechanics
A free-theory vacuum state of an interacting field theory, e.g. quantum gravity, is unstable at tree level in general due to spontaneous emission of Fock-space particles in any spacetime with no global timelike Killing vectors, such as de…
We prove a conjecture dating back to a 1978 paper of D.R.\ Musser~\cite{musserirred}, namely that four random permutations in the symmetric group $\mathcal{S}_n$ generate a transitive subgroup with probability $p_n > \epsilon$ for some…
We consider the unitary time evolution of a one-dimensional quantum system which is in a stationary state for negative times and then undergoes a sudden change (quench) of a parameter of its Hamiltonian at t=0. For systems possessing a…
In these lecture notes we give an introduction to the kinetic equation approach to pair production form the vacuum in strong, time-dependent external fields (dynamical Schwinger process). We first give a derivation of the kinetic equation…
Parity-time ($PT$) symmetric Hamiltonians are generally non-Hermitian and give rise to exotic behaviour in quantum systems at exceptional points, where eigenvectors coalesce. The recent realisation of $PT$-symmetric Hamiltonians in quantum…
Non-relativistic quantum mechanics is shown to emerge from classical mechanics through the requirement of a relativity principle based on special transformations acting on position and momentum uncertainties. These transformations keep the…
The possibility of electron-positron pair creation by an electric field is studied by using only those methods in field theory the predictions of which are confirmed experimentally. These methods include the perturbative method of quantum…
Although the suspicion that quantum mechanics is emergent has been lingering for a long time, only now we begin to understand how a bridge between classical and quantum mechanics might be squared with Bell's inequalities and other…
Classically general covariance is found from the idea that a vector is a physical quantity which exists independently of choice of coordinate system and is unchanged by a change of coordinate system. It is often assumed that there exists…
With many Hamiltonians one can naturally associate a |Psi|^2-distributed Markov process. For nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, this process is in fact deterministic, and is known as Bohmian mechanics. For the Hamiltonian of a quantum field…
The quantum description of time evolution in non-linear gravitational systems such as cosmological space-times is not well understood. We show, in the simplified setting of mini-superspace, that time evolution of this system can be obtained…
We revisit the formulation of quantum mechanics over the quaternions and investigate the dynamical structure within this framework. Similar to standard complex quantum mechanics, time evolution is then mediated by a unitary operator which…
We study nonperturbative pair production in electric fields with lightlike inhomogeneities, using complex worldline instantons. We show that the instanton contribution to the pair production probability is a complex contour integral over…
By using dynamical invariants theory, Hassoul et al. [1,2] investigate the quantum dynamics of two (2D) and three (3D) dimensional time-dependent coupled oscillators. They claim that, in the 2D case, introducing two pairs of annihilation…
Sudden changes are ubiquitous in nature. Identifying them is of crucial importance for a number of applications in medicine, biology, geophysics, and social sciences. Here we investigate the problem in the quantum domain, considering a…
We propose in this paper a quantization scheme for real Klein-Gordon field in de Sitter spacetime. Our scheme is generally covariant with the help of vierbein, which is necessary usually for spinor field in curved spacetime. We first…
A modified form of quantum mechanics which includes a new mechanism for wavefunction collapse is proposed. The collapse provides a solution to the quantum measurement problem. This modified quantum mechanics is shown to arise naturally from…
As time passes, once simple quantum states tend to become more complex. For strongly coupled k-local Hamiltonians, this growth of computational complexity has been conjectured to follow a distinctive and universal pattern. In this paper we…
Quantum field theory predicts that a spatially homogeneous but temporally varying medium will excite photon pairs out of the vacuum state. However, this important theoretical prediction lacks experimental verification due to the difficulty…
In this paper we propose a quantum version of the swampland conjecture. We argue that quantum instabilities of de Sitter space discovered using field theoretical methods, are directly related to the difficulties in finding stringy de Sitter…