English

Angular spectrum of quantum fluctuations in causal structure

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2024-07-02 v2 Quantum Physics

Abstract

Scaling arguments are used to constrain the angular spectrum of distortions on boundaries of macroscopic causal diamonds, produced by Planck-scale vacuum fluctuations of causally-coherent quantum gravity. The small-angle spectrum of displacement is derived from a form of scale invariance: the variance and fluctuation rate of distortions normal to the surface of a causal diamond of radius RR at transverse physical separation cτRc\tau\ll R should depend only on τ\tau, with a normalization set by the Planck time tPt_P, and should not depend on RR. For measurements on scale RR, the principle leads to universal scaling for variance on angular scale Θ\Theta, δτ2Θτ ⁣tpΘR ⁣tP/c\langle\delta\tau^2\rangle_\Theta\simeq\tau\:\!t_p\sim\Theta R\:\!t_P/c, and angular power spectrum C(R ⁣lP)/3C_\ell\sim (R\:\!l_P)/\ell^3 at 1\ell\gg1. This spectrum is consistent with a relational model of holographic noise based on causally coherent virtual null gravitational shocks, a general picture conjectured for all \ell. The high \ell scaling is contrasted with that predicted in some other quantum models, which differ by one power of angular wavenumber \ell and are shown to predict excessive blurring of images from distant sources.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2303.06563,
  title  = {Angular spectrum of quantum fluctuations in causal structure},
  author = {Craig Hogan and Ohkyung Kwon and Nathaniel Selub},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.06563},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

5 pages, 2 figures. PRD accepted version

R2 v1 2026-06-28T09:12:36.179Z