English

Quantum versus classical instability of scalar fields in curved backgrounds

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2014-03-11 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

General-relativistic stable spacetimes can be made unstable under the presence of certain nonminimally coupled free scalar fields. In this paper, we analyze the evolution of linear scalar-field perturbations in spherically symmetric spacetimes and compare the classical stability analysis with a recently discussed quantum field one. In particular, it is shown that vacuum fluctuations lead to natural seeds for the unstable phase, whereas in the classical framework the presence of such seeds in the initial conditions must be assumed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1310.2185,
  title  = {Quantum versus classical instability of scalar fields in curved backgrounds},
  author = {Raissa F. P. Mendes and George E. A. Matsas and Daniel A. T. Vanzella},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1310.2185},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

5 pages, 1 figure; condensed and revised version matching published one

R2 v1 2026-06-22T01:42:38.922Z