119629866
EFFECTS OF A BOUNDARY ON SPONTANEOUS EXCITATION OF AN ACCELERATED MULTILEVEL ATOM COUPLED WITH THE DERIVATIVE OF SCALAR FIELDS
The presence of boundaries modifies the modes of quantum fields, which may in turn modifies the spontaneous excitation rate of accelerated atoms in interaction with these fields. In this paper, we study the effect of the presence of a reflecting boundary on the spontaneous excitation of a uniformly accelerated polarized multilevel atom interacting with quantum scalar fields in a dipole-derivative coupling scheme. We separately calculate the contributions of modified vacuum fluctuations and the radiation reaction to the spontaneous excitation rate of the atom. Our results show that the presence of the boundary modulates the excitation rate and makes it a function of the atom's distance from the boundary. When the atom is placed closer and closer to the boundary, the influence of the boundary becomes more and more drastic, with the contribution of the atom's polarization in the direction parallel to the boundary to the spontaneous excitation rate dramatically suppressed while that in the normal direction greatly enhanced.
118525095
Lamb shift for static atoms outside a Schwarzschild black hole
We study, by separately calculating the contributions of vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction to the atomic energy level shift, the Lamb shift of a static two-level atom interacting with real massless scalar fields in the Boulware, Unruh, and Hartle-Hawking vacuums outside a Schwarzschild black hole. We find that in the Boulware vacuum, the Lamb shift gets a correction arising as a result of the backscattering of vacuum field modes off the space-time curvature, which is reminiscent of the correction to the Lamb shift induced by the presence of cavities. However, when the Unruh and Hartle-Hawking vacua are concerned, our results show that the Lamb shift behaves as if the atom were irradiated by a thermal radiation or immersed in a thermal bath at the Hawking temperature, depending on whether the scalar field is in the Unruh or the Hartle-Hawking vacuum. Remarkably, the thermal radiation is always backscattered by the space-time geometry.
120986058
Quantum thermal aspects of uniformly accelerating charged black holes
119124346
Unruh effect and entanglement generation for accelerated atoms near a reflecting boundary
We study, in the framework of open systems, the entanglement generation of two independent uniformly accelerated atoms in interaction with the vacuum fluctuations of massless scalar fields subjected to a reflecting plane boundary. We demonstrate that, with the presence of the boundary, the accelerated atoms exhibit distinct features from static ones in a thermal bath at the corresponding Unruh temperature in terms of the entanglement creation at the neighborhood of the initial time. In this sense, accelerated atoms in vacuum do not necessarily have to behave as if they were static in a thermal bath at the Unruh temperature.
119090796
Fulling–Davies–Unruh effect and spontaneous excitation of an accelerated atom interacting with a quantum scalar field
Abstract We investigate, from the point of view of a coaccelerated frame, the spontaneous excitation of a uniformly accelerated two-level atom interacting with a scalar field in a thermal state at a finite temperature T and show that the same spontaneous excitation rate for the uniformly accelerated atom in the Minkowski vacuum obtained in the inertial frame can only be recovered in the coaccelerated frame assuming a thermal bath at the Fulling–Davies–Unruh temperature T FDU = a / 2 π for what appears to be the Minkowski vacuum to the inertial observer. Our discussion provides another example of a physical process different from those examined before in the literature to better understand the Fulling–Davies–Unruh effect.
115459673
LIGHTCONE FLUCTUATIONS AND EXTRA DIMENSIONS
119204000
Hidden charged dark matter
Can dark matter be stabilized by charge conservation, just as the electron is in the standard model? We examine the possibility that dark matter is hidden, that is, neutral under all standard model gauge interactions, but charged under an exact {\rm U}(1) gauge symmetry of the hidden sector. Such candidates are predicted in WIMPless models, supersymmetric models in which hidden dark matter has the desired thermal relic density for a wide range of masses. Hidden charged dark matter has many novel properties not shared by neutral dark matter: (1) bound state formation and Sommerfeld-enhanced annihilation after chemical freeze out may reduce its relic density, (2) similar effects greatly enhance dark matter annihilation in protohalos at redshifts of z ~ 30, (3) Compton scattering off hidden photons delays kinetic decoupling, suppressing small scale structure, and (4) Rutherford scattering makes such dark matter self-interacting and collisional, potentially impacting properties of the Bullet Cluster and the observed morphology of galactic halos. We analyze all of these effects in a WIMPless model in which the hidden sector is a simplified version of the minimal supersymmetric standard model and the dark matter is a hidden sector stau. We find that charged hidden dark matter is viable and consistent with the correct relic density for reasonable model parameters and dark matter masses in the range 1 GeV  mX  10 TeV. At the same time, in the preferred range of parameters, this model predicts cores in the dark matter halos of small galaxies and other halo properties that may be within the reach of future observations. These models therefore provide a viable and well-motivated framework for collisional dark matter with Sommerfeld enhancement, with novel implications for astrophysics and dark matter searches.
119222434
Quantum Modifications to Gravity Waves in de Sitter Spacetime
We treat a model in which tensor perturbations of de Sitter spacetime, represented as a spatially flat model, are modified by the effects of the vacuum fluctuations of a massless conformally invariant field, such as the electromagnetic field. We use the semiclassical theory of gravity with the expectation value of the conformal field stress tensor as a source. We first study the stability of de Sitter spacetime by searching for growing, spatially homogeneous modes, and conclude that it is stable within the limits of validity of the semiclassical theory. We next examine the modification of linearized plane gravity waves by the effects of the quantum stress tensor. We find a correction term which is of the same form as the original wave, but displaced in phase by {pi}/2, and with an amplitude which depends upon an initial time. The magnitude of this effect is proportional to the change in scale factor after this time. We discuss alternative interpretations of this time, but pay particular attention to the view that this is the beginning of inflation. So long as the energy scale of inflation and the proper frequency of the mode at the beginning of inflation are well below the Planckmore » scale, the fractional correction is small. However, modes which are trans-Planckian at the onset of inflation can undergo a significant correction. The increase in amplitude can potentially have observable consequences through a modification of the power spectrum of tensor perturbations in inflationary cosmology. This enhancement of the power spectrum depends upon the initial time, and is greater for shorter wavelengths.« less
120346822
NOETHER CHARGES, BLACK HOLES AND THE IMMIRZI PARAMETER
We have shown that terms in the action which won't contribute to local equation of motions do contribute to globally conversed physical quantities in classical theories of gravity due to general coordinate covariance. This observation allows one to determining the Immirzi parameter in the Ashtekar variable formulation of gravitational theories even at classical level. Applying Wald's Noether charge approach and identifying the entropy on black hole horizon as the Noether charge for translation, one can demonstrate explicitly that the Immirzi parameter does make its contributions through the boundary term. Our results also shed lights in connecting the Immirzi paramter to quasi-normal modes of black holes.
125436491
Study of xi(2230) produced in J/psi radiative decay process
The processes e(+) + e(-) --> J / psi --> + X, X --> p (p) over bar are discussed using the generalized moment analysis method. The moment expressions of the above processes are given. And they are used to determine the spin of the resonance X decaying to p (p) over bar. The helicity amplitude ratios of the above processes in terms of moment expressions are also given.
120093276
CONSISTENT FACTORIZATION AND TWIST-3 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE POLARIZED NUCLEON STRUCTURE FUNCTION g2(x,Q2)
Quark mass effects are clarified in the parton model approach to the transversely polarized nucleon structure function. The special propagator technique is employed to obtain manifestly gauge invariant results and extract the buried short-distance contributions inside the soft part after momentum factorization in the collinear expansion approach. A generalized massive special propagator for a massive quark is constructed. We identify the corresponding matrix elements of the transversely polarized structure function in deep inelastic scattering by the massive special propagator technique.