118998732
Spontaneous excitation of an accelerated hydrogen atom coupled with electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations
We consider a multilevel hydrogen atom in interaction with the quantum electromagnetic field and separately calculate the contributions of the vacuum fluctuation and radiation reaction to the rate of change of the mean atomic energy of the atom for uniform acceleration. It is found that the acceleration disturbs the vacuum fluctuations in such a way that the delicate balance between the contributions of vacuum fluctuation and radiation reaction that exists for inertial atoms is broken, so that the transitions to higher-lying states from ground state are possible even in vacuum. In contrast to the case of an atom interacting with a scalar field, the contributions of both electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction to the spontaneous emission rate are affected by the acceleration, and furthermore the contribution of the vacuum fluctuations contains a nonthermal acceleration-dependent correction, which is possibly observable.
120986058
Quantum thermal aspects of uniformly accelerating charged black holes
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.
119913697
BLACK-HOLE ENTROPY AND HORIZON AREA
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.
115459673
LIGHTCONE FLUCTUATIONS AND EXTRA DIMENSIONS
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.
121463466
Critical exponents of new universality classes
Abstract We calculate critical exponents of chiral Ising, XY and Heisenberg universality classes up to second order in 4 − ϵ expansion. General expressions for any number N of fermionic variables are given and compared with recent extensive 1/ N calculation and lattice simulations. The possibility that these new universality classes describe critical phenomena in certain 3D magnetic systems and in finite temperature phase transitions of 3 + 1 dimensional quantum field theories is briefly discussed.
118099142
Ruling Out the Light Higgs Boson by Kaon Decay
We re-examine the theoretical estimates of the decay K → πH and the experimental constraints on the existence of a light Higgs boson from this process. We find that: (i) pole diagrams generated from the Higgs-gluon coupling via a loop of heavy quarks do contribute to K → πH, (ii) there is an additional contribution to the K → πH amplitude coming from the effective KHW and πHW couplings, (iii) even if B, the unknown parameter in the chiral-Lagrangian description of K → πH transitions, is nonzero and even if the real part of the K → πH amplitude is canceled accidentally, the imaginary contribution alone suffices to rule out a Higgs boson lighter than 2m π, and (iv) whether Higgs bosons in the mass range 2m π < m H < 350 MeV are excluded by the imaginary part of the K → πH amplitude depends on the branching ratio of H → µ + µ -,a+p, — and the top-quark mass. Decay modes K L → π+π- H and K + → l+ vH are briefly discussed.
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
119780320
OBSERVABLE CONSEQUENCES OF THE STRONG COUPLING PHASE OF QED HYPOTHESIZED NEAR THE SURFACE OF LARGE-Z NUCLEI
We discuss observable effects of the assumption that the strong coupling phase of quantum electrodynamics is realized in the surface region of heavy nuclei with large atomic number Z under a suitable external disturbance. We present some comments on anomalous peaks in electron-positron systems observed in heavy ion reactions and on effects expected in electron and positron scatterings off large-Z nuclei. We propose some experiments to test our assumption: (1) coincidence measurement of e+e− and γγ signals from the decays of large-Z nuclei, and (2) spectroscopy of large-Z muonic atoms.