In this work, the Darmois-Israel junction formalism is extended to the case of discontinuous metrics within the framework of Colombeau algebras of generalized functions. This formulation provides a mathematically consistent treatment of nonlinear operations involving singular quantities, such as products and derivatives of distributions. By relaxing the usual continuity condition on the metric, the generalized junction conditions naturally include higher-order singular terms in the curvature and in the surface energy-momentum tensor. These additional contributions represent new geometric degrees of freedom associated with genuine discontinuities in the space-time geometry. The resulting formalism recovers the traditional Darmois-Israel conditions as a limiting case, while offering a coherent extension applicable to geometric boundaries and abrupt transitions in space-time.
Logarithmic corrections to the entropy of extremal black holes have proven effective in precisely matching the microscopic degeneracies obtained from string-theoretic as well as a non-perturbative quantum correction manifests as an exponential term in the black hole entropy. In this work, we extend the universal relation proposed by Goon and Penco by deriving a generalized form where entropy is not just the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Our analysis treats entropy as a general function of the horizon radius, and with the help of that, we formulate the generalized universal relation. We show that, in the case of Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, the generalized relation coincides with the original universal relation by Goon and Penco. Furthermore, we explore the implications of logarithmic and exponential corrections to entropy and test the validity of the generalized universal relation under these modifications.
We consider a generic quantum many-body system initiated at thermal equilibrium and driven by an external parameter, and discuss the prospect for measuring the work done by the varying parameter on the system. While existing methods are based on a full control of the system's Hamiltonian and are thus limited to few-level quantum systems, measuring work in many-body quantum systems remains challenging. Our approach relies on transforming the external parameter into a dynamical ``work agent", for which we consider an harmonic oscillator in a semiclassical coherent state with a large photon number. We define a work generating function which coincides with the standard two-point measurement protocol for work measurement in the limit of a large photon number. While \emph{in principle} it allows to relate the moments of work $\langle W^n \rangle$ to observables of the work agent, we focus on the average work, which is obtained from energy conservation by the change of the energy of the agent, which can be measured using photon number detection. We illustrate this concept on a transmon-microcavity system, which displays various quantum coherent effects including Landau-Zener Stükelberg interference and collapse and revival of Rabi oscillations. We discuss how our setup allows to measure work in a variety of quantum many-body systems.
General relativity predicts that two counter-orbiting clocks around a spinning mass differ in the time required to complete the same orbit. The difference in these two values for the orbital period is generally referred to as the gravito-magnetic (GM) clock effect. It has been proposed to measure the GM clock effect using atomic clocks carried by satellites in prograde and retrograde orbits around the Earth. The precision and stability required for satellites to accurately perform this measurement remains a challenge for current instrumentation. One of the most accurate clocks in the Universe is a millisecond pulsar, which emits periodic radio pulses with high stability. Timing of the pulsed signals from millisecond pulsars has proven to be very successful in testing predictions of general relativity and the GM clock effect is potentially measurable in binary systems. In this work we derive the generic GM clock effect by considering a slowly-spinning binary system on an elliptical orbit, with both arbitrary mass ratio and arbitrary spin orientations. The spin-orbit interaction introduces a perturbation to the orbit, causing the orbital plane to precess and nutate. We identify several different contributions to the clock effects: the choice of spin supplementary condition and the observer-dependent definition of a full revolution and "nearly-identical" orbits. We discuss the impact of these subtle definitions on the formula for GM clock effects and show that most of the existing formulae in the literature can be recovered under appropriate assumptions.
Fluctuation theorems are fundamental results in nonequilibrium thermodynamics beyond the linear response regime. Among these, the paradigmatic Tasaki-Crooks fluctuation theorem relates the statistics of the works done in a forward out-of-equilibrium quantum process and in a corresponding backward one. In particular, the initial states of the two processes are thermal states and thus incoherent in the energy basis. Here, we aim to investigate the role of initial quantum coherence in work fluctuation theorems, by considering a quasiprobability distribution of work. To do this, we formulate and examine the implications of a detailed fluctuation theorem, which reproduces the Tasaki-Crooks fluctuation theorem in the absence of initial quantum coherence.
By using a totally antisymmetric spinor field we generalize Elko theory. We compare our proposed theory with traditional totally antisymmetric spinor field theory based on the Dirac equation. As an application of our formalism we comment about the possibility to link our generalized Elko theory with matroids, qubits and surreal numbers.
We present a number of open problems within general relativity. After a brief introduction to some technical mathematical issues and the famous singularity theorems, we discuss the cosmic censorship hypothesis and the Penrose inequality, the uniqueness of black hole solutions and the stability of Kerr spacetime and the final state conjecture, critical phenomena and the Einstein-Yang--Mills equations, and a number of other problems in classical general relativity. We then broaden the scope and discuss some mathematical problems motivated by quantum gravity, including AdS/CFT correspondence and problems in higher dimensions and, in particular, the instability of anti-de Sitter spacetime, and in cosmology, including the cosmological constant problem and dark energy, the stability of de Sitter spacetime and cosmological singularities and spikes. Finally, we briefly discuss some problems in numerical relativity and relativistic astrophysics.
Ignacio García-Mata, Augusto J. Roncaglia, Diego A. Wisniacki
Work in closed quantum systems is usually defined by a two-point measurement. This definition of work is compatible with quantum fluctuation theorems but it fundamentally differs from its classical counterpart. In this paper, we study the correspondence principle in quantum chaotic systems. We derive a semiclassical expression of the work distribution for chaotic systems undergoing a general, finite time, process. This semiclassical distribution converges to the classical distribution in the usual classical limit. We show numerically that, for a particle inside a chaotic cavity, the semiclassical distribution provides a good approximation to quantum distribution.
TOPCAT is a desktop application for interactive analysis of tabular data, especially source catalogues. Along with its command-line counterpart STILTS, it has been under more or less continuous development for the past 15 years and is now widely used by astronomers from project students to research scientists. This paper reviews its capabilities as a tool for working with large and small datasets, and considers some of the issues in design, implementation and user interaction that have to be tackled when developing software of this kind.
We consider a single Josephson junction in the presence of time varying gate charge, and examine the nonequilibrium work done by the charge control in the framework of fluctuation theorems. We obtain the probability distribution functions of the works performed by forward protocol and by its time reversed protocol, which from the Crooks relation gives the estimation of the free energy changes ΔF =0. The reliability of ΔF estimated from the Jarzynksi equality is crucially dependent on protocol parameters, while Bennett's acceptance ratio method confirms consistently ΔF=0. The error of the Jarzynski estimator either grows or becomes saturated as the duration of the work protocol increases, which depends on the protocol rapidity determining the existence of the oscillatory motion of the phase difference across the junction. The average of the work also shows similar behaviors and its saturation value is given by the relative weight of the oscillatory trajectory with respect to running trajectories with constant acceleration. We discuss non-negativity of the work average and its relation to heat and entropy production associated with the circuit control.
Using a BRST treatment, we show that the equivalence of General Relativity and Shape Dynamics can be extended to a theory that respects the BRST-symmetries of General Relativity as well as the ones of an extended version of Shape Dynamics. This version of Shape Dynamics implements local spatial Weyl transformations as well as a local and abstract analogue of special conformal transformations. Standard effective field theory arguments suggest that the definition of a gravity theory should implement this duality between General Relativity and Shape Dynamics, thus the name "Doubly General Relativity." We briefly discuss several consequences: bulk/bulk- duality in classical gravity, experimental falsification of Doubly General Relativity and possible implications for the renormalization of quantum gravity in the effective field theory framework.
At http://wiki.openmath.org, the OpenMath 2 and 3 Content Dictionaries are accessible via a semantic wiki interface, powered by the SWiM system. We shortly introduce the inner workings of the system, then describe how to use it, and conclude with first experiences gained from OpenMath society members working with the system and an outlook to further development plans.
In the Riemann geometry, the metric's equation of motion for an arbitrary Lagrangian is succinctly expressed in term of the first variation of the action with respect to the Riemann tensor if the Riemann tensor were independent of the metric. Let this variation be called the E-tensor. Noting that the E-tensor and equations of the motion for a general Lovelock gravity have the same differential degree, we define generalized Lovelock gravity as polynomial scalar densities constructed out from the Riemann tensor and its arbitrary covariant derivatives such that they lead to the same differential degree for the E-tensor and the metric's equation of motion. We consider Lagrangian densities which are functional of the metric and the first covariant derivative of the Riemann tensor. We then present the first non-trivial examples of the generalized Lovelock gravity terms.
The stability issue of a large class of modified gravitational models is discussed with particular emphasis to de Sitter solutions. Three approaches are briefly presented and the generalization to more general cases is mentioned.
An extension of the theory of General Relativity is proposed, based on pseudo-complex space-time coordinates. The new theory corresponds to the introduction of two, in general different, metrics which are connected through specific conditions. A pseudo-complex Schwarzschild solution is constructed, which does not suffer any more by a singularity. The solution indicates a minimal radius for a heavy mass object. Consequences for the redshift and possible signatures for its observation are discussed.
A general variational principle of classical fields with a Lagrangian containing the field quantity and its derivatives of up to the N-th order is presented. Noether's theorem is derived. The generalized Hamilton-Jacobi's equation for the Hamilton's principal functional is obtained. These results are surprisingly in great harmony with each other. They will be applied to the general relativity in the subsequent articles, especially the generalized Noether's theorem will be applied to the problem of conservation and non-conservation in curved spacetime..
In the spirit of the Newtonian theory, we characterize spherically symmetric empty space in general relativity in terms of energy density measured by a static observer and convergence density experienced by null and timelike congruences. It turns out that space surrounding a static particle is entirely specified by vanishing of energy and null convergence density. The electrograv-dual$^{1}$ to this condition would be vanishing of timelike and null convergence density which gives the dual-vacuum solution representing a Schwarzschild black hole with global monopole charge$^{2}$ or with cloud of string dust$^{3}$. Here the duality$^{1}$ is defined by interchange of active and passive electric parts of the Riemann curvature, which amounts to interchange of the Ricci and Einstein tensors. This effective characterization of stationary vacuum works for the Schwarzschild and NUT solutions. The most remarkable feature of the effective characterization of empty space is that it leads to new dual spaces and the method can also be applied to lower and higher dimensions.
Working in the Palatini formalism, we describe a procedure for constructing degenerate solutions of general relativity on 4-manifold M from certain solutions of 2-dimensional BF theory on any framed surface Sigma embedded in M. In these solutions the cotetrad field e (and thus the metric) vanishes outside a neighborhood of Sigma, while inside this neighborhood the connection A and the field E = e ^ e satisfy the equations of 4-dimensional BF theory. Moreover, there is a correspondence between these solutions and certain solutions of 2-dimensional BF theory on Sigma. Our construction works in any signature and with any value of the cosmological constant. If M = R x S for some 3-manifold S, at fixed time our solutions typically describe `flux tubes of area': the 3-metric vanishes outside a collection of thickened links embedded in S, while inside these thickened links it is nondegenerate only in the two transverse directions. We comment on the quantization of the theory of solutions of this form and its relation to the loop representation of quantum gravity.