Smooth and sharp creation of a pointlike source for a (3+1)-dimensional quantum field

Zhou, L.J.; Carrington, Margaret E.; Kunstatter, Gabor; Louko, Jorma

Abstract

We analyze the smooth and sharp creation of a pointlike source for a quantized massless scalar field in (3+1)-dimensional Minkowski spacetime, as a model for the breakdown of correlations that has been proposed to occur at the horizon of an evaporating black hole. The creation is implemented by a time-dependent self-adjointness parameter at the excised spatial origin. In a smooth creation, the renormalized energy density <T00> is well defined away from the source, but it is unbounded both above and below: the outgoing pulse contains an infinite negative energy, while a cloud of infinite positive energy lingers near the fully-formed source. In the sharp creation limit, <T00> diverges everywhere in the timelike future of the creation event, and so does the response of an Unruh-DeWitt detector that operates in the timelike future of the creation event. The source creation is significantly more singular than the corresponding process in 1 + 1 dimensions, analyzed previously, and it may be sufficiently singular to break quantum correlations as proposed in a black hole spacetime.

Citation

Zhou, L., Carrington, M. E., Kunstatter, G., & Louko, J. (2017). Smooth and sharp creation of a pointlike source for a (3+1)-dimensional quantum field. Physical Review D, 95(8), https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.95.085007

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 17, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Apr 10, 2017
• Publication Date: Apr 15, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jun 28, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 28, 2017
• Journal: Physical Review D
• Print ISSN: 2470-0010
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-0029
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 95
• Issue: 8
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.95.085007
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/856234
• Publisher URL: https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.95.085007
• Contract Date: Jun 28, 2017