Claudio Dappiaggi

Rigorous steps towards holography in asymptotically flat spacetimes

Scalar QFT on the boundary ℑ+ at future null infinity of a general asymptotically flat 4D spacetime is constructed using the algebraic approach based on Weyl algebra associated to a BMS-invariant symplectic form. The constructed theory turns out to be invariant under a suitable strongly-continuous unitary representation of the BMS group with manifest meaning when the fields are interpreted as suitable extensions to ℑ+ of massless minimally coupled fields propagating in the bulk. The group theoretical analysis of the found unitary BMS representation proves that such a field on ℑ+ coincides with the natural wave function constructed out of the unitary BMS irreducible representation induced from the little group Δ, the semidirect product between SO(2) and the two-dimensional translations group. This wave function is massless with respect to the notion of mass for BMS representation theory. The presented result proposes a natural criterion to solve the long-standing problem of the topology of BMS group. Indeed the found natural correspondence of quantum field theories holds only if the BMS group is equipped with the nuclear topology rejecting instead the Hilbert one. Eventually, some theorems towards a holographic description on ℑ+ of QFT in the bulk are established at level of C*-algebras of fields for asymptotically flat at null infinity spacetimes. It is proved that preservation of a certain symplectic form implies the existence of an injective *-homomorphism from the Weyl algebra of fields of the bulk into that associated with the boundary ℑ+. Those results are, in particular, applied to 4D Minkowski spacetime where a nice interplay between Poincare invariance in the bulk and BMS invariance on the boundary at null infinity is established at the level of QFT. It arises that, in this case, the *-homomorphism admits unitary implementation and Minkowski vacuum is mapped into the BMS invariant vacuum on ℑ+.

Exploring the holographic principle in asymptotically flat spacetimes via the BMS group

Abstract We explore the holographic principle in the context of asymptotically flat spacetimes. In analogy with the AdS/CFT scenario we analyse the asympotically symmetry group of this class of spacetimes, the so-called Bondi–Metzner–Sachs (BMS) group. We apply the covariant entropy bound to relate bulk entropy to boundary symmetries and find a quite different picture with respect to the asymptotically AdS case. We then derive the covariant wave equations for fields carrying BMS representations to investigate the nature of the boundary degrees of freedom. We find some similarities with t Hooft S-matrix proposal and suggest a possible mechanism to encode bulk data.

Distinguished quantum states in a class of cosmological spacetimes and their Hadamard property

In a recent paper, we proved that a large class of spacetimes, not necessarily homogeneous or isotropous and relevant at a cosmological level, possesses a preferred codimension 1 submanifold, i.e., the past cosmological horizon, on which it is possible to encode the information of a scalar field theory living in the bulk. Such bulk-to-boundary reconstruction procedure entails the identification of a preferred quasifree algebraic state for the bulk theory, enjoying remarkable properties concerning invariance under isometries (if any) of the bulk and energy positivity and reducing to well-known vacua in standard situations. In this paper, specializing to open Friedmann–Robertson–Walker models, we extend previously obtained results and we prove that the preferred state is of Hadamard form, hence the backreaction on the metric is finite and the state can be used as a starting point for renormalization procedures. Such state could play a distinguished role in the discussion of the evolution of scalar fluctuati...

The extended algebra of observables for Dirac fields and the trace anomaly of their stress-energy tensor

We discuss from scratch the classical structure of Dirac spinors on an arbitrary globally hyperbolic, Lorentzian spacetime, their formulation as a locally covariant quantum field theory, and the associated notion of a Hadamard state. Eventually, we develop the notion of Wick polynomials for spinor fields, and we employ the latter to construct a covariantly conserved stress-energy tensor suited for back-reaction computations. We shall explicitly calculate its trace anomaly in particular.

Electromagnetism, Local Covariance, the Aharonov–Bohm Effect and Gauss’ Law

We quantise the massless vector potential A of electromagnetism in the presence of a classical electromagnetic (background) current, j, in a generally covariant way on arbitrary globally hyperbolic spacetimes M. By carefully following general principles and procedures we clarify a number of topological issues. First we combine the interpretation of A as a connection on a principal U(1)-bundle with the perspective of general covariance to deduce a physical gauge equivalence relation, which is intimately related to the Aharonov–Bohm effect. By Peierls’ method we subsequently find a Poisson bracket on the space of local, affine observables of the theory. This Poisson bracket is in general degenerate, leading to a quantum theory with non-local behaviour. We show that this non-local behaviour can be fully explained in terms of Gauss’ law. Thus our analysis establishes a relationship, via the Poisson bracket, between the Aharonov–Bohm effect and Gauss’ law – a relationship which seems to have gone unnoticed so far. Furthermore, we find a formula for the space of electric monopole charges in terms of the topology of the underlying spacetime. Because it costs little extra effort, we emphasise the cohomological perspective and derive our results for general p-form fields A (p <xa0 dim(M)), modulo exact fields, for the Lagrangian density

QUANTUM FIELD THEORY ON CURVED BACKGROUNDS — A PRIMER

{mathcal{L} = frac{1}{2} dAwedge*dA+ Awedge*j}

Holography in asymptotically flat spacetimes and the BMS group

L=12dA∧∗dA+A∧∗j . In conclusion we note that the theory is not locally covariant, in the sense of Brunetti–Fredenhagen–Verch. It is not possible to obtain such a theory by dividing out the centre of the algebras, nor is it physically desirable to do so. Instead we argue that electromagnetism forces us to weaken the axioms of the framework of local covariance, because the failure of locality is physically well-understood and should be accommodated.

A C ∗ -algebra for quantized principal U(1)-connections on globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds

We develop a quantization scheme for Maxwell’s equations without source on an arbitrary oriented four-dimensional globally hyperbolic spacetime. The field strength tensor is the key dynamical object and it is not assumed a priori that it descends from a vector potential. It is shown that, in general, the associated field algebra can contain a non-trivial centre and, on account of this, such a theory cannot be described within the framework of general local covariance unless further restrictive assumptions on the topology of the spacetime are taken.