Daniel A. T. Vanzella

Sudden gravitational transition

We investigate the properties of a cosmological scenario which undergoes a gravitational phase transition at late times. In this scenario, the Universe evolves according to general relativity in the standard, hot big bang picture until a redshift z < or approx. 1. Nonperturbative phenomena associated with a minimally-coupled scalar field catalyzes a transition, whereby an order parameter consisting of curvature quantities such as R{sup 2}, R{sub ab}R{sup ab}, R{sub abcd}R{sup abcd} acquires a constant expectation value. The ensuing cosmic acceleration appears driven by a dark-energy component with an equation-of-state w<-1. We evaluate the constraints from type 1a supernovae, the cosmic microwave background, and other cosmological observations. We find that a range of models making a sharp transition to cosmic acceleration are consistent with observations.

Decay of accelerated protons and the existence of the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect.

We investigate the weak decay of uniformly accelerated protons in the context of standard quantum field theory. Because the mean proper lifetime of a particle is a scalar, the same value for this observable must be obtained in the inertial and coaccelerated frames. We are only able to achieve this equality by considering the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect. This reflects the fact that the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect is mandatory for the consistency of quantum field theory.

Comment on "Trouble with the Lorentz law of force: incompatibility with special relativity and momentum conservation".

A Comment on the Letter by M. Mansuripur, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 193901 (2012). The authors of the Letter offer a Reply.

Acceleration of the universe, vacuum metamorphosis, and the large time asymptotic form of the heat kernel

We investigate the possibility that the late acceleration observed in the rate of expansion of the universe is due to vacuum quantum effects arising in curved spacetime. The theoretical basis of the vacuum cold dark matter (VCDM), or vacuum metamorphosis, cosmological model of Parker and Raval is revisited and improved. We show, by means of a manifestly nonperturbative approach, how the infrared behavior of the propagator (related to the large-time asymptotic form of the heat kernel) of a free scalar field in curved spacetime causes the vacuum expectation value of its energy-momentum tensor to exhibit a resonance effect when the scalar curvature R of the spacetime reaches a particular value related to the mass of the field. we show that the back reaction caused by this resonance drives the universe through a transition to an accelerating expansion phase, very much in the same way as originally proposed by Parker and Raval. Our analysis includes higher derivatives that were neglected in the earlier analysis, and takes into account the possible runaway solutions that can follow from these higher-derivative terms. We find that the runaway solutions do not occur if the universe was described by the usual classical FRW solution prior to the growth of vacuum energy-density and negative pressure (i.e., vacuum metamorphosis) that causes the transition to an accelerating expansion of the universe in this theory.

Decay of protons and neutrons induced by acceleration

Inst. de Fis. Teorica Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rua Pamplona 145, 01405-900, Sao Paulo, SP

Awaking the Vacuum in Relativistic Stars

Void of any inherent structure in classical physics, the vacuum has revealed to be incredibly crowded with all sorts of processes in relativistic quantum physics. Yet, its direct effects are usually so subtle that its structure remains almost as evasive as in classical physics. Here, in contrast, we report on the discovery of a novel effect according to which the vacuum is compelled to play an unexpected central role in an astrophysical context. We show that the formation of relativistic stars may lead the vacuum energy density of a quantum field to an exponential growth. The vacuum-driven evolution which would then follow may lead to unexpected implications for astrophysics, while the observation of stable neutron-star configurations may teach us much on the field content of our Universe.

Cosmological Acceleration through Transition to Constant Scalar Curvature

As shown by Parker and Raval, quantum field theory in curved spacetime gives a possible mechanism for explaining the observed recent acceleration of the universe. This mechanism, which differs in its dynamics from quintessence models, causes the universe to make a transition to an accelerating expansion in which the scalar curvature, R, of spacetime remains constant. This transition occurs despite the fact that we set the renormalized cosmological constant to zero. We show that this model agrees very well with the current observed typeIa supernova (SNe-Ia) data. There are no free parameters in this fit, as the relevant observables are determined independently by means of the current cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) data. We also give the predicted curves for number count tests and for the ratio, w(z), of the dark energy pressure to its density, as well as for dw(z)/dz versus w(z). These curves differ significantly from those obtained from a cosmological constant, and will be tested by planned future observations.

Weak decay of uniformly accelerated protons and related processes

Inst. de Fis. Teorica Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rua Pamplona 145, 01405-900, Sao Paulo, SP

Instability of nonminimally coupled scalar fields in the spacetime of slowly rotating compact objects

containing unstable modes in a background which is flat in the asymptotic past and stationary and axially symmetric in the future. In Sec. III we present a simple general argument that shows that the parameter space which characterizes the instability is not modified at first order in the compact object’s angular momentum. Then, we investigate secondorder deviations from staticity in a particular model, taking as the source of the gravitational field a class of slowly spinning shells. The general properties of the shell spacetime are presented in Sec. IV. Considering spinning thin shells allows us to push the analytical treatment further and arrive at clear conclusions about the role played by rotation on the instability. This is pursued in Sec. V. Section VI is devoted to a discussion of the results and to our final remarks. We assume metric signature ð− þ þþÞ and natural units in which c ¼ G ¼ ℏ ¼ 1 unless stated otherwise.

Gravity-induced vacuum dominance.

It has been widely believed that, except in very extreme situations, the influence of gravity on quantum fields should amount to just small, subdominant contributions. This view seemed to be endorsed by the seminal results obtained over the last decades in the context of renormalization of quantum fields in curved spacetimes. Here, however, we argue that this belief is false by showing that there exist well-behaved spacetime evolutions where the vacuum energy density of free quantum fields is forced, by the very same background spacetime, to become dominant over any classical energy-density component. By estimating the time scale for the vacuum energy density to become dominant, and therefore for backreaction on the background spacetime to become important, we argue that this (infrared) vacuum dominance may bear unexpected astrophysical and cosmological implications.