João Paulo M. Pitelli

Quantum Singularities in Static Spacetimes

We review the mathematical framework necessary to understand the physical content of quantum singularities in static spacetimes. We present many examples of classical singular spacetimes and study their singularities by using wave packets satisfying Klein–Gordon and Dirac equations. We show that in many cases the classical singularities are excluded when tested by quantum particles but unfortunately there are other cases where the singularities remain from the quantum mechanical point of view. When it is possible we also find, for spacetimes where quantum mechanics does not exclude the singularities, the boundary conditions necessary to turn the spatial portion of the wave operator to be self-adjoint and emphasize their importance to the interpretation of quantum singularities.

Quantum Singularities in Horava-Lifshitz Cosmology

The recently proposed Horava-Lifshitz (HL) theory of gravity is analyzed from the quantum cosmology point of view. By employing usual quantum cosmology techniques, we study the quantum Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) universe filled with radiation in the context of HL gravity. We find that this universe is quantum mechanically nonsingular in two different ways: the expectation value of the scale factor

Quantum singularities in the FRW universe revisited

(t)

Scattering cross section and stability of global monopoles

never vanishes and, if we abandon the detailed balance condition suggested by Horava, the quantum dynamics of the universe is uniquely determined by the initial wave packet and no boundary condition at

Analogue model for anti-de Sitter as a description of point sources in fluids

a=0

Scattering by a topological defect connecting two asymptotically Minkowski spacetimes

is indeed necessary.

Quantum scattering on a cone revisited

The components of the Riemann tensor in the tetrad basis are quantized and, through the Einstein equation, we find the local expectation value in the ontological interpretation of quantum mechanics of the energy density and pressure of a perfect fluid with equation of state p=(1/3){rho} in the flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker quantum cosmological model. The quantum behavior of the equation of state and energy conditions are then studied, and it is shown that the energy conditions are violated since the singularity is removed with the introduction of quantum cosmology, but in the classical limit both the equation of state and the energy conditions behave as in the classical model. We also calculate the expectation value of the scale factor for several wave packets in the many-worlds interpretation in order to show the independence of the nonsingular character of the quantum cosmological model with respect to the wave packet representing the wave function of the Universe. It is also shown that, with the introduction of nonnormalizable wave packets, solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, the singular character of the scale factor, can be recovered in the ontological interpretation.

Cosmology in ( 1 + 1 ) -dimensional Hořava-Lifshitz theory of gravity

We study the scattering of scalar waves propagating on the global monopole background. Since the scalar wave operator in this topological defect is not essentially self-adjoint, its solutions are not uniquely determined until a boundary condition at the origin is specified. As we show, this boundary condition manifests itself in the differential cross section and can be inferred by measuring the amplitude of the backscattered wave. We further demonstrate that whether or not the spacetime is stable under scalar perturbations also relies on the chosen boundary condition. In particular, we identify a class of such boundary conditions which significantly affects the differential cross section without introducing an instability.

Modeling the quantum evolution of the universe through classical matter

We introduce an analogue model for a nonglobally hyperbolic spacetime in terms of a two-dimensional fluid. This is done by considering the propagation of sound waves in a radial flow with constant velocity. We show that the equation of motion satisfied by sound waves is the wave equation on

Vacuum Fluctuations and the Small Scale Structure of Spacetime

AdS_2\times S^1