Paulo Crawford

Linearized stability analysis of thin-shell wormholes with a cosmological constant

Spherically symmetric thin-shell wormholes in the presence of a cosmological constant are constructed applying the cut-and-paste technique implemented by Visser. Using the Darmois–Israel formalism the surface stresses, which are concentrated at the wormhole throat, are determined. This construction allows us to apply a dynamical analysis to the throat, considering linearized radial perturbations around static solutions. For a large positive cosmological constant, i.e., for the Schwarzschild–de Sitter solution, the region of stability is significantly increased, relatively to the null cosmological constant case, analysed by Poisson and Visser. With a negative cosmological constant, i.e., the Schwarzschild–anti de Sitter solution, the region of stability is decreased. In particular, considering static solutions with a generic cosmological constant, the weak and dominant energy conditions are violated, while for a0 ≤ 3M the null and strong energy conditions are satisfied. The surface pressure of the static solution is strictly positive for the Schwarzschild and Schwarzschild–anti de Sitter spacetimes, but takes negative values, assuming a surface tension in the Schwarzschild–de Sitter solution, for high values of the cosmological constant and the wormhole throat radius.

Stability analysis of dynamic thin shells

We analyse the stability of generic spherically symmetric thin shells to linearized perturbations around static solutions. We include the momentum flux term in the conservation identity, deduced from the ‘ADM’ constraint and the Lanczos equations. Following the Ishak–Lake analysis, we deduce a master equation which dictates the stable equilibrium configurations. Considering the transparency condition, we study the stability of thin shells around black holes, showing that our analysis is in agreement with previous results. Applying the analysis to traversable wormhole geometries, by considering specific choices for the form function, we deduce stability regions and find that the latter may be significantly increased by considering appropriate choices for the redshift function.

Time, Closed Timelike Curves and Causality

It seems to be extremely difficult to give a precise definition of Time, this mysterious ingredient of the Universe. Intuitively, we have the notion of time as something that flows. Ancient religions have registered it as something unusual, and many myths are built into their dogmas.

Interior of a Schwarzschild Black Hole Revisited

Abstract The Schwarzschild solution has played a fundamental conceptual role in general relativity, and beyond, for instance, regarding event horizons, spacetime singularities and aspects of quantum field theory in curved spacetimes. However, one still encounters the existence of misconceptions and a certain ambiguity inherent in the Schwarzschild solution in the literature. By taking into account the point of view of an observer in the interior of the event horizon, one verifies that new conceptual difficulties arise. In this work, besides providing a very brief pedagogical review, we further analyze the interior Schwarzschild black hole solution. Firstly, by deducing the interior metric by considering time-dependent metric coefficients, the interior region is analyzed without the prejudices inherited from the exterior geometry. We also pay close attention to several respective cosmological interpretations, and briefly address some of the difficulties associated to spacetime singularities. Secondly, we deduce the conserved quantities of null and timelike geodesics, and discuss several particular cases in some detail. Thirdly, we examine the Eddington–Finkelstein and Kruskal coordinates directly from the interior solution. In concluding, it is important to emphasize that the interior structure of realistic black holes has not been satisfactorily determined, and is still open to considerable debate.

Weak Energy Condition Violation and Superluminal Travel

Recent solutions to the Einstein Field Equations involving negative energy densities, i.e., matter violating the weak-energy-condition, have been obtained, namely traversable wormholes, the Alcubierre warp drive and the Krasnikov tube. These solutions are related to superluminal travel, although locally the speed of light is not surpassed. It is difficult to define faster-than-light travel in generic space-times, and one can construct metrics which apparently allow superluminal travel, but are in fact flat Minkowski space-times. Therefore, to avoid these dificulties it is important to provide an appropriate definition of superluminal travel.

Generalized Observers and Velocity Measurements in General Relativity

To resolve some unphysical interpretations related to velocity measurements by static observers, we discuss the use of generalized observer sets, give a prescription for defining the speed of test particles relative to these observers, and show that, for any locally inertial frame, the speed of a freely falling material particle is always less than the speed of light at the Schwarzschild black hole surface.

Shear-free anisotropic cosmological models

A class of orthogonal, spatially homogeneous shear-free cosmological models with an imperfect liquid matter content is considered. It is shown that, for these models, the anisotropic stresses are related to the anisotropic curvature of the spatial hypersurfaces through the electric part of the Weyl tensor. This creates a counterbalance effect which has important consequences for the evolution of the cosmological models. Such features are discussed, and, as an application, some eternally anisotropic models with an imperfect fluid stress tensor which exhibit FRW-like behaviour are given.

Dust-filled axially symmetric universes with a cosmological constant

Following the recent recognition of a positive value for the vacuum energy density and the realization that a simple Kantowski-Sachs model might fit the classical tests of cosmology, we study the qualitative behavior of three anisotropic and homogeneous models: Kantowski-Sachs, Bianchi type-I and Bianchi type-III universes, with dust and a cosmological constant, in order to find out which are physically permitted. We find that these models undergo isotropization up to the point that the observations will not be able to distinguish between them and the standard model, except for the Kantowski-Sachs model

Exact Conformal Scalar Field Cosmologies

(\Omega_{k_{0}} 0)

Inflation in the presence of a non-minimal coupling

with