Robert M. Wald

Theorems on the uniqueness and thermal properties of stationary, nonsingular, quasifree states on spacetimes with a bifurcate killing horizon

Abstract This paper is concerned with the study of quasifree states of a linear, scalar quantum field in globally hyperbolic spacetimes possessing a one-parameter group of isometries with a bifurcate Killing horizon. Some results on the uniqueness and thermal properties of such states are well known in the special cases of Minkowski, Schwarzschild, and deSitter spacetimes, and our main aim is to present new stronger results and to generalize them to this wide class of spacetimes. As a preliminary to proving our theorems, we develop some aspects of the theory of globally of hyperbolic spacetimes with a bifurcate Killing horizon, we give some new results on the structure of Bose quasifree states of linear fields (the class which includes all the usual “Fock vacua”), and we clarify and further develop the notion of a “Hadamard state”. We then consider the quasifre e states on these spacetimes which have vanishing one-point function, are invariant under the one-parameter isometry group, and are nonsingular in a neighborhood of the horizon in the sense that their two-point function is of the Hadamard form there. We prove that, on a large subalgebra of observables (which are determined by observables localized in compact regions of the horizon) such states are unique and pure. Furthermore, if the spacetime admits a certain discrete “wedge reflection” isometry (as holds automatically in the analytic case) we prove that this state - if it exists - must be a KMS state at the Hawking temperature T = κ /2 π when restricted to those observables in our subalgebra which are localized in one of the (“right” or “left”) wedges of the spacetime where the Killing orbits are timelike near the horizon. Here, κ denotes the surface g ravity of the horizon. Under the further assumption that the nonsingularity of the state holds globally and that there are no “zero modes” in the one-partic le Hilbert space belonging to the state, we extend the uniqueness result to all observables localized in the full “domain of determinacy” of the hori zon. However, existence of states satisfying the hypotheses of our theorems does not hold in general and, indeed, we prove the nonexistence of any stationary (not necessarily quasifree) Hadamard state on the Schwarzschild-deSitter and Kerr spacetimes. We remark that nowhere in the analysis do we need to assume any form of Einsteins equations.

The Thermodynamics of Black Holes

We review the present status of black hole thermodynamics. Our review includes discussion of classical black hole thermodynamics, Hawking radiation from black holes, the generalized second law, and the issue of entropy bounds. A brief survey also is given of approaches to the calculation of black hole entropy. We conclude with a discussion of some unresolved open issues.

Local symmetries and constraints

The general relationship between local symmetries occurring in a Lagrangian formulation of a field theory and the corresponding constraints present in a phase space formulation are studied. First, a prescription—applicable to an arbitrary Lagrangian field theory—for the construction of phase space from the manifold of field configurations on space‐time is given. Next, a general definition of the notion of local symmetries on the manifold of field configurations is given that encompasses, as special cases, the usual gauge transformations of Yang–Mills theory and general relativity. Local symmetries on phase space are then defined via projection from field configuration space. It is proved that associated to each local symmetry which suitably projects to phase space is a corresponding equivalence class of constraint functions on phase space. Moreover, the constraints thereby obtained are always first class, and the Poisson bracket algebra of the constraint functions is isomorphic to the Lie bracket algebra ...

Local Wick Polynomials and Time Ordered Products of Quantum Fields in Curved Spacetime

Abstract: In order to have well defined rules for the perturbative calculation of quantities of interest in an interacting quantum field theory in curved spacetime, it is necessary to construct Wick polynomials and their time ordered products for the noninteracting theory. A construction of these quantities has recently been given by Brunetti, Fredenhagen, and Köhler, and by Brunetti and Fredenhagen, but they did not impose any “locality” or “covariance” condition in their constructions. As a consequence, their construction of time ordered products contained ambiguities involving arbitrary functions of spacetime point rather than arbitrary parameters. In this paper, we construct an “extended Wick polynomial algebra”– large enough to contain the Wick polynomials and their time ordered products – by generalizing a construction of Dütsch and Fredenhagen to curved spacetime. We then define the notion of a local, covariant quantum field, and seek a definition of local Wick polynomials and their time ordered products as local, covariant quantum fields. We introduce a new notion of the scaling behavior of a local, covariant quantum field, and impose scaling requirements on our local Wick polynomials and their time ordered products as well as certain additional requirements – such as commutation relations with the free field and appropriate continuity properties under variations of the spacetime metric. For a given polynomial order in powers of the field, we prove that these conditions uniquely determine the local Wick polynomials and their time ordered products up to a finite number of parameters. (These parameters correspond to the usual renormalization ambiguities occurring in Minkowski spacetime together with additional parameters corresponding to the coupling of the field to curvature.) We also prove existence of local Wick polynomials. However, the issue of existence of local time ordered products is deferred to a future investigation.

Existence of local covariant time ordered products of quantum fields in curved spacetime

Abstract: We establish the existence of local, covariant time ordered products of local Wick polynomials for a free scalar field in curved spacetime. Our time ordered products satisfy all of the hypotheses of our previous uniqueness theorem, so our construction essentially completes the analysis of the existence, uniqueness, and renormalizability of the perturbative expansion for nonlinear quantum field theories in curved spacetime. As a byproduct of our analysis, we derive a scaling expansion of the time ordered products about the total diagonal that expresses them as a sum of products of polynomials in the curvature times Lorentz invariant distributions, plus a remainder term of arbitrarily low scaling degree.

Gravitational Collapse and Cosmic Censorship

It has long been known that under a wide variety of circumstances, solutions to Einstein’s equation with physically reasonable matter must develop singularities [1]. In particular, if a sufficiently large amount of mass is contained in a sufficiently small region, trapped surfaces must form [2] or future light cone reconvergence should occur [3], in which case gravitational collapse to a singularity must result. One of the key outstanding issues in classical general relativity is the determination of the nature of the singularities that result from gravitational collapse.

A Higher Dimensional Stationary Rotating Black Hole Must be Axisymmetric

A key result in the proof of black hole uniqueness in 4-dimensions is that a stationary black hole that is “rotating”—i.e., is such that the stationary Killing field is not everywhere normal to the horizon—must be axisymmetric. The proof of this result in 4-dimensions relies on the fact that the orbits of the stationary Killing field on the horizon have the property that they must return to the same null geodesic generator of the horizon after a certain period, P. This latter property follows, in turn, from the fact that the cross-sections of the horizon are two-dimensional spheres. However, in spacetimes of dimension greater than 4, it is no longer true that the orbits of the stationary Killing field on the horizon must return to the same null geodesic generator. In this paper, we prove that, nevertheless, a higher dimensional stationary black hole that is rotating must be axisymmetric. No assumptions are made concerning the topology of the horizon cross-sections other than that they are compact. However, we assume that the horizon is non-degenerate and, as in the 4-dimensional proof, that the spacetime is analytic.

On particle creation by black holes

Hawkings analysis of particle creation by black holes is extended by explicitly obtaining the expression for the quantum mechanical state vector ψ which results from particle creation starting from the vacuum during gravitational collapse. (Hawking calculated only the expected number of particles in each mode for this state.) We first discuss the quantum field theory of a Hermitian scalar field in an external potential or in a curved but asymptotically flat spacetime with no horizon present. In agreement with previously known results, we find that we are led to a unique quantum scattering theory which is completely well behaved mathematically provided a certain condition is satisfied by the operators which describe the scattering of classical positive frequency solutions. In terms of these operators we derive the expression for the state vector describing particle creation from the vacuum, and we prove that S-matrix is unitary. Making the necessary modification for the case when a horizon is present, we apply this theory for a massless Hermitian scalar field to get the state vector describing the steady state emission at late times for particle creation during gravitational collapse to a Schwarzschild black hole. There is some ambiguity in the theory in this case arising from freedom involved in defining what one means by “positive frequency” at the future event horizon. However, it is proven that the expression for the density matrix formed from ψ describing the emission of particles to infinity is independent of this choice, and thus unambiguous predictions for the results of all possible measurements at infinity are obtained. We find that the state vector describing particle creation from the vacuum decomposes into a simple product of state vectors for each individual mode. The density matrix describing emission of particles to infinity by this particle creation process is found to be identical to that of black body emission. Thus, black hole emission agrees in complete detail (i.e., not only in expected number of particles) with black body emission.

The back reaction effect in particle creation in curved spacetime

The problem of determining the changes in the gravitational field caused by particle creation is investigated in the context of the semiclassical approximation, where the gravitational field (i.e., spacetime geometry) is treated classically and an effective stress energy is assigned to the created particles which acts as a source of the gravitational field. An axiomatic approach is taken. We list five conditions which the renormalized stress-energy operatorTμv should satisfy in order to give a reasonable semiclassical theory. It is proven that these conditions uniquely determineTμv, i.e. there is at most one renormalized stress-energy operator which satisfies all the conditions. We investigate existence by examining an explicit “point-splitting” type prescription for renormalizingTμv. Modulo some standard assumptions which are made in defining the prescription forTμv, it is shown that this prescription satisfies at least four of the five axioms.

Dynamics in non-globally-hyperbolic static spacetimes: III. Anti-de Sitter spacetime

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in theories formulated in anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime. However, AdS spacetime fails to be globally hyperbolic, so a classical field satisfying a hyperbolic wave equation on AdS spacetime need not have a well-defined dynamics. Nevertheless, AdS spacetime is static, so the possible rules of dynamics for a field satisfying a linear wave equation are constrained by our previous general analysis—given in paper II—where it was shown that the possible choices of dynamics correspond to choices of positive, self-adjoint extensions of a certain differential operator, A. In the present paper, we reduce the analysis of electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations in AdS spacetime to scalar wave equations. We then apply our general results to analyse the possible dynamics of scalar, electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations in AdS spacetime. In AdS spacetime, the freedom (if any) in choosing self-adjoint extensions of A corresponds to the freedom (if any) in choosing suitable boundary conditions at infinity, so our analysis determines all the possible boundary conditions that can be imposed at infinity. In particular, we show that other boundary conditions besides the Dirichlet and Neumann conditions may be possible, depending on the value of the effective mass for scalar field perturbations, and depending on the number of spacetime dimensions and type of mode for electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations.