Towards quantum gravity

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Towards Quantum Gravity Proceedings of the XXXV International Winter School on Theoretical Physics Held in Polanica, Poland, 2-11 February 1999 13 www.pdfgrip.com Editor Jerzy Kowalski-Glikman Institute of Theoretical Physics University of Wrocław Pl Maxa Borna 50-204 Wrocław, Poland Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme Towards quantum gravity : proceedings of the XXXV International Winter School on Theoretical Physics, held in Polancia, Poland, - 11 February 1999 / Jerzy Kowalski-Glikman (ed.) - Berlin ; Heidelberg ; New York ; Barcelona ; Hong Kong ; London ; Milan ; Paris ; Singapore ; Tokyo : Springer, 2000 (Lecture notes in physics ; Vol 541) ISBN 3-540-66910-8 ISSN 0075-8450 ISBN 3-540-66910-8 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York This work is subject to copyright All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer-Verlag Violations are liable for prosecution under the German Copyright Law © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2000 Printed in Germany The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use Typesetting: Camera-ready by the authors/editor Cover design: design & production, Heidelberg Printed on acid-free paper SPIN: 10720709 55/3144/du - www.pdfgrip.com Preface For almost forty years the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Wroclaw has organized winter schools devoted to current problems in theoretical physics The XXXV International Winter School on Theoretical Physics, “From Cosmology to Quantum Gravity”, was held in Polanica, a little town in southwest Poland, between 2nd and 11th February, 1999 The aim of the school was to gather together world-leading scientists working on the field of quantum gravity, along with a number of post-graduate students and young post-docs and to offer young scientists with diverse backgrounds in astrophysics and particle physics the opportunity to learn about recent developments in gravitational physics The lectures covered macroscopic phenomena like relativistic binary star systems, gravitational waves, and black holes; and the quantum aspects, e.g., quantum space-time and the string theory approach This volume contains a collection of articles based on lectures presented during the School They cover a wide spectrum of topics in classical relativity, quantum gravity, black hole physics and string theory Unfortunately, some of the lecturers were not able to prepare their contributions, and for this reason I decided to entitle this volume “Towards Quantum Gravity”, the title which better reflects its contents I would like to thank all the lecturers for the excellent lectures they gave and for the unique atmosphere they created during the School Thanks are due to Professor Jan Willem van Holten and Professor Jerzy Lukierski for their help in organizing the School and preparing its scientific programme Dobromila Nowak worked very hard, carrying out virtually all administrative duties alone I would also like to thank the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Wroclaw, the University of Wroclaw, the Foundation for Karpacz Winter Schools, and the Polish Committee for Scientific Research (KBN) for their financial support Wroclaw, November, 1999 Jerzy Kowalski - Glikman www.pdfgrip.com Contents Are We at the Dawn of Quantum-Gravity Phenomenology? Giovanni Amelino-Camelia Introduction First the Conclusions: What Has This Phenomenology Achieved? Addendum to Conclusions: Any Hints to Theorists from Experiments? Interferometry and Fuzzy Space-Time Gamma-Ray Bursts and In-vacuo Dispersion Other Quantum-Gravity Experiments Classical-Space-Time-Induced Quantum Phases in Matter Interferometry Estimates of Space-Time Fuzziness from Measurability Bounds Relations with Other Quantum Gravity Approaches 10 Quantum Gravity, No Strings Attached 11 Conservative Motivation and Other Closing Remarks 24 25 36 39 44 Classical and Quantum Physics of Isolated Horizons: A Brief Overview Abhay Ashtekar Motivation Key Issues Summary Discussion 50 50 52 55 65 1 15 20 Old and New Processes of Vorton Formation Brandon Carter 71 Anti-de Sitter Supersymmetry Bernard de Wit, Ivan Herger Introduction Supersymmetry and Anti-de Sitter Space Anti-de Sitter Supersymmetry and Masslike Terms The Quadratic Casimir Operator Unitary Representations of the Anti-de Sitter Algebra The Oscillator Construction The Superalgebra OSp(1|4) www.pdfgrip.com 79 79 80 83 85 87 92 95 VIII Contents Conclusions 98 References 99 Combinatorial Dynamics and Time in Quantum Gravity Stuart Kauffman, Lee Smolin 101 Introduction 101 Combinatorial Descriptions of Quantum Spacetime 104 The Problem of the Classical Limit and its Relationship to Critical Phenomena 108 Is There Quantum Directed Percolation? 111 Discrete Superspace and its Structure 112 Some Simple Models 114 The Classical Limit of the Frozen Models 115 Dynamics Including the Parameters 116 A New Approach to the Problem of Time 117 Non-commutative Extensions of Classical Theories in Physics Richard Kerner 130 Deformations of Space-Time and Phase Space Geometries 130 Why the Coordinates Should not Commute at Planck’s Scale 133 Non-commutative Differential Geometry 134 Non-commutative Analog of Kaluza-Klein and Gauge Theories 137 Minkowskian Space-Time as a Commutative Limit 142 Quantum Spaces and Quantum Groups 149 Conclusion 155 References 155 Conceptual Issues in Quantum Cosmology Claus Kiefer 158 Introduction 158 Lessons from Quantum Theory 159 Quantum Cosmology 167 Emergence of a Classical World 176 Acknowledgements 184 References 185 Single-Exterior Black Holes Jorma Louko 188 Introduction 188 Kruskal Manifold and the ÊÈ Geon 189 Vacua on Kruskal and on the ÊÈ Geon 192 Entropy of the ÊÈ Geon? 194 AdS3 , the Spinless Nonextremal BTZ Hole, and the ÊÈ2 Geon 195 Vacua on the Conformal Boundaries 198 Holography and String Theory 200 Concluding Remarks 201 References 201 www.pdfgrip.com Contents IX Dirac-Bergmann Observables for Tetrad Gravity Luca Lusanna 203 Meaning of Noncommutative Geometry and the Planck-Scale Quantum Group Shahn Majid 227 Introduction 227 The Meaning of Noncommutative Geometry 231 Fourier Theory 242 Bicrossproduct Model of Planck-Scale Physics 251 Deformed Quantum Enveloping Algebras 260 Noncommutative Differential Geometry and Riemannian Manifolds 268 References 274 Loop Quantum Gravity and the Meaning of Diffeomorphism Invariance Carlo Rovelli, Marcus Gaul 277 Introduction 277 Basic Formalism of Loop Quantum Gravity 281 Quantization of the Area 300 The Physical Contents of Quantum Gravity and the Meaning of Diffeomorphism Invariance 303 Dynamics, True Observables and Spin Foams 311 Open Problems and Future Perspectives 322 Black Holes in String Theory Kostas Skenderis 325 Introduction 325 String Theory and Dualities 329 Brane Solutions 335 Black Holes in String Theory 341 Gravitational waves and massless particle fields Jan Willem van Holten 365 Planar Gravitational Waves 365 Einstein-Scalar Waves 368 Einstein-Dirac Waves 370 Einstein-Maxwell Waves 372 www.pdfgrip.com Are We at the Dawn of Quantum-Gravity Phenomenology? Giovanni Amelino-Camelia1 Theory Division, CERN, CH-1211, Geneva, Switzerland Abstract A handful of recent papers has been devoted to proposals of experiments capable of testing some candidate quantum-gravity phenomena These lecture notes emphasize those aspects that are most relevant to the questions that inevitably come to mind when one is exposed for the first time to these research developments: How come theory and experiments are finally meeting in spite of all the gloomy forecasts that pervade traditional quantum-gravity reviews? Is this a case of theorists having put forward more and more speculative ideas until a point was reached at which conventional experiments could rule out the proposed phenomena? Or has there been such a remarkable improvement in experimental techniques and ideas that we are now capable of testing plausible candidate quantum-gravity phenomena? These questions are analysed rather carefully for the recent proposals of tests of space-time fuzziness using modern interferometers and tests of dispersion in the quantum-gravity vacuum using observations of gamma rays from distant astrophysical sources I also briefly discuss other proposed quantum-gravity experiments, including those exploiting the properties of the neutral-kaon system for tests of quantum-gravity-induced decoherence and those using particle-physics accelerators for tests of models with large extra dimensions Introduction Traditionally the lack of experimental input [1] has been the most important obstacle in the search for “quantum gravity”, the new theory that should provide a unified description of gravitation and quantum mechanics Recently there has been a small, but nonetheless encouraging, number of proposals [2–9] of experiments probing the nature of the interplay between gravitation and quantum mechanics At the same time the “COW-type” experiments on quantum mechanics in a strong (classical) gravitational environment, initiated by Colella, Overhauser and Werner [10], have reached levels of sophistication [11] such that even gravitationally induced quantum phases due to local tides can be detected In light of these developments there is now growing (although still understandably cautious) hope for data-driven insight into the structure of quantum gravity The primary objective of these lecture notes is the one of giving the reader an intuitive idea of how far quantum-gravity phenomenology has come This is somewhat tricky Traditionally experimental tests of quantum gravity were believed to be not better than a dream The fact that now (some) theory and (some) experiments finally “meet” could have two very different explanations: Marie Curie Fellow (permanent address: Dipartimento di Fisica, Universit´a di Roma “La Sapienza”, Piazzale Moro 2, Roma, Italy J Kowalski-Glikman (Ed.): Proceedings 1999, LNP 541, pp 1−49, 2000  Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2000 www.pdfgrip.com Giovanni Amelino-Camelia it could be that experimental techniques and ideas have improved so much that now tests of plausible quantum-gravity effects are within reach, but it could also be that theorists have had enough time in their hands to come up with scenarios speculative enough to allow testing by conventional experimental techniques I shall argue that experiments have indeed progressed to the point were some significant quantum-gravity tests are doable I shall also clarify in which sense the traditional pessimism concerning quantum-gravity experiments was built upon the analysis of a very limited set of experimental ideas, with the significant omission of the possibility (which we now find to be within our capabilities) of experiments set up in such a way that very many of the very small quantumgravity effects are somehow summed together Some of the theoretical ideas that can be tested experimentally are of course quite speculative (decoherence, spacetime foam, large extra dimensions, ) but this is not so disappointing because it seems reasonable to expect that the new theory should host a large number of new conceptual/structural elements in order to be capable of reconciling the (apparent) incompatibility between gravitation and quantum mechanics [An example of motivation for very new structures is discussed here in Section 10, which is a “theory addendum” reviewing some of the arguments [12] in support of the idea [13] that the mechanics on which quantum gravity is based might not be exactly the one of ordinary quantum mechanics, since it should accommodate a somewhat different (non-classical) concept of “measuring apparatus” and a somewhat different relationship between “system” and “measuring apparatus”.] The bulk of these notes gives brief reviews of the quantum-gravity experiments that can be done The reader will be asked to forgive the fact that this review is not very balanced The two proposals in which this author has been involved [5,7] are in fact discussed in greater detail, while for the experiments proposed in Refs [2–4,8,9] I just give a very brief discussion with emphasis on the most important conceptual ingredients The students who attended the School might be surprised to find the material presented with a completely different strategy While my lectures in Polanica were sharply divided in a first part on theory and a second part on experiments, here some of the theoretical intuition is presented while discussing the experiments It appears to me that this strategy might be better suited for a written presentation I also thought it might be useful to start with the conclusions, which are given in the next two sections Section reviews the proposal of using modern interferometers to set bounds on space-time fuzziness In Section I review the proposal of using data on GRBs (gamma-ray bursts) to investigate possible quantum-gravity induced in vacuo dispersion of electromagnetic radiation In Section I give brief reviews of other quantum-gravity experiments In Section I give a brief discussion of the mentioned “COW-type” experiments testing quantum mechanics in a strong classical gravity environment Section provides a “theory addendum” on various scenarios for bounds on the measurability of distances in quantum gravity and their possible relation to properties of the space-time foam Section provides a theory addendum on other works which are in one way or another related to (or relevant for) the content of these www.pdfgrip.com 362 Kostas Skenderis 70 C Vafa, Instantons on D-branes, Nucl Phys B463 (1996) 435-442, hepth/9512078 71 J.L Cardy, Operator content of two-dimensional conformally invariant theories, Nucl Phys B270 (1986) 186 72 M Douglas, J Polchinski and A Strominger, Probing Five-Dimensional Black Holes with D-Branes, J.High Energy Phys 9712 (1997) 003, hep-th/9703031 73 S Hyun, U-duality between Three and Higher Dimensional Black Holes, hepth/9704005 74 H.J 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density of states and tachyons in string theory and CFT, Nucl Phys B358 (1991) 600-618 www.pdfgrip.com Gravitational waves and massless particle fields Jan Willem van Holten NIKHEF, Amsterdam NL Abstract These lectures address the planar gravitational wave solutions of general relativity in empty space-time, and analyze the motion of test particles in the gravitational wave field Next we consider related solutions of the Einstein equations for the gravitational field accompanied by long-range wave fields of scalar, spinor and vector type, corresponding to massless particles of spin s = (0, 12 , 1) The motion of test masses in the combined gravitational and scalar-, spinor- or vector wave fields is discussed Planar gravitational waves a Planar wave solutions of the Einstein equations Planar gravitational wave solutions of the Einstein equations have been known since a long time [1]-[3] In the following I discuss unidirectional solutions of this type, propagating along a fixed light-cone direction; thus the fields depend only on one of the light-cone co-ordinates (u, v), here taken transverse to the x-y-plane: u = ct − z, v = ct + z (1) Such gravitational waves can be described by space-time metrics gµν dxµ dxν = − dudv − K(u, x, y)du2 + dx2 + dy = − c2 dτ , (2) or similar solutions with the roles of v and u interchanged If the space-time is asymptotically minkowskian With the metric (2), the connection co-efficients become Γuu v = K,u , Γuu x = 1 Γ v = K,x , xu Γuu y = 1 Γ v = K,y yu (3) All other components vanish The corresponding Riemann tensor has non-zero components Ruxux = − K,xx , Ruxuy = Ruyux Ruyuy = − K,yy , = − K,xy J Kowalski-Glikman (Ed.): Proceedings 1999, LNP 541, pp 365−376, 2000  Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2000 www.pdfgrip.com (4) 366 Jan Willem van Holten The only non-vanishing component of the Ricci tensor then is Ruu = − 1 (K,xx + K,yy ) ≡ − ∆trans K 2 (5) Here the label trans refers to the transverse (x, y)-plane, with the z-axis representing the longitudinal direction In complex notation ζ = x + iy, ζ¯ = x − iy, (6) K,ζ ζ¯ = (7) the Einstein equations in vacuo become Rµν = ⇔ The general solution of this equation reads ∞ ∞ n=0 −∞ ¯ = f (u; ζ) + f¯(u; ζ) K(u, ζ, ζ) dk 2π −iku n ζ n (k)e + ¯n (k)eiku ζ¯n (8) Note that the terms with n = 0, correspond to vanishing Riemann tensor: Rµνκλ = 0; therefore they represent flat Minkowski space-time in a non-standard choice of co-ordinates For this reason we adopt the convention that = = 0, which is just a choice of gauge b Geodesics of planar-wave space-times We proceed to solve the geodesic equation in the gravity-wave space-time (2) along the lines of ref.[5]: x ăà = x ν x˙ λ (9) Here the overdot denotes a proper-time derivative The proper-time Hamiltonian satisfies a constraint imposed by eq.(2): H = gµν x˙ µ x˙ ν (10) = − u˙ v˙ − K(u, x, y) u˙ + x˙ + y˙ = −c2 Because the metric is covariantly constant, the hamiltonian is a constant of motion: H˙ = (11) This can be checked directly from the geodesic equation (9) Also, as v is a cyclic co-ordinate, its conjugate momentum is conserved: u ă = 0, (12) with the simple solution u˙ ≡ γ = constant Again, this agrees with the geodesic equation, as there is no non-vanishing connection component in the u-direction: Γνλ u = www.pdfgrip.com Gravitational waves and massless particle fields 367 Only the equations of motion in the x-y-plane depend on the specific wave potential K(u, x, y): γ2 x ¨ = − K,x u˙ = − K,x , 2 (13) yă = K,y u = − K,y , 2 Eqs (10)-(13) specify completely the motion of a test particle, with the conservation of H taking the place of the equation for the acceleration in the v-direction: γ v˙ + γ K(u, x, y) = x˙ + y˙ + c2 (14) If we now add z˙ to the left- and right-hand side, and remember that γ v˙ = u˙ v˙ = c2 t˙2 − z˙ , (15) we can rewrite the hamiltonian conservation law as c2 t˙2 + γ K = c2 + r˙ (16) ˙ the equation can be cast into the form Finally, with v = dr/dt = r˙ /t, − γ K/c2 − v2 /c2 dt t˙ = = dτ (17) This equation describes relativistic time-dilation as resulting from two effects: (i) the usual special-relativistic time-dilation from the relative motion of observers in the rest- and laboratory frame, whose time co-ordinates are τ and t, respectively; (ii) the gravitational redshift resulting from the non-trivial potential K Now from the conservation of γ = u˙ = ct˙ − z˙ it follows, that vz , γ = ct˙ − c (18) with vz = dz/dt Eqs (17), (18) can then be solved for γ: γ2 = c2 K+ − v2 /c2 (19) (1 − vz /c) Thus, for a paticle starting at rest at infinity in an asymptotically minkoskian space-time, we find γ = c At the same time we observe that h=K+ − v2 /c2 (1 − vz /c)2 www.pdfgrip.com (20) 368 Jan Willem van Holten is conserved Now we recall that in our conventions K is at least quadratic in the transverse co-ordinates; hence the components x ă and yă of the transverse acceleration vanish for x = y = Furthermore K(u, 0, 0) = 0, with the result that the origin of the transverse plane moves at constant velocity along the z-axis: γ2 − vz /c = c + vz /c ⇔ vz = − γ /c2 + γ /c2 (21) In particular, the point at rest in the origin moves along the simple geodesic xµ (τ ) = (cτ, 0, 0, 0) (22) Taking this geodesic as our reference, the solution for the geodesic motion x ¯µ (τ ) of any other test particle at the same time presents a measure for the geodesic deviation between the worldlines of the two particles Einstein-scalar waves Having discussed the planar gravitational waves (2) in empty space we now turn to discuss similar unidirectional wave solutions of the combined system of Einstein gravity and a set of massless self-interacting scalar fields The solutions of the inhomogeneous and non-linear Einstein equations, with the energymomentum tensor that of the right- (or left-) moving scalar waves, nevertheless turn out to be a linear superposition of the gravitational field of the scalar waves and the free gravitational wave solutions discussed in the first paragraph We introduce a set of massless scalar fields σi (x), i = 1, , N , taking values in a manifold with the dimensionless metric Gij [σ] In four-dimensional spacetime the fields themselves have dimension [σ] = E/l; thus, introducing an appropriate√length scale 1/f , in the context of quantum field theory we could write σi = c f ηi , with ηi (x) a dimensionless field The starting point of our analysis is given by the gravitational and σ-model field equations cov σi + Γjk i [σ] gµν ∂µ σj ∂ν σk = 0, Rµν = − 8πG Gij [σ] ∂µ σi ∂ν σj c4 (23) Here the covariant d’Alembertian is defined on scalar fields in the standard fashion cov √ = √ ∂µ −gg µν ∂ν , −g whilst Γij k [σ] denotes the Riemann-Christoffel connection in the target manifold of the scalar fields These equations can be derived straightforwardly from the combined Einstein-σ-model action, but we will skip the details of that procedure www.pdfgrip.com Gravitational waves and massless particle fields 369 here Our aim is to construct simultaneous traveling wave solutions of the full set of equations (23) Such solutions are actually quite easy to find First, the scalar field equation is solved by taking right-moving fields σi = σ i (u), (24) with no dependence on any other co-ordinate Next we substitute this solution of the scalar field into the second equation for the corresponding gravitational field As before, only the uu-component of this equation survives, reading 8πG ∆trans K = − Gij [σ] ∂u σi ∂u σj (25) c As this is a linear equation, the general solution consists of a linear superposition of a particular solution and the general free gravitational wave of the previous section: ¯ + f (u, ζ) + f(u, ¯ ζ) ¯ ¯ = 8πG Gij [σ] ∂u σi ∂u σj ζζ (26) K(u, ζ, ζ) c4 Now any specific solution σi (u) is a map from the real line into the target manifold of the scalar fields Consider the special case that this curve in the target manifold is a geodesic: Ruu = − d2 σi dσj dσk + Γjki = du du du (27) Then the quantity dσi dσj , (28) du du generating translations in u, is constant along this curve: dI/du = Moreover, for Euclidean manifolds with non-degenerate metric it is positive definite: I > Observe, that for manifolds with compact directions (like spheres) the geodesics may be closed; then the corresponding scalar field configurations are periodi The special solution for the accompanying gravitational field now becomes I = Gij [σ] 4πGI (x + y ), (29) c4 to which an arbitrary free gravitational wave solution can be added In this special case, upon inserting Kscalar into eqs.(13) the transversal equations of motion of a test mass take the particularly simple form: Kscalar (u, x, y) = 4GI 4GI x, y ă = y (30) c4 c4 Thus the test mass executes a simple harmonic motion in the transverse plane, with frequency γ √ ω = 4πGI (31) c The solutions for the coupled Einstein-scalar field equations discussed here are not the only ones of interest For example, the gravitational waves accompanying expanding domain walls in a theory with a spontaneously broken global symmetry can be calculated and have been discussed e.g in [4, 5] x ă = www.pdfgrip.com 370 Jan Willem van Holten Einstein-Dirac waves In this section we construct wave-solutions for massless chiral fermions coupled to Einstein gravity As before the waves are unidirectional, and both left- and righthanded fermion solutions, associated with helicity ±1 quantum states, exist To treat fermions in interaction with gravity, it is necessary to introduce the vierbein and spin connection into the formalism With the local minkowski metric η = diag(+1,+1,+1,-1), the vierbein is a local lorentz vector of 1-forms E a (x) = dxµ eµa (x) satisfying the symmetric product rule ηab E a E b = ηab eµa eνb dxµ dxν = gµν dxµ dxν (32) In a convenient local lorentz gauge, the vierbein corresponding to the metric (2) takes the form Ea = dx, dy, 1 ((K − 1) du + dv), ((K + 1) du + dv) 2 (33) The inverse vierbein is defined by the differential operator ∇a = eaµ ∂µ such that E a ∇a = dxµ ∂µ (34) ∇a = (∂x , ∂y , −∂u + (K + 1) ∂v , ∂u − (K − 1) ∂v ) (35) In components it reads Next we compute the components of the spin connection ωab = dxµ ωµab from the identity dE a = ω ab ∧ E b With the vierbein (33) the spin connection has only one component   0 K,x K,x  K,y K,y    ωuab = −ωuba =  −K,x −K,y 0  −K,x −K,y 0 (36) (37) In order to construct the dirac operator we introduce a basis for the dirac matrices satisfying γ a , γ b = 2η ab , and define a set spinor generators for the lorentz algebra by σab = 14 [γa , γb ] Then the dirac operator is γ · D = γa ∇a − bc ω σbc , a (38) The results we need all depend on the property of the light-cone components of the dirac algebra: γ u = γ a eau = −γ3 + γ0 www.pdfgrip.com (39) Gravitational waves and massless particle fields 371 This element of the dirac algebra is nilpotent: (γ u )2 = (40) The same is true for γv = eva γa = 12 γ u Because of the form of the spin connection (37), the dirac-algebra valued form ωab σab is itself proportional to γ u ; its nilpotency then guarantees that the spin-connection term in the covariant derivative (38) vanishes by itself: γ a ωabc σbc = γ u ωubc σbc = (41) Hence the only vestige of curved space-time left in the dirac operator is the inverse vierbein in the contraction of dirac matrices and differential operators: γ · D = γ a ∇a = γ µ ∂µ    = i   ∂u − (K − 1) ∂v σ1 ∂x + σ2 ∂y +σ3 (−∂u + (K + 1) ∂v )  −σ1 ∂x − σ2 ∂y −σ3 (−∂u + (K + 1) ∂v )      −∂u + (K − 1) ∂v (42) Here we have introduced the following basis for the dirac algebra: γk = −iσk iσk γ0 = , k = 1, 2, 3; i1 0 −i1 , (43) with the σk the standard pauli matrices The zero modes of this operator with the property that the energy-momentum tensor only has a non-zero Tuu component are flat spinor fields ψ(u) with the property ψ(u) = i γ u χ(u) = −σ3 −σ3 χ(u) = χ(u) −σ3 χ(u) , (44) where χ(u) is a 2-component (pauli) spinor Indeed, first of all spinors of this type are zero-modes of the dirac operator: γ · Dψ = (45) This follows by direct application of the expression (42) to the spinor (44), using the nilpotency of γu Moreover, with this property it also follows that the energy-momentum tensor takes the form Tµν = 1 ψ (γµ Dν + γν Dµ ) ψ = δµu δνu ψ γu ∂u ψ (46) To see this, first note that the u-component of the covariant derivative Dµ is the only one that does not vanish on ψ(u) in general We then only have to check that in all remaining cases with γµ = γu the spinor ψ(u) (44) gets multiplied by www.pdfgrip.com 372 Jan Willem van Holten a dirac matrix which can be factorized such as to have a right multiplicator of the form γ u Again, as (γ u )2 = 0, Tµν necessarily is of the required form (46) Finally we remark, that the upper- and lower component of the pauli spinor χ(u) in our conventions correspond to a negative and positive helicity state, respectively Thus we find as solutions of the dirac operator in the metric (2) two massless spinor states, corresponding to right-moving zero-modes of the dirac operator with helicity ±1, respectively This solution is self-consistent as the only non-zero component of the energymomentum tensor is Tuu (u) = − † χ χ (u), (47) where the prime denotes a derivative w.r.t u, and the dagger on χ indicates hermitean conjugation of the 2-component spinor It is then straightforward to solve the Einstein equation for K in the presence of the energy momentum distribution of the spinor field: 2πG † χ χ (u) x2 + y c4 Kspinor (u, x, y) = − (48) Again, to this particular solution an abitrary free gravitatonal wave can be added It should be mentioned here, that consistency requires the spinors in the energy momentum tensor (46), (47) to be anti-commuting objects, i.e if the spinor fields χ(u) are expanded in a fourier series of massless matter waves, the co-efficients take values in an infinite-dimensional Grassmann algebra Thus the expression can be given an operational meaning only in the context of quantum theory, by performing some averaging procedure For example, if the spinors form a condensate such that the kinetic energy Σ ≡ − χ† χ = constant > 0, then such a condensate would generate gravitational waves in which test-masses perform harmonic motion of the type (30), (31) with frequency ω = γ √ 2πGΣ c2 (49) Einstein-Maxwell waves As the last example we consider coupled Einstein-Maxwell fields We look for solutions of wave-type, using the metric (2) In the absence of masses and charges, the field equations are: Rµν = − 8πε0 G c2 Fµλ Fν λ − gµν F , Dλ F λµ = (50) With the same metric (2), we also find the same expressions for the components of the connection (3), and the Riemann and Ricci curvature tensors (4), (5) Therefore the left-hand side of the Einstein eqn (50) is fixed in terms of the potential K(u, y, z) www.pdfgrip.com Gravitational waves and massless particle fields 373 As concerns the Maxwell equations, the covariant derivative Dλ F λµ = ∂λ F λµ + Γλν λ F νµ + Γλν µ F λν (51) reduces to the first term on the r.h.s., an ordinary four-divergence; this happens because in the last term the even connection is contracted with the odd fieldstrength tensor, whilst the middle term contains a trace over an upper and a lower index of the connection, which vanishes in our case Thus the Maxwell equation reduces to the same expression as in minkowski space-time, and it has the same wave solutions We consider an elementary wave solution, which in terms of the co-ordinate system (2) is described by the vector potential Aµ = (a sin k(ct − z), 0, 0), (52) with the light-cone components vanishing, and with a a constant transverse vector: az = Of course, arbitrary solution can be constructed from the elementary waves (52) by linear superposition With u = ct − z and ω = kc the angular frequency of the wave, the electric and magnetic fields are Ek (u) = ωa cos ku, Bk (u) = k × a cos ku (53) As usual for e.m waves, |Ek (0)| = c|Bk (0)|, and Ek · Bk = Indeed, the only non-zero components of the full field strength are Fui = −Fiu = kai cos ku, i = (x, y), (54) all others vanishing It is now straightforward to compute the stress-energy tensor components of the electro-magnetic field, with the result Tuu = ε0 c2 k a2 cos2 ku, (55) and all other components zero The Einstein-Maxwell equations then reduce to ∆trans K = 16πε0 G 2 k a cos2 ku c2 (56) This has the special solution Kem = 4πε0 G 4πε0 G 2 k a cos2 ku x2 + y = Ek (u) ζζ c2 c4 (57) In view of the linearity of eq.(56), the general solution is a superposition of such special solutions and arbitrary free gravitational waves of the type (8): ¯ ζ) K(u, ζ, ζ) = Kem (u, ζ, ζ) + f (u, ζ) + f(u, www.pdfgrip.com (58) 374 Jan Willem van Holten Next we turn to the motion of a test particle with mass m and charge q in the background of these gravitational and electro-magnetic fields These equations are modified to take into account the Lorentz force on the test charge: x ăà + x ν x˙ λ = q µ ν F x˙ m ν (59) With the only non-zero covariant components of Fµν given by eq.(54), there are no contravariant components in the lightcone direction u As a result the equation for u is not modified, and we again find u˙ = γ = const (60) This also follows, because the electro-magnetic forces not change the propertime hamiltonian: H = gµν x˙ µ x˙ ν (61) = = − u˙ v˙ − K(u, y, z) u˙ + y˙ + z˙ = −c2 , except that K(u, x, y) now is given by the modified expression (58) Therefore v is still a cyclic co-ordinate and equation (14) for v˙ again follows from the conservation of H: γ v˙ + γ K(u, x, y) = x˙ + y˙ + c2 (62) As a result we find in this case the same formal expressions for the solution of the equations of motion in the time-like and longitudinal directions: dt t˙ = = dτ − γ K/c2 , − v2 /c2 (63) whilst h=K+ − v2 /c2 (1 − vz /c) (64) is again a constant of motion In both cases of course K now is the full solution (58) Manifest changes in the equations of motion are obtained in the transverse directions: q ka cos ku, ă = K − m (65) where ξ = (x, y) is a transverse vector and ∇ξ is the gradient in the transverse plane If we take for K the special solution (57), we find the conservation law 4πε0 G 2 − v2 /c2 k a ξ cos ku + = h = const c2 (1 − vz /c)2 www.pdfgrip.com (66) Gravitational waves and massless particle fields 375 Inserting the explicit form of u(τ ) = γτ , eqs.(65) then take the form 4πε0 G 2 q ă = k a cos2 (k ) ξ − ka cos(γkτ ) c m (67) Equivalently, we can use u instead of τ as the independent variable: 4πε0 G 2 q d2 ξ = − k a cos2 (ku) ξ − ka cos ku 2 du c mγ (68) Clearly, it is useful to decompose ξ into components parallel and orthogonal to the electric field Ek , which in our choice of electro-magnetic gauge is the same as that of the vector potential a: ξ = ξ + ξ⊥ , (69) with ξ = ξ·a a, |a|2 ξ⊥ = ξ×a |a| (70) It follows that d2 ξ 4πε0 G 2 q =− k a cos2 (ku) ξ − ka cos ku, du2 c2 mγ (71) d ξ⊥ 4πε0 G 2 =− k a cos2 (ku) ξ⊥ du2 c2 Transforming to the cosine of the double argument, the last equation can be seen to reduce to the standard Mathieu equation: 2πε0 G 2 d2 ξ ⊥ + k a (1 + cos 2ku) ξ⊥ = 0, du c2 (72) whilst the other equation becomes an inhomogeneous Mathieu equation, with the Lorentz force representing the inhomogeneous term: d2 ξ 2πε0 G 2 q ka cos ku + k a (1 + cos 2ku) ξ = − du2 c2 mγ (73) Obviously, one may try to find a particular solution to this equation by making an expansion in powers of cos ku The general solution is a superposition of this special one plus the general solution of the Mathieu equation (72) A special case is that of static crossed electric and magnetic fields, obtained in the limit k → Then the eqs.(72) and (73) reduce to ordinary homogeneous and inhomogeneous harmonic equations: 4πε0 G d2 ξ⊥ + E0 ξ ⊥ = 0, du2 c4 d2 ξ 4πε0 G + E0 ξ du c4 (74) q E0 =− mcγ www.pdfgrip.com 376 Jan Willem van Holten The angular frequency of this harmonic motion is ω = 4πε0 G E0 = 0.29 × 10−18 E0 (V/m) c2 (75) Clearly, the Lorentz force due to the constant electric field produces a constant proper-time acceleration of the test charge, but the harmonic gravitational component of the motion is very slow for practically realistic electric fields: periods of a year or less require a field strength of the order of 1010 V/m or more This work is part of the research program of the Foundation for Fundamental Research of Matter (FOM) References H Bondi, Nature 179 (1957), 1072 J Ehlers and W Kundt, in: Gravitation: an Introduction to Current Research (Wiley, N.Y.; 1962), ed L Witten D Kramer, H Stephani, M MacCallum and E Herlt, Exact Solutions of Einstein’s Field Equations (Cambridge Univ Press; 1980) J.W van Holten, Phys Lett B352 (1995), 220 J.W van Holten, Fortschr Phys 45 (1997), www.pdfgrip.com ... quantum- gravity proposals) also appear to provide significant quantum- gravity tests As mentioned, the effect of quantum- gravity induced decoherence certainly qualifies as a traditional quantum- gravity. .. the most popular quantum- gravity approaches, i.e critical superstrings and canonical/loop quantum gravity Which role should be played by the Equivalence Principle in quantum gravity? Which version/formulation... Canonical Quantum Gravity One of the most popular quantum- gravity approaches is the one in which the ordinary canonical formalism of quantum mechanics is applied to (some formulation of) Einstein’s Gravity