Quantum Stress Tensor Fluctuations and their Physical Effects
- Institute of Cosmology, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155 (United States)
- Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 11529 Taiwan (China)
We summarize several aspects of recent work on quantum stress tensor fluctuations and their role in driving fluctuations of the gravitational field. The role of correlations and anticorrelations is emphasized. We begin with a review of the properties of the stress tensor correlation function. We next consider some illuminating examples of non-gravitational effects of stress tensors fluctuations, specifically fluctuations of the Casimir force and radiation pressure fluctuations. We next discuss passive fluctuations of spacetime geometry and some of their operational signatures. These include luminosity fluctuations, line broadening, and angular blurring of a source viewed through a fluctuating gravitational field. Finally, we discuss the possible role of quantum stress tensor fluctuations in the early universe, especially in inflation. The fluctuations of the expansion of a congruence of comoving geodesics grows during the inflationary era, due to non-cancellation of anticorrelations that would have occurred in flat spacetime. This results in subsequent non-Gaussian density perturbations and allows one to infer an upper bound on the duration of inflation. This bound is consistent with adequate inflation to solve the horizon and flatness problems.
- OSTI ID:
- 21210243
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 977, Issue 1; Conference: 3. Mexican meeting on mathematical and experimental physics, Mexico City (Mexico), 10-14 Sep 2007; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2902780; (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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