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Title: Asymptotic charges cannot be measured in finite time

Journal Article · · Physical Review. D.
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Center for Theoretical Physics and Dept. of Physics; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Varian Lab. of Physics
+ Show Author Affiliations

To study quantum gravity in asymptotically flat spacetimes, one would like to understand the algebra of observables at null infinity. Here we show that the Bondi mass cannot be observed in finite retarded time, and so is not contained in the algebra on any finite portion of I+. This follows immediately from recently discovered asymptotic entropy bounds. We verify this explicitly, and we find that attempts to measure a conserved charge at arbitrarily large radius in fixed retarded time are thwarted by quantum fluctuations. We comment on the implications of our results to flat space holography and the BMS charges at I+.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics (BCTP); Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States); National Science Foundation (NSF); Foundational Questions Inst. (FQXi); Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation; Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States). Stanford Inst. for Theoretical Physics (SITP); Simons Foundation
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; 1521446; 1316783; 1314311
OSTI ID:
1423163
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1434025
Journal Information:
Physical Review. D., Journal Name: Physical Review. D. Vol. 97 Journal Issue: 4; ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 10 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (18)

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2D Stress Tensor for 4D Gravity journal September 2017
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Proof of classical versions of the Bousso entropy bound and of the generalized second law journal September 2000
Asymptotic entropy bounds journal July 2016
On BMS invariance of gravitational scattering journal July 2014
BMS charge algebra journal December 2011
Flat space amplitudes and conformal symmetry of the celestial sphere journal September 2017
Gravitational memory, BMS supertranslations and soft theorems journal January 2016
Proof of the quantum null energy condition journal January 2016
Field and Charge Measurements in Quantum Electrodynamics journal June 1950
Information content of gravitational radiation and the vacuum journal September 2016
Proof of a quantum Bousso bound journal August 2014
Asymptotic Quantization of the Gravitational Field journal March 1981
4D scattering amplitudes and asymptotic symmetries from 2D CFT journal January 2017
Quantum focusing conjecture journal March 2016

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
general relativity
quantum gravity
quantum field theory