No Arabic abstract
We investigate modifications of quantum mechanics (QM) that replace the unitary group in a finite dimensional Hilbert space with a finite group and determine the minimal sequence of subgroups necessary to approximate QM arbitrarily closely for general choices of Hamiltonian. This mathematical study reveals novel insights about t Hoofts Ontological Quantum Mechanics, and the derivation of statistical mechanics from quantum mechanics. We show that Kornyaks proposal to understand QM as classical dynamics on a Hilbert space of one dimension higher than that describing the universe, supplemented by a choice of the value of a naturally conserved quantum operator in that classical evolution can probably be a model of the world we observe.
We argue in a model-independent way that the Hilbert space of quantum gravity is locally finite-dimensional. In other words, the density operator describing the state corresponding to a small region of space, when such a notion makes sense, is defined on a finite-dimensional factor of a larger Hilbert space. Because quantum gravity potentially describes superpo- sitions of different geometries, it is crucial that we associate Hilbert-space factors with spatial regions only on individual decohered branches of the universal wave function. We discuss some implications of this claim, including the fact that quantum field theory cannot be a fundamental description of Nature.
For the purpose of analyzing observed phenomena, it has been convenient, and thus far sufficient, to regard gravity as subject to the deterministic principles of classical physics, with the gravitational field obeying Newtons law or Einsteins equations. Here we treat the gravitational field as a quantum field and determine the implications of such treatment for experimental observables. We find that falling bodies in gravity are subject to random fluctuations (noise) whose characteristics depend on the quantum state of the gravitational field. We derive a stochastic equation for the separation of two falling particles. Detection of this fundamental noise, which may be measurable at gravitational wave detectors, would vindicate the quantization of gravity, and reveal important properties of its sources.
Quantization together with quantum dynamics can be simultaneously formulated as the problem of finding an appropriate flat connection on a Hilbert bundle over a contact manifold. Contact geometry treats time, generalized positions and momenta as points on an underlying phase-spacetime and reduces classical mechanics to contact topology. Contact quantization describes quantum dynamics in terms of parallel transport for a flat connection; the ultimate goal being to also handle quantum systems in terms of contact topology. Our main result is a proof of local, formal gauge equivalence for a broad class of quantum dynamical systems-just as classical dynamics depends on choices of clocks, local quantum dynamics can be reduced to a problem of studying gauge transformations. We further show how to write quantum correlators in terms of parallel transport and in turn matrix elements for Hilbert bundle gauge transformations, and give the path integral formulation of these results. Finally, we show how to relate topology of the underlying contact manifold to boundary conditions for quantum wave functions.
We investigate the asymptotic dynamics of topological anti-de Sitter supergravity in two dimensions. Starting from the formulation as a BF theory, it is shown that the AdS_2 boundary conditions imply that the asymptotic symmetries form a super-Virasoro algebra. Using the central charge of this algebra in Cardys formula, we exactly reproduce the thermodynamical entropy of AdS_2 black holes. Furthermore, we show that the dynamics of the dilaton and its superpartner reduces to that of superconformal transformations that leave invariant one chiral component of the stress tensor supercurrent of a two-dimensional conformal field theory. This dynamics is governed by a supersymmetric extension of the de Alfaro-Fubini-Furlan model of conformal quantum mechanics. Finally, two-dimensional de Sitter gravity is also considered, and the dS_2 entropy is computed by counting CFT states.
BMS symmetry is a symmetry of asymptotically flat spacetimes in the vicinity of the null boundary of spacetime and it is expected to play a fundamental role in physics. It is interesting therefore to investigate the structures and properties of quantum deformations of these symmetries, which are expected to shed some light on symmetries of quantum spacetime. In this paper we discuss the structure of the algebra of extended BMS symmetries in 3 and 4 spacetime dimensions, realizing that these algebras contain an infinite number of distinct Poincare subalgebras, a fact that has previously been noted in the 3-dimensional case only. Then we use these subalgebras to construct an infinite number of different Hopf algebras being quantum deformations of the BMS algebras. We also discuss different types of twist-deformations and the dual Hopf algebras, which could be interpreted as noncommutative, extended quantum spacetimes.