We calculate the neutrino signal from Population III supermassive star collapse using a neutrino transfer code originally developed for core collapse supernovae and massive star collapse. Using this code, we are able to investigate the supermassive s
tar mass range thought to undergo neutrino trapping ($sim 10^4$ M$_odot$), a mass range which has been neglected by previous works because of the difficulty of neutrino transfer. For models in this mass range, we observe a neutrino-sphere with a large radius and low density compared to typical massive star neutrino-spheres. We calculate the neutrino light-curve emitted from this neutrino-sphere. The resulting neutrino luminosity is significantly lower than the results of a previous analytical model. We briefly discuss the possibility of detecting a neutrino burst from a supermassive star or the neutrino background from many supermassive stars and conclude that the former is unlikely with current technology, unless the SMS collapse is located as close as 1 Mpc, while the latter is also unlikely even under very generous assumptions. However, the supermassive star neutrino background is still of interest as it may serve as a source of noise in proposed dark matter direct detection experiments.
We study quantum decoherence numerically in a system consisting of a relativistic quantum field theory coupled to a measuring device that is itself coupled to an environment. The measuring device and environment are treated as quantum, non-relativist
ic particles. We solve the Schrodinger equation for the wave function of this tripartite system using exact diagonalization. Although computational limitations on the size of the Hilbert space prevent us from exploring the regime where the device and environment consist of a truly macroscopic number of degrees of freedom, we nevertheless see clear evidence of decoherence: after tracing out the environment, the density matrix describing the system and measuring device evolves quickly towards a matrix that is close to diagonal in a subspace of pointer states.
We investigate the possibility of a supernova in supermassive ($5 times 10^4 ;M_odot$) population III stars induced by a general relativistic instability occurring in the helium burning phase. This explosion could occur via rapid helium burning durin
g an early contraction of the isentropic core. Such an explosion would be visible to future telescopes and could disrupt the proposed direct collapse formation channel for early universe supermassive black holes. We simulate first the stellar evolution from hydrogen burning using a 1D stellar evolution code with a post Newtonian approximation; at the point of dynamical collapse, we switch to a 1D (general relativistic) hydrodynamics code with the Misner-Sharpe metric. In opposition to a previous study, we do not find an explosion in the non rotating case, although our model is close to exploding for a similar mass to the explosion in the previous study. When we include slow rotation, we find one exploding model, and we conclude that there likely exist additional exploding models, though they may be rare.
We study the dynamics of the massive Schwinger model on a lattice using exact diagonalization. When periodic boundary conditions are imposed, analytic arguments indicate that a non-zero electric flux in the initial state can unwind and decrease to a
minimum value equal to minus its initial value, due to the effects of a pair of charges that repeatedly traverse the spatial circle. Our numerical results support the existence of this flux unwinding phenomenon, both for initial states containing a charged pair inserted by hand, and when the charges are produced by Schwinger pair production. We also study boundary conditions where charges are confined to an interval and flux unwinding cannot occur, and the massless limit, where our results agree with the predictions of the bosonized description of the Schwinger model.
The entanglement swapping protocol is analyzed in a relativistic setting, where shortly after the entanglement swapping is performed, a Bell violation measurement is performed. From an observer in the laboratory frame, a Bell violation is observed du
e to entanglement swapping taking place, but in a moving frame the order of the measurements is reversed, and a Bell violation is observed even though no entanglement is present. Although the measurement results are identical, the wavefunctions for the two frames are different--- one is entangled and the other is not. Furthermore, for boosts in a perpendicular direction, in the presence of decoherence, we show that a maximum Bell violation can occur across non-simultaneous points in time. This is a signature of entanglement that is spread across both space and time, showing both the non-local and non-simultaneous feature of entanglement.
