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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics in Hyperbolic Space: From Photon Bound States to Frustrated Spin Models

Circuit quantum electrodynamics is one of the most promising platforms for efficient quantum simulation and computation. In recent groundbreaking experiments, the immense flexibility of superconducting microwave resonators was utilized to realize hyperbolic lattices that emulate quantum physics in negatively curved space. Here we investigate experimentally feasible settings in which a few superconducting qubits are coupled to a bath of photons evolving on the hyperbolic lattice. We compare our numerical results for finite lattices with analytical results for continuous hyperbolic space on the Poincaré disk. We find good agreement between the two descriptions in the long-wavelength regime. We show that photon-qubit bound states have a curvature-limited size. We propose to use a qubit as a local probe of the hyperbolic bath, for example, by measuring the relaxation dynamics of the qubit. We find that, although the boundary effects strongly impact the photonic density of states, the spectral density is well described by the continuum theory. We show that interactions between qubits are mediated by photons propagating along geodesics. We demonstrate that the photonic bath can give rise to geometrically frustrated hyperbolic quantum spin models with finite-range or exponentially decaying interaction.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2026

Euclidean correlation functions in quantum gravity

We calculate Euclidean correlation functions through next-to-leading order in the low-energy effective theory of gravity. We focus on correlation functions of curvature and volume operators, calculating these functions through one-loop order. We show that quantum fluctuations of the background spacetime must be taken into account in order to obtain gauge invariant expressions, and we point out a subtlety associated with the analytic continuation of the conformal mode. Our final expressions for the correlation functions involve only Newton’s constant and the source-sink separation, and they are a universal prediction of the low-energy effective theory. Thus, they serve as a useful point of comparison for nonperturbative lattice formulations of gravity.

Effective field theory↗
DOE OSTI2026

Constraints on long-range forces in de Sitter space

The representation theory of de Sitter space admits partially massless (PM) particles, but whether such particles can participate in consistent interacting theories remains unclear. We investigate the consistency of theories containing PM fields, particularly when these fields are coupled to gravity. Our strategy exploits the fact that PM fields correspond to partially conserved currents on the spacetime boundary, which generate symmetries. These symmetries place stringent constraints on correlation functions of charged operators, allowing us to test the consistency of a proposed bulk spectrum. When the assumed operator content violates these constraints, the corresponding bulk theory is ruled out. Applying this framework, we show that, in four-dimensional de Sitter space, PM fields of spin 2 or 3 (at depth 0) cannot couple consistently to gravity: such couplings necessitate additional massive fields, which are inevitably non-unitary. In higher dimensions, however, the constraints can be satisfied without violating unitarity if further PM fields are included. The resulting structure leads to additional charge conservation laws, which suggests that consistency may ultimately require an infinite tower of higher-spin PM fields, akin to the situation for ordinary higher-spin symmetries. The methods developed here provide powerful constraints on possible long-range interactions in de Sitter space and delineate the landscape of consistent quantum field theories in cosmological spacetimes.

AdS-CFT Correspondence↗
DOE OSTI2024

Reviving QFT in ( 2 + 1 )-dimensional de Sitter spacetime

We consider a conformally coupled scalar quantum field theory (QFT) on ( 2 + 1 )-dimensional static Einstein universe R × S 2 and write down the free theory Hilbert space. We explain that this theory is secretly a QFT in ( 2 + 1 )-dimensional de Sitter space because all the quantum observables experience “quantum revivals,” which naturally restricts the timelike R to the appropriate de Sitter time range. Our construction circumvents the causal obstruction to formulating QFT in de Sitter due to event horizons. There are not any in static Einstein. The “unitary gauge” description of the theory is realized by the zonal harmonics P ℓ ( n ^ · n ^ ′ ) . We verify that interactions with conformally invariant external sources are mediated only by these modes. Hence these modes comprise the complete basis of the “bulk” theory. When the theory is cut off in the UV, the basis dimension scales as the Bekenstein-Hawking formula. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

D’Amico, Guido (ORCID:0000000281831214)↗
DOE OSTI2026

Bounds on Lorentz Invariance Violation from Muon Fluctuations at the Pierre Auger Observatory

Quantum gravity theories often modify spacetime symmetries. In particular, Lorentz invariance may be violated when approaching the Planck scale. Although the scales at which interactions occur in extensive air showers induced by ultra-high-energy cosmic rays in the atmosphere are many orders of magnitude below the Planck scale, these violations might still be observable. In this Letter, the fluctuations in the number of muons in the extensive air showers measured at the Pierre Auger Observatory are exploited, for the first time, to constrain Lorentz invariance violations. The bounds derived in the hadronic sector are the strongest ever obtained, and do not rely on assumptions about the mass composition of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. The fluctuations in the number of muons constitute a new and powerful observable to further explore Lorentz invariance in a region of the parameter space not accessible to other observables.

Abdul Halim, A. [Adelaide U.] (ORCID:0000000312181↗
DOE OSTI2020

Asymptotic non-flatness of an effective black hole model based on loop quantum gravity

For any non-rotating effective quantum (uncharged) black hole model to be viable, its asymptotic structure of spacetime should reduce to that of a Schwarzschild black hole. After examining the asymptotic structure of quantum black holes proposed in Ashtekar et al., (2018), in this study we find that the solution is actually not asymptotically flat. Departure from asymptotically flat spacetime is a direct consequence of the quantum parameters included in the model. Moreover, since the property of asymptotic flatness needs to be explicitly invoked, for instance, in relating the black hole and the white hole masses, it thereby raises a serious concern about the consistency of this model in view of the classical limit.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Precision Computations in Strongly Coupled Conformal Field Theories (Final Technical Report)

Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) are quantum field theories that are invariant under the conformal symmetry group (which includes translations and rotations, but also local rescalings of spacetime). They are building blocks of general quantum field theories, and appear in many areas of physics, including statistical physics, condensed matter physics, particle physics, and quantum gravity. Because of their extra symmetries, the mathematical structure of CFTs is tightly constrained, and this leads to the idea of the ``conformal bootstrap," which is to use these mathematical structures to constrain, and in some cases determine, CFT observables. A new numerical implementation of the conformal bootstrap idea appeared in 2008 with the work of Rattazzi, Rychkov, Tonni, and Vichi. Their observation was that certain bootstrap constraints (conformal symmetry and unitarity) could be combined to yield a convex optimization problem that constraints CFT data. By solving this convex optimization problem on a computer, one could obtain bounds on observables like critical exponents and operator product expansion (OPE) coefficients. Over the course of this award, the PI has improved numerical bootstrap techniques by optimizing known algorithms and finding new ones for performing the required convex optimization computations. The PI has applied these techniques to compute high-precision observables in several important strongly-coupled systems. The PI has also explored both analytical and numerical bootstrap methods for constraining the space of low energy effective field theories of quantum gravity, and developed new analytical techniques for CFT and QFT more broadly.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Quantum bit threads

We give a bit thread prescription that is equivalent to the quantum extremal surface prescription for holographic entanglement entropy. Our proposal is inspired by considerations of bit threads in doubly holographic models, and equivalence is established by proving a generalisation of the Riemannian max-flow min-cut theorem. We explore our proposal’s properties and discuss ways in which islands and spacetime are emergent phenomena from the quantum bit thread perspective.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2026

Reflections on Noether’s second theorem and the energy-momentum tensor

Through symmetry of the action under global spacetime translations, Noether’s first theorem infamously entails an energy-momentum tensor (EMT) that is neither symmetric nor gauge-invariant. In a prior work [Phys. Rev. D 106, 125012 (2022)], I had obtained a symmetric and gauge-invariant EMT by using Noether’s second theorem instead, with local spacetime translations as the symmetry group. However, the derivation therein was flawed, containing a faulty assumption about the transformation rule for spinor fields. In this work, I revisit the derivation of the previous work, both correcting the faulty step and simplifying the derivation for broader accessibility. The end result is an EMT for quantum chromodynamics that is gauge-invariant, but not symmetric.

Quantum chromodynamics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Modular flow in JT gravity and entanglement wedge reconstruction

It has been shown in recent works that JT gravity with matter with two boundaries has a type II ∞ algebra on each side. As the bulk spacetime between the two boundaries fluctuates in quantum nature, we can only define the entanglement wedge for each side in a pure algebraic sense. As we take the semiclassical limit, we will have a fixed long wormhole spacetime for a generic partially entangled thermal state (PETS), which is prepared by inserting heavy operators on the Euclidean path integral. Under this limit, with appropriate assumptions of the matter theory, geometric notions of the causal wedge and entanglement wedge emerge in this background. In particular, the causal wedge is manifestly nested in the entanglement wedge. Different PETS are orthogonal to each other, and thus the Hilbert space has a direct sum structure over sub-Hilbert spaces labeled by different Euclidean geometries. The full algebra for both sides is decomposed accordingly. From the algebra viewpoint, the causal wedge is dual to an emergent type III 1 subalgebra, which is generated by boundary light operators. To reconstruct the entanglement wedge, we consider the modular flow in a generic PETS for each boundary. We show that the modular flow acts locally and is the boost transformation around the global RT surface in the semiclassical limit. It follows that we can extend the causal wedge algebra to a larger type III 1 algebra corresponding to the entanglement wedge. Within each sub-Hilbert space, the original type II ∞ reduces to type III 1 .

2D Gravity↗
DOE OSTI2024

Algebraic ER=EPR and complexity transfer

We propose an algebraic definition of ER=EPR in the G N → 0 limit, which associates bulk spacetime connectivity/disconnectivity to the operator algebraic structure of a quantum gravity system. The new formulation not only includes information on the amount of entanglement, but also more importantly the structure of entanglement. We give an independent definition of a quantum wormhole as part of the proposal. This algebraic version of ER=EPR sheds light on a recent puzzle regarding spacetime disconnectivity in holographic systems with $\mathcal{O}$(1/G N ) entanglement. We discuss the emergence of quantum connectivity in the context of black hole evaporation and further argue that at the Page time, the black hole-radiation system undergoes a transition involving the transfer of an emergent type III 1 subalgebra of high complexity operators from the black hole to radiation. We argue this is a general phenomenon that occurs whenever there is an exchange of dominance between two competing quantum extremal surfaces.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Spacetime foam: a review

More than 65 years ago, John Wheeler suggested that quantum uncertainties of the metric would be of order one at the Planck scale, leading to large fluctuations in spacetime geometry and topology, which he termed ‘spacetime foam.’ In this review I discuss various attempts to implement this idea and to test it, both theoretically and, to a lesser extent, observationally.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2026

Unveiling horizons in quantum critical collapse

Critical gravitational collapse offers a unique window into regimes of arbitrarily high curvature, culminating in a naked singularity arising from smooth initial data — thus providing a dynamical counterexample to weak cosmic censorship. Near the critical regime, quantum effects from the collapsing matter are expected to intervene before full quantum gravity resolves the singularity. Despite its fundamental significance, a self-consistent treatment has so far remained elusive. In this work, we perform a one-loop semiclassical analysis using the robust anomaly-based method in the canonical setup of Einstein gravity minimally coupled to a free, massless scalar field. Focusing on explicitly solvable near-critical solutions in both 2 + 1 and 3 + 1 dimensions, we analytically solve the semiclassical Einstein equations and obtain controlled, quantitative results for several long-standing questions within the dominant s-wave sector. We find that regularity uniquely selects a Boulware-like quantum state, encoding genuine vacuum polarization effects from the collapsing matter. Remarkably, the resulting quantum corrections manifest as a growing mode. Horizon-tracing analyses, incorporating both classical and quantum modes, reveal the emergence of a finite mass gap, signaling a phase transition from classical Type II to quantum-modified Type I behavior, thereby providing a quantum enforcement of the weak cosmic censorship. The most non-trivial aspect of our analysis involves dealing with non-conformal matter fields in explicitly time-dependent critical spacetimes. Along the way, we uncover intriguing and previously underexplored features of quantum field theory in curved spacetime.

2D Gravity↗
DOE OSTI2025

Nonperturbative quantum gravity in a closed Lorentzian universe

We study how meaningful physical predictions can arise in nonperturbative quantum gravity in a closed Lorentzian universe. In such settings, recent developments suggest that the quantum gravitational Hilbert space is one-dimensional and real for each α-sector, as induced by spacetime wormholes. This appears to obstruct the conventional quantum-mechanical prescription of assigning probabilities via projection onto a basis of states. While previous approaches have introduced external observers or augmented the theory to resolve this issue, we argue that quantum gravity itself contains all the necessary ingredients to make physical predictions. We demonstrate that the emergence of classical observables and probabilistic outcomes can be understood as a consequence of partial observability: physical observers access only a subsystem of the universe. Tracing out the inaccessible degrees of freedom yields reduced density matrices that encode classical information, with uncertainties exponentially suppressed by the environment’s entropy. We develop this perspective using both the Lorentzian path integral and operator formalisms and support it with a simple microscopic model. Our results show that quantum gravity in a closed universe naturally gives rise to meaningful, robust predictions without recourse to external constructs.

AdS-CFT Correspondence↗
DOE OSTI2025

Cosmological perturbations from a new approach to inflation

In a previous paper, we proposed a new approach to the beginning of inflation—a lingering universe [Melcher et al. Phys. Rev. D 110, 063517 (2024).]—that is a quasistatic phase prior to inflation. The Universe begins in a lingering state with a nearly vanishing Hubble parameter. This calls into question the absolute age of the Universe, as the Hubble time can be nearly infinite. It also provides promise for addressing the initial singularity of inflation and issues with quantum field theory in de Sitter spacetime. Such models arise in classical cosmologies with nonvanishing spatial curvature (inspired by PLANCK 2018 data) and independently by models that arise in string cosmology. Here, in this paper, we consider the importance of cosmological perturbations for the stability of the lingering phase and how this influences cosmological observations. Our goal is to establish observables in this new paradigm for the origin of inflation, which is in contrast to eternal inflation and cyclic cosmologies. We also address questions of stability and the transition to inflation.

cosmology↗
DOE OSTI2025

Geometric origin of the energy-momentum tensor improvement terms

In a flat background, the canonical energy momentum tensor of Lorentz and conformally invariant matter field theories can be improved to a symmetric and traceless tensor that gives the same conserved charges. We argue that the geometric origin of this improvement process is unveiled when the matter theory is coupled to metric-affine gravity. In particular, we show that the Belinfante-Rosenfeld improvement terms correspond to the matter theory’s hypermomentum. The improvement terms in conformally invariant matter theories are also related to the hypermomentum; however, a general proof would require an extended investigation. We demonstrate our results through various examples, such as the free massless scalar, the Maxwell field, Abelian p-forms, the Dirac field, and a nonunitary massless scalar field. Possible applications of our method for theories that break Lorentz or special conformal invariance are briefly discussed.

classical solutions in field theory↗
DOE OSTI2025

Celestial Quantum Error Correction. Part II. From qudits to celestial CFT

A holographic CFT description of asymptotically flat spacetimes inherits vacuum degeneracies and IR divergences from its gravitational dual. We devise a Quantum Error Correcting (QEC) framework to encode both effects as correctable fluctuations on the CFT dual. The framework is physically motivated by embedding a chain of qudits in the so-called Klein spacetime and then taking a continuum 𝑁 → ∞ limit. At finite 𝑁 the qudit chain 1) enjoys a discrete version of celestial symmetries and 2) supports a Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) code. The limit results in hard states with quantized BMS hair in the celestial torus forming the logical subspace, robust under errors induced by soft radiation. Technically, the construction leverages the recently studied 𝑤 1+∞ hierarchy of soft currents and its realization from a sigma model in twistor space.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗