Quantum Geometry of the Light Cone: Fock representation and Spectrum of Radiated Power

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wieland, Wolfgang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912329078145024
author Wieland, Wolfgang
author_facet Wieland, Wolfgang
contents Starting from the symplectic potential for the $γ$-Palatini--Holst action on a null hypersurface, we identify an auxiliary conformal field theory (CFT), which carries a representation of the constraint algebra of general relativity on a null surface. The radiative data, which is encoded into the shear of each null generator, is mapped into an $SU(1,1)$ current algebra on each light ray. We study the resulting quantum theory for both bosonic and fermionic representations. In the fermionic representation, the central charge on each null ray is positive, for bosons it is negative. A negative central charge implies a non-unitary CFT, which has negative norm states. In the model, there is a natural $SU(1,1)$ Casimir. For the bosonic representations, the $SU(1,1)$ Casimir can have either sign. For the fermionic representations, the $SU(1,1)$ Casimir is always greater or equal to zero. To exclude negative norm states, we restrict ourselves to the fermionic case. To understand the physical implications of this restriction, we express the $SU(1,1)$ Casimir in terms of the geometric data. In this way, the positivity bound on the $SU(1,1)$ Casimir translates into an upper bound for the shear of each null generator. In the model, this bound must be satisfied for all three-dimensional null hypersurfaces. This in turn suggests to apply it to an entire null foliation in an asymptotically flat spacetime. In this way, we obtain a bound on the radiated power of gravitational waves in the model.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_10802
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quantum Geometry of the Light Cone: Fock representation and Spectrum of Radiated Power
Wieland, Wolfgang
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Quantum Physics
Starting from the symplectic potential for the $γ$-Palatini--Holst action on a null hypersurface, we identify an auxiliary conformal field theory (CFT), which carries a representation of the constraint algebra of general relativity on a null surface. The radiative data, which is encoded into the shear of each null generator, is mapped into an $SU(1,1)$ current algebra on each light ray. We study the resulting quantum theory for both bosonic and fermionic representations. In the fermionic representation, the central charge on each null ray is positive, for bosons it is negative. A negative central charge implies a non-unitary CFT, which has negative norm states. In the model, there is a natural $SU(1,1)$ Casimir. For the bosonic representations, the $SU(1,1)$ Casimir can have either sign. For the fermionic representations, the $SU(1,1)$ Casimir is always greater or equal to zero. To exclude negative norm states, we restrict ourselves to the fermionic case. To understand the physical implications of this restriction, we express the $SU(1,1)$ Casimir in terms of the geometric data. In this way, the positivity bound on the $SU(1,1)$ Casimir translates into an upper bound for the shear of each null generator. In the model, this bound must be satisfied for all three-dimensional null hypersurfaces. This in turn suggests to apply it to an entire null foliation in an asymptotically flat spacetime. In this way, we obtain a bound on the radiated power of gravitational waves in the model.
title Quantum Geometry of the Light Cone: Fock representation and Spectrum of Radiated Power
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.10802