Stochastic Gravity: Theory and Applications

Functional Formulation of Quantum Theory of a Scalar Field in a Metric with Lorentzian and Euclidean Signatures

We study the Schrödinger equation in quantum field theory (QFT) in its functional formulation. In this approach, quantum correlation functions can be expressed as classical expectation values over (complex) stochastic processes. We obtain a stochastic representation of the Schrödinger time evolution on Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) states by means of the Wiener integral. We discuss QFT in a flat expanding metric and in de Sitter space-time. We calculate the evolution kernel in an expanding flat metric in the real-time formulation. We discuss a field interaction in pseudoRiemannian and Riemannian metrics showing that an inversion of the signature leads to some substantial simplifications of the singularity problems in QFT.

Past-directed scalar field gradients and scalar-tensor thermodynamics

We refine and slightly enlarge the recently proposed first-order thermodynamics of scalar-tensor gravity to include gravitational scalar fields with timelike and past-directed gradients. The implications and subtleties arising in this situation are discussed and an exact cosmological solution of scalar-tensor theory in first-order thermodynamics is revisited in light of these results.

Analog model for quantum gravity effects: phonons in random fluids

We describe an analog model for quantum gravity effects in condensed matter physics. The situation discussed is that of phonons propagating in a fluid with a random velocity wave equation. We consider that there are random fluctuations in the reciprocal of the bulk modulus of the system and study free phonons in the presence of Gaussian colored noise with zero mean. We show that, in this model, after performing the random averages over the noise function a free conventional scalar quantum field theory describing free phonons becomes a self-interacting model.

Fokker-Planck-type equations for a simple gas and for a semirelativistic Brownian motion from a relativistic kinetic theory

A covariant Fokker-Planck-type equation for a simple gas and an equation for the Brownian motion are derived from a relativistic kinetic theory based on the Boltzmann equation. For the simple gas the dynamic friction four-vector and the diffusion tensor are identified and written in terms of integrals which take into account the collision processes. In the case of Brownian motion, the Brownian particles are considered as nonrelativistic, whereas the background gas behaves as a relativistic gas. A general expression for the semirelativistic viscous friction coefficient is obtained and the particular case of constant differential cross section is analyzed for which the nonrelativistic and ultrarelativistic limiting cases are calculated.