Nonlocal effective actions in semiclassical gravity: thermal effects in stationary geometries
arXiv:1709.10435 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.96.105007
Abstract
We compute the gravitational effective action by integrating out quantum matter fields in a weak gravitational field, using the Schwinger-Keldysh (in-in) formalism. We pay particular attention to the role of the initial quantum state in the structure of the nonlocal terms in the effective action, with an eye to nonlinear completions of the theory that may be relevant in astrophysics and cosmology. In this first paper we consider a quantum scalar field in thermal equilibrium, in a stationary gravitational field. We obtain a covariant expression for the nonlocal effective action, that can be expressed in terms of the curvature tensor, the four-velocity of the thermal bath and the local Tolman temperature. We discuss the connection between the results for ultrastatic and static metrics through conformal transformations, and the main features of the thermal corrections to the semiclassical Einstein equations.
arXiv commentTypos corrected. References added. Version to appear in Phys. Rev. D
References in corpus (26)
- Nonlocal Cosmology
- Modified non-local-F(R) gravity as the key for the inflation and dark energy
- Cosmological perturbations and structure formation in nonlocal infrared modifications of general relativity
- Non-local gravity and dark energy
- Dynamics of Nonlocal Cosmology
- Stochastic Gravity: Theory and Applications
- Phantom and non-phantom dark energy: The cosmological relevance of non-locally corrected gravity
- Semiclassical Equations for Weakly Inhomogeneous Cosmologies
- Non-local quantum effects in cosmology 1: Quantum memory, non-local FLRW equations and singularity avoidance
- A non-local theory of massive gravity
- Generalised Quadratic Curvature, Non-Local Infrared Modifications of Gravity and Newtonian Potentials
- Thermal time and the Tolman-Ehrenfest effect: temperature as the "speed of time"
- Nonlocal Effective Gravitational Field Equations and the Running of Newton's G
- Non-equilibrium dynamics of a thermal plasma in a gravitational field
- Finite temperature nonlocal effective action for quantum fields in curved space
- On the covariant formalism of the effective field theory of gravity and leading order corrections
- Running Coupling Constants, Newtonian Potential and non localities in the Effective Action
- Vacuum polarization around stars: nonlocal approximation
- Perturbative loop corrections and nonlocal gravity
- Low energy Quantum Gravity from the Effective Average Action
- Running of Newton's constant and non integer powers of the d'Alembertian
- Stability analysis and future singularity of the model of non-local gravity
- Conformal symmetry and nonlinear extensions of nonlocal gravity
- On the covariant formalism of the effective field theory of gravity and its cosmological implications
- High-temperature expansion of the one-loop free energy of a scalar field on a curved background
- Covariant perturbation theory and the Randall-Sundrum picture