Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Scientific paper
2007-01-27
Class.Quant.Grav.24:3377-3390,2007
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
14 pages, 1 figure; extensive revisions
Scientific paper
10.1088/0264-9381/24/13/014
We study a broad class of spacetimes whose metric coefficients reduce to powers of a radius r in the limit of small r. Among these four-parameter "power-law" metrics we identify those parameters for which the spacetimes have classical singularities as r approaches 0. We show that a large set of such classically singular spacetimes is nevertheless nonsingular quantum mechanically, in that the Hamiltonian operator is essentially self-adjoint, so that the evolution of quantum wave packets lacks the ambiguity associated with scattering off singularities. Using these metrics, the broadest class yet studied to compare classical with quantum singularities, we explore the physical reasons why some that are singular classically are "healed" quantum mechanically, while others are not. We show that most (but not all) of the remaining quantum-mechanically singular spacetimes can be excluded if either the weak energy condition or the dominant energy condition is invoked, and we briefly discuss the effect of this work on the strong cosmic censorship hypothesis.
Helliwell Thomas M.
Konkowski Deborah A.
No associations
LandOfFree
Quantum healing of classical singularities in power-law spacetimes does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Quantum healing of classical singularities in power-law spacetimes, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Quantum healing of classical singularities in power-law spacetimes will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-493574