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Quantum fluctuations of vacuum stress tensors and spacetime curvatures
Author(s) -
Jaekel MarcThierry,
Reynaud Serge
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
annalen der physik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.009
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1521-3889
pISSN - 0003-3804
DOI - 10.1002/andp.19955070108
Subject(s) - physics , spacetime , quantum field theory in curved spacetime , curvature , quantum fluctuation , geodesic , classical mechanics , massless particle , spacetime symmetries , stationary spacetime , quantum , quantum mechanics , mathematical physics , quantum gravity , geometry , mathematics
We analyze the quantum fluctuations of vacuum stress tensors and spacetime curvatures, using the framework of linear response theory which connects these fluctuations to dissipation mechanisms arising when stress tensors and spacetime metric are coupled. Vacuum fluctuations of spacetime curvatures are shown to be a sum of two contributions at lowest orders; the first one corresponds to vacuum gravitational waves and is restricted to light‐like wavevectors and vanishing Einstein curvature, while the second one arises from gravity of vacuum stress tensors. From these fluctuations, we deduce noise spectra for geodesic deviations registered by probe fields which determine ultimate limits in length or time measurements. In particular, a relation between noise spectra characterizing spacetime fluctuations and the number of massless neutrino fields is obtained.