B GR vs quantum vacuum Lorentz invariance

mieral
Messages
203
Reaction score
5
is spacetime Lorentz invariant like the quantum vacuum?

They say the quantum vacuum is Lorentz invariant.. you can't locate it at any place.. but if spacetime manifold is also Lorentz invariant and you can't locate it at any place.. how come the Earth can curve the spacetime around the Earth and not some exoplanet light years away.

And if spacetime is not Lorentz invariant like vacuum, then what are the limited invariance it obeys and how do you make it Lorentz invariant?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
mieral said:
is spacetime Lorentz invariant like the quantum vacuum?

Spacetime is locally Lorentz invariant like the quantum vacuum, yes.

mieral said:
They say the quantum vacuum is Lorentz invariant.. you can't locate it at any place

That's not local Lorentz invariance, that's global translation invariance. Whether global translation invariance holds depends on the spacetime geometry; it's not an intrinsic property of the quantum vacuum.

mieral said:
how come the Earth can curve the spacetime around the Earth and not some exoplanet light years away

Because the spacetime geometry due to the Earth is not globally translation invariant; it looks different at different places.
 
PeterDonis said:
Spacetime is locally Lorentz invariant like the quantum vacuum, yes.
That's not local Lorentz invariance, that's global translation invariance. Whether global translation invariance holds depends on the spacetime geometry; it's not an intrinsic property of the quantum vacuum.

a) What kind of spacetime geometry has global translation invariance?

b) Is the quantum vacuum inside spacetime? Or is spacetime inside the quantum vacuum?

c) One has global translation invariance.. the other hasn't. Shouldn't it be consistent they should have a symmetry much like electric/magnetic field, space/time, etc.?

d) Is there a transformation that can transform spacetime to quantum vacuum and quantum vacuum into spacetime.. is this one of the goals of quantum gravity?

Because the spacetime geometry due to the Earth is not globally translation invariant; it looks different at different places.
 
mieral said:
What kind of spacetime geometry has global translation invariance?

Minkowski spacetime is the simplest example. If we limit it to space translations, any homogeneous spacetime, i.e., all of the FRW spacetimes used in cosmology.

mieral said:
Is the quantum vacuum inside spacetime? Or is spacetime inside the quantum vacuum?

Mu. (The question is not well posed so it doesn't have a well-defined answer.)

mieral said:
One has global translation invariance.. the other hasn't.

Where are you getting that from?

mieral said:
Is there a transformation that can transform spacetime to quantum vacuum and quantum vacuum into spacetime

I don't understand what such a thing would mean.
 
OK, so this has bugged me for a while about the equivalence principle and the black hole information paradox. If black holes "evaporate" via Hawking radiation, then they cannot exist forever. So, from my external perspective, watching the person fall in, they slow down, freeze, and redshift to "nothing," but never cross the event horizon. Does the equivalence principle say my perspective is valid? If it does, is it possible that that person really never crossed the event horizon? The...
From $$0 = \delta(g^{\alpha\mu}g_{\mu\nu}) = g^{\alpha\mu} \delta g_{\mu\nu} + g_{\mu\nu} \delta g^{\alpha\mu}$$ we have $$g^{\alpha\mu} \delta g_{\mu\nu} = -g_{\mu\nu} \delta g^{\alpha\mu} \,\, . $$ Multiply both sides by ##g_{\alpha\beta}## to get $$\delta g_{\beta\nu} = -g_{\alpha\beta} g_{\mu\nu} \delta g^{\alpha\mu} \qquad(*)$$ (This is Dirac's eq. (26.9) in "GTR".) On the other hand, the variation ##\delta g^{\alpha\mu} = \bar{g}^{\alpha\mu} - g^{\alpha\mu}## should be a tensor...
ASSUMPTIONS 1. Two identical clocks A and B in the same inertial frame are stationary relative to each other a fixed distance L apart. Time passes at the same rate for both. 2. Both clocks are able to send/receive light signals and to write/read the send/receive times into signals. 3. The speed of light is anisotropic. METHOD 1. At time t[A1] and time t[B1], clock A sends a light signal to clock B. The clock B time is unknown to A. 2. Clock B receives the signal from A at time t[B2] and...
Back
Top