Pith. sign in

REVIEW 7 cited by

On Vacuum Fluctuations in Quantum Gravity and Interferometer Arm Fluctuations

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 2012.05870 v2 pith:ZEVMUGGC submitted 2020-12-10 hep-th gr-qc

classification hep-thgr-qc
keywords fluctuationsvacuumareadeltagravitylanglemodelquantum
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
0 comments
abstract

We propose a simple model of spacetime vacuum fluctuations motivated by AdS/CFT, where the vacuum is described by a thermal density matrix, $\rho = \frac{e^{-K}}{\mbox{Tr}(e^{-K})}$ with $K$ the modular Hamiltonian. In AdS/CFT, both the expectation value of $K$ and its fluctuations $\langle \Delta K^2 \rangle$ have been calculated; both obey an area law identical to the Bekenstein-Hawking area law of black hole mechanics: $\langle K \rangle = \langle \Delta K^2 \rangle = \frac{A}{4 G_N}$, where $A$ is the area of an (extremal) entangling surface. It has also been shown that $\Delta K$ gravitates in AdS, and hence generates metric fluctuations. These theoretical results are intriguing, but it is not known how to precisely extend such ideas about holographic quantum gravity to ordinary flat space. We take the approach of considering whether experimental signatures in metric fluctuations could determine properties of the vacuum of quantum gravity in flat space. In particular, we propose a theoretical model motived by the AdS/CFT calculations that reproduces the most important features of modular Hamiltonian fluctuations; the model consists of a high occupation number bosonic degree of freedom. We show that if this theory couples through ordinary gravitational couplings to the mirrors in an interferometer with strain sensitivity similar to what will be available for gravitational waves, vacuum fluctuations could be observable.

Discussion (0). Sign in to comment.

Forward citations

Cited by 7 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Quantum Geometry from Area Fluctuations

    hep-th 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 6.0 of 10

    Derives a thermal fluctuation formula for causal-diamond boundary area with a linear term of Verlinde-Zurek scaling interpreted as statistical evidence for discrete quanta of geometry.

  2. High-Frequency Thermal Noise in Michelson Interferometers

    physics.ins-det 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 6.0 of 10

    New general models for substrate and coating mechanical, thermoelastic, and thermorefractive noise in Michelson interferometers at high frequencies, validated against prior low-frequency models and Holometer data, the...

  3. Geometric noise spectrum in interferometers

    hep-th 2026-01 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    The noise spectrum an interferometer would see from quantum spacetime jitter is computed for vacuum, thermal, squeezed, and scalar-backreaction states; all are Planck-suppressed.

  4. Quantum Fluctuations of the Black Hole Horizon

    hep-th 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0 of 10

    Quantum width of spherically symmetric black hole horizons is defined by signal escape timing and calculated in perturbative quantum gravity to often greatly exceed the Planck length, scaling as sqrt(l_P r_s^2 / sigma...

  5. Matter-Wave Interferometers as Open-System Dark Matter Detectors

    hep-ph 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 5.0 of 10

    The paper formulates dark matter detection in matter-wave interferometers as an open-system problem using Schwinger-Keldysh effective field theory, revealing channel asymmetries and Bose/Pauli factors for elastic scattering.

  6. Geometric noise spectrum in interferometers

    hep-th 2026-01 unverdicted novelty 5.0 of 10

    Computes UV-finite noise spectra in interferometers from graviton fluctuations in vacuum/thermal/squeezed states and from massless scalar vacuum stress-energy, all Planck-suppressed.

  7. Response of interferometers to the vacuum of quantum gravity

    hep-th 2024-09 unverdicted novelty 5.0 of 10

    Standard low-energy quantum gravity via effective graviton QFT predicts interferometer length variations of order the Planck length (~10^{-35} m), with no divergences indicating breakdown.

Pith tools