Vacuum energy as spectral geometry

DOI10.3842/SIGMA.2007.094MaRDI QIDQ2473498zbMATH OpenFDO

Publication date 27 February 2008

Published in SIGMA. Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0706.2831, https://eudml.org/doc/54405, http://www.emis.de/journals/SIGMA/2007/094/

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zbMATH Keywords

quantum systems spectral geometry vacuum energy

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General topics in linear spectral theory for PDEs (35P05) Dynamical systems in other branches of physics (quantum mechanics, general relativity, laser physics) (37N20) Spectral problems; spectral geometry; scattering theory on manifolds (58J50) Selfadjoint operator theory in quantum theory, including spectral analysis (81Q10)

Abstract: Quantum vacuum energy (Casimir energy) is reviewed for a mathematical audience as a topic in spectral theory. Then some one-dimensional systems are solved exactly, in terms of closed classical paths and periodic orbits. The relations among local spectral densities, energy densities, global eigenvalue densities, and total energies are demonstrated. This material provides background and motivation for the treatment of higher-dimensional systems (self-adjoint second-order partial differential operators) by semiclassical approximation and other methods.

Review text

The author aims to represent vacuum energy of quantum mechanical systems as a spectral geometric property of the Hamiltonian operator. More precisely, he aims to prove the connections between closed orbits, spectral densities, and vacuum energy densities. After a short introduction the paper splits into three more sections. 2. Vacuum energy (and energy density) in general. 3. Vacuum energy in a vector bundle from periodic orbits. 4. Boundary vacuum energy from closed periodic orbits. The main purpose of this article is to demonstrate the above mentioned spectral geometric representation in the simplest one-dimensional models in detail. However, the author claims that a more complete discussion considering vacuum energy in quantum graphs is planned to be published. Reviewer's remark: This is a problematic paper that tries to connect vacuum energy with spectral geometry. However, it is necessary to underline that, in a generic quantum system, the starting point should be a quantum PDE, i.e., a dynamic equation formulated in a suitable category of noncommutative manifolds (quantum manifolds). Thus the ``vacuum energy of a solution, of such a quantum PDE, should be interpreted as the lowest energy of that solution. If the solution has a mass-gap, then such '``vacuum energy coincides with the mass-energy of the solution. (So for solutions without mass-gap it should be more appropriate to talk about ``vacuum energy.) The energy spectrum of a solution is the one identified by the quantum Hamiltonian associated to the solution. With this respect, the problem arising in this paper, to use spectral geometry as a tool that should justify a quantum dynamics, is ignored. In fact, there the quantum dynamics is simulated by some classical PDE's whose role is, in general, unjustified in the framework of quantum systems.

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