Evolution of confined quantum scalar fields in curved spacetime. Part II

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method for calculating how confined quantum scalar fields evolve in curved spacetime, especially useful for small perturbations and resonances, with applications to the Dynamical Casimir Effect and gravitational wave resonance.

Contribution

It develops a differential equation-based method for computing Bogoliubov transformations in dynamic, confined quantum fields within curved spacetime, extending previous approaches to non-static boundaries.

Findings

Reproduces known results on the Dynamical Casimir Effect and gravitational wave resonance.

Provides a unified framework for analyzing resonances in confined quantum fields.

Demonstrates the method's effectiveness in perturbative regimes for small boundary and metric changes.

Abstract

We develop a method for computing the Bogoliubov transformation experienced by a confined quantum scalar field in a globally hyperbolic spacetime, due to the changes in the geometry and/or the confining boundaries. The method constructs a basis of solutions to the Klein-Gordon equation associated to each compact Cauchy hypersurface of constant time. It then provides a differential equation for the linear transformation between bases at different times. The transformation can be interpreted physically as a Bogoliubov transformation when it connects two regions in which a time symmetry allows for a Fock quantisation. This second article on the method is dedicated to spacetimes with timelike boundaries that do not remain static in any synchronous gauge. The method proves especially useful in the regime of small perturbations, where it allows one to easily make quantitative predictions on the amplitude of the resonances of the field. Therefore, it provides a crucial tool in the growing research area of confined quantum fields in table-top experiments. We prove this utility by addressing two problems in the perturbative regime: Dynamical Casimir Effect and gravitational wave resonance. We reproduce many previous results on these phenomena and find novel results in an unified way. Possible extensions of the method are indicated. We expect that our method will become standard in quantum field theory for confined fields.