Quantum Hair from Gravity

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that quantum gravitational effects create a form of quantum hair, linking the asymptotic graviton state to the internal structure of matter sources, revealing new quantum features of gravity.

Contribution

It establishes a direct relationship between matter source states and their asymptotic graviton states, highlighting a quantum gravitational effect that encodes internal source structure.

Findings

Graviton states are determined by the energy eigenvalues of matter sources.

A one-to-one map exists between boundary graviton states and matter source states without degeneracies.

Quantum hair arises from subleading asymptotic behavior of graviton states depending on source structure.

Abstract

We explore the relationship between the quantum state of a compact matter source and of its asymptotic graviton field. For a matter source in an energy eigenstate, the graviton state is determined at leading order by the energy eigenvalue. Insofar as there are no accidental energy degeneracies there is a one to one map between graviton states on the boundary of spacetime and the matter source states. A typical semiclassical matter source results in an entangled asymptotic graviton state. We exhibit a purely quantum gravitational effect which causes the subleading asymptotic behavior of the graviton state to depend on the internal structure of the source. These observations establish the existence of ubiquitous quantum hair due to gravitational effects.