Research Papers (JVN)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://localhost:4000/handle/11007/400
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Item Quantum conformal fluctuations in a singular spacetime(Nature Publishing Group, 1982-02-25) Padmanabhan, T.; Narlikar, J. V.The cosmological solutions of Einstein's general relativistic equations lead inevitably to space-time singularities. However, general relativity is only an approximation to a fully quantized theory of gravity and we need to consider whether singularity persists in the quantum domain. Although a full quantum theory of gravity has not yet been developed, we show here that the above question can be tackled in a simplified model where only the conformal degree of freedom is quantized. Previous applications of this technique had shown that in specific cases the quantum conformai fluctuations (QCF) from the classical solutions diverge at the classical singularity, thus rendering the classical solution physically meaningless. Recently one of us (J.V.N. ref. 4) has generalized this result to cover all dust cosmologies. Here we show that this conclusion is applicable to even more general types of cosmological singularities.Item Quantum fluctuations in the conformally flat and the Schwarzschild spacetimes(Springer, 1981-01-12) Padmanabhan, T.; Narlikar, J. V.A general technique is described for dealing with the quantum fluctuations between conformally flat space-times. The second part of the paper deals with the Schwarzschild spacetime. It is shown there that this space-time is stable against fluctuations of mass, but transitions between two space-times of different masses can be obtained via conformal fluctuations. Purely conformal fluctuations of the Schwarzschild metric are, however, damped at the event horizon. Similar conclusions are drawn about the Reissner-Nordstrom space-time.