Quantum Mechanics of a Spherically Symmetric Causal Diamond in Minkowski Spacetime
We construct the phase space of a spherically symmetric causal diamond in (d+2)-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. Utilizing the covariant phase space formalism, we identify the relevant degrees of freedom that localize to the d-dimensional bifurcate horizon and, upon canonical quantization, determine their commutators. On this phase space, we find two Iyer-Wald charges. The first of these charges, proportional to the area of the causal diamond, is responsible for shifting the null time along the horizon and has been well documented in the literature. The second charge is much less understood, being integrable for d≥2 only if we allow for field-dependent diffeomorphisms and is responsible for changing the size of the causal diamond.
Authors
- Temple He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2873-3746)
- Kathryn M. Zurek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2629-337X)
- Prahar Mitra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8518-9399)
- Mathew W. Bub (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4251-0845)
- Yiwen Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2355-9416)
Institutions
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2025-03-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.134.121501
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.35
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Simons Foundation
- Heising-Simons Foundation
- Office of Science
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- European Research Council
- High Energy Physics