Polymer quantization of the Einstein-Rosen wormhole throat

Gabor Kunstatter, Jorma Louko, and Ari Peltola
Phys. Rev. D 81, 024034 – Published 22 January 2010

Abstract

We present a polymer quantization of spherically symmetric Einstein gravity in which the polymerized variable is the area of the Einstein-Rosen wormhole throat. In the classical polymer theory, the singularity is replaced by a bounce at a radius that depends on the polymerization scale. In the polymer quantum theory, we show numerically that the area spectrum is evenly spaced and in agreement with a Bohr-Sommerfeld semiclassical estimate, and this spectrum is not qualitatively sensitive to issues of factor ordering or boundary conditions except in the lowest few eigenvalues. In the limit of small polymerization scale we recover, within the numerical accuracy, the area spectrum obtained from a Schrödinger quantization of the wormhole throat dynamics. The prospects of recovering from the polymer throat theory a full quantum-corrected spacetime are discussed.

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  • Received 26 October 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.81.024034

©2010 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Gabor Kunstatter1,*, Jorma Louko2,†, and Ari Peltola1,‡

  • 1Department of Physics, The University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 2E9
  • 2School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom

  • *g.kunstatter@uwinnipeg.ca
  • jorma.louko@nottingham.ac.uk
  • a.peltola-ra@uwinnipeg.ca

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Vol. 81, Iss. 2 — 15 January 2010

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