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Neutrino oscillations at the highest energies and longest baselines provide a natural quantum interferometer with which to study the structure of spacetime and test the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics. If the metric of spacetime has a quantum mechanical description, there is a generic expectation that its fluctuations at the Planck scale would introduce non-unitary effects that are inconsistent with the standard unitary time evolution of quantum mechanics. Neutrinos interacting with such fluctuations would lose their quantum coherence, deviating from the expected oscillatory flavor composition at long distances and high energies. The IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory is a billion-ton neutrino telescope situated in the deep ice of the Antarctic glacier. Atmospheric neutrinos detected by IceCube in the energy range 0.5--10 TeV have been used to test for coherence loss in neutrino propagation. No evidence of anomalous neutrino decoherence was observed, leading to the strongest experimental limits on neutrino-quantum gravity interactions to date, significantly surpassing expectations from natural Planck-scale models. The resulting constraint on the effective decoherence strength parameter within an energy-independent decoherence model is $\Gamma_0\leq 1.17\times10^{-15}$~eV, improving upon past limits by a factor of 30. For decoherence effects scaling as E$^2$, limits are advanced by more than six orders of magnitude beyond past measurements.

The phase transition patterns displayed by a model of two coupled complex scalar fields are studied at finite temperature and chemical potential. Possible phenomena like symmetry persistence and inverse symmetry breaking at high temperatures are analyzed. The effect of finite density is also considered and studied in combination with the thermal effects. The nonperturbative optimized perturbation theory method is considered and the results contrasted with perturbation theory. Applications of the results obtained are considered in the context of an effective model for condensation of kaons at high densities, which is of importance in the understanding of the color-flavor locked phase of quantum chromodynamics.

A new kind of duality has been proposed by Carr related to the quantum description of black holes, the so-called Compton/Schwarzschild duality \citeCarr:2015nqa. In this context, a new form for a Generalized Uncertainty Principle has arisen, which must bring us an interesting new route to a quantum description of spacetime. In the present paper, we shall investigate the consequences of the Compton/Schwarzschild duality to black hole entropy. The results found out reinforce an interesting perspective on the relationship between black holes and quantum information theory that has been recently proposed in the literature: that black hole entropy can assume negative values at the final stage of black hole evaporation. Consequently, in the context of the quantum corrections to gravity proposed by the Compton/Schwarschild duality, the final state of a black hole might correspond to a quantum entangled state, in the place of a remnant.

We show that when considering a scalar field scattering in a gravitating cosmic string spacetime, the standard partial-wave approach's scattering amplitude is singular. In order to avoid the divergence caused by the spacetime asymptotically conical structure, we propose a modification of the asymptotic ansatz in the partial-wave formalism and find the corrections in the phase-shift and total scattering cross-section. We also developed a toy model for the spacetime metric of a cosmic string and showed how local interaction with the vortex gauge field affects the scalar field total cross-section. Then we apply this formalism to a Dirac field and show the explicit formula for the fermionic total cross-section. Finally, we study the scattering of bosonic and fermionic fields in the spacetime of an abelian and a nonabelian gravitating cosmic strings and show that the cross-sections have damped oscillations. In order to understand the origin of this behavior, we used the aforementioned toy model to show that the spacetime particular asymptotical structure causes the observed oscillations.

We propose a modification of the partial wave approach to deal with the relativistic quantum scattering of bosonic and fermionic particles in a class of models concerning gravitating cosmic string spacetimes. These spacetimes are characterized by the Minkowski line element at the center of the vortex, non-vanishing curvature at a finite distance from the center but with a conical structure far from the core. We find the correction in the partial wave expansion and the phase shift. Consequently, we show the explicit form of the scattering amplitude and the correction to the differential cross-section for a massive scalar field. We also implement our formalism in a toy model mimicking this class of gravitating cosmic string spacetime. Moreover, we discuss the procedure to apply this formalism to a massive Dirac field.

In this work, we consider that in energy scales greater than the Planck energy, the geometry, fundamental physical constants, as charge, mass, speed of light and Newtonian constant of gravitation, and matter fields will depend on the scale. This type of theory is known as Rainbow Gravity. We coupled the nonlinear electrodynamics to the Rainbow Gravity, defining a new mass function $M(r,\epsilon)$, such that we may formulate new classes of spherically symmetric regular black hole solutions, where the curvature invariants are well-behaved in all spacetime. The main differences between the General Relativity and our results in the the Rainbow gravity are: a) The intensity of the electric field is inversely proportional to the energy scale. The higher the energy scale, the lower the electric field intensity; b) the region where the strong energy condition (SEC) is violated decrease as the energy scale increase. The higher the energy scale, closer to the radial coordinate origin SEC is violated.

In this paper we review the AdS/BCFT proposal of T. Takayanagi for holographic description of systems with boundaries, in particular, boundary conformal field theories (BCFTs). Motivated by better understanding of the proposed duality we employ entanglement entropy as a probe of familiar properties of impurities and defects. Using the dual gravity description, we check that in two spacetime dimensions the impurity entropy does not depend on a particular state of the theory, which is a well-known CFT result. In three dimensions different, and not necessarily equivalent, definitions of the defect entropy can be given. We compute the entanglement entropy of a line defect at finite temperature and compare it with earlier calculations of the thermodynamical entropy. The results indicate that the entanglement entropy flows to the definition of the entropy as the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy associated to a portion of the black horizon, which we call impurity "shadow". Geometric configurations, which we discuss, provide examples of RG flows of the defect entropies. We outline the connection between the geometric picture of the RG flows and examples of lattice calculations. We also discuss some new generalizations of the AdS/BCFT geometries.

The measure of quantum entanglement is determined for any dimer, either ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic, spin-1/2 Heisenberg systems in the presence of external magnetic field. The physical quantity proposed as a measure of thermal quantum entanglement is the distance between states defined through the Hilbert-Schmidt norm. It has been shown that for ferromagnetic systems there is no entanglement at all. However, although under applied magnetic field, antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 dimers exhibit entanglement for temperatures below the decoherence temperature -- the one above which the entanglement vanishes. In addition to that, the decoherence temperature shows to be proportional to the exchange coupling constant and independent on the applied magnetic field, consequently, the entanglement may not be destroyed by external magnetic fields -- the phenomenon of \it magnetic shielding effect of quantum entanglement states. This effect is discussed for the binuclear nitrosyl iron complex [Fe$_2$(SC$_3$H$_5$N$_2$)$_2$(NO)$_4$] and it is foreseen that the quantum entanglement survives even under high magnetic fields of Tesla orders of magnitude.

If some energy conditions on the stress-energy tensor are violated, is possible construct regular black holes in General Relativity and in alternative theories of gravity. This type of solution has horizons but does not present singularities. The first regular black hole was presented by Bardeen and can be obtained from Einstein equations in the presence of an electromagnetic field. E. Ayon-Beato and A. Garcia reinterpreted the Bardeen metric as a magnetic solution of General Relativity coupled to a nonlinear electrodynamics. In this work show that the Bardeen model may also be interpreted as a solutions of Einstein equations in the presence of a electric source, whose electric field does not behaves as a Coulomb field. We analyzed the asymptotic forms of the Lagrangian for the electric case and also analyzed the energy conditions.

The contribution from quantum vacuum fluctuations of a real massless scalar field to the motion of a test particle that interacts with the field in the presence of a perfectly reflecting flat boundary is here investigated. There is no quantum induced dispersions on the motion of the particle when it is alone in the empty space. However, when a reflecting wall is introduced, dispersions occur with magnitude dependent on how fast the system evolves between the two scenarios. A possible way of implementing this process would be by means of an idealized sudden switching, for which the transition occurs instantaneously. Although the sudden process is a simple and mathematically convenient idealization it brings some divergences to the results, particularly at a time corresponding to a round trip of a light signal between the particle and the wall. It is shown that the use of smooth switching functions, besides regularizing such divergences, enables us to better understand the behavior of the quantum dispersions induced on the motion of the particle. Furthermore, the action of modifying the vacuum state of the system leads to a change in the particle energy that depends on how fast the transition between these states is implemented. Possible implications of these results to the similar case of an electric charge near a perfectly conducting wall are discussed.

We investigate the influence of the vacuum fluctuations of a background electric field over a charged test particle in the presence of a perfectly reflecting flat wall. A switching function connecting different stages of the system is implemented in such a way that its functional dependence is determined by the ratio between the measuring time and the switching duration. The dispersions of the velocity components of the particle are found to be smooth functions of time, and have maximum magnitudes for a measuring time corresponding to about one round trip of a light signal between the particle and the wall. Typical divergences reported in the literature and linked with an oversimplification in modeling this system are naturally regularized in our approach. Estimates suggest that this sort of manifestation of quantum vacuum fluctuations over the motion of the particle could be tested in laboratories.

In this paper, we first generalize the definition of stationary universal horizons to dynamical ones, and then show that (dynamical) universal horizons can be formed from realistic gravitational collapse. This is done by constructing analytical models of a collapsing spherically symmetric star with finite thickness in Einstein-aether theory.

In this paper, we study the existence of universal horizons in a given static spacetime, and find that the test khronon field can be solved explicitly when its velocity becomes infinitely large, at which point the universal horizon coincides with the sound horizon of the khronon. Choosing the timelike coordinate aligned with the khronon, the static metric takes a simple form, from which it can be seen clearly that the metric is free of singularity at the Killing horizon, but becomes singular at the universal horizon. Applying such developed formulas to three well-known black hole solutions, the Schwarzschild, Schwarzschild anti-de Sitter, and Reissner-Nordström, we find that in all these solutions universal horizons exist and are always inside the Killing horizons. In particular, in the Eddington-Finkelstein and Painleve-Gullstrand coordinates, in which the metrics are not singular when crossing both of the Killing and universal horizons, the peeling-off behavior of the khronon is found only at the universal horizons, whereby we show that the values of surface gravity of the universal horizons calculated from the peeling-off behavior of the khronon match with those obtained from the covariant definition given recently by Cropp, Liberati, Mohd and Visser.

A proposal to describe gravity duals of conformal theories with boundaries (AdS/BCFT correspondence) was put forward by Takayanagi few years ago. However interesting solutions describing field theories at finite temperature and charge density are still lacking. In this paper we describe a class of theories with boundary, which admit black hole type gravity solutions. The theories are specified by stress-energy tensors that reside on the extensions of the boundary to the bulk. From this perspective AdS/BCFT appears analogous to the fluid/gravity correspondence. Among the class of the boundary extensions there is a special (integrable) one, for which the stress-energy tensor is fluid-like. We discuss features of that special solution as well as its thermodynamic properties.

This work examines the finite temperature properties of the CPT-even and parity-odd electrodynamics of the standard model extension. We start from the partition function written into the functional integral formalism in Ref. \citeFinite. After specializing the Lorentz-violating tensor $ W_{\alpha \nu \rho \varphi}$ for the nonbirefringent and parity-odd coefficients, the partition function is explicitly carry out, showing that it is a power of the Maxwell's partition function. Also, it is observed that the LIV coefficients induce an anisotropy in the black body angular energy density distribution. The Planck's radiation law retains its usual frequency dependence and the Stefan-Boltzmann law keeps the same form, except for a global proportionality constant.

In this work, we examine the finite temperature properties of the CPT-even and Lorentz-invariance-violating (LIV) electrodynamics of the standard model extension, represented by the term $W_{\alpha \nu \rho \phi}F^{\alpha \nu}F^{\rho \phi}$. We begin analyzing the hamiltonian structure following the Dirac's procedure for constrained systems and construct a well-defined and gauge invariant partition function in the functional integral formalism. Next, we specialize for the non-birefringent coefficients of the tensor $W_{\alpha \nu \rho \phi}$. In the sequel, the partition function is explicitly carried out for the parity-even sector of the tensor $W_{\alpha \nu \rho \phi}$. The modified partition function is a power of the Maxwell's partition function. It is observed that the LIV coefficients induce an anisotropy in the black body angular energy density distribution. The Planck's radiation law, however, retains its frequency dependence and the Stefan-Boltzmann law keeps the usual form, except for a change in the Stefan-Boltzmann constant by a factor containing the LIV contributions.

Dynamical models of prototype gravastars were constructed in order to study their stability. The models are the Visser-Wiltshire three-layer gravastars, in which an infinitely thin spherical shell of stiff fluid divides the whole spacetime into two regions, where the internal region is de Sitter, and the external is Schwarzschild. It is found that in some cases the models represent the "bounded excursion" stable gravastars, in which the thin shell is oscillating between two finite radii, while in other cases they collapse until the formation of black holes. In the phase space, the region for the ``bounded excursion" gravastars is very small in comparison to that of black holes, but not empty. Therefore, although the existence of gravastars cannot be excluded from such dynamical models, our results do indicate that, even if gravastars indeed exist, they do not exclude the existence of black holes.

Topological charged black holes coupled with a cosmological constant in $R^{2}\times X^{D-2}$ spacetimes are studied, where $X^{D-2}$ is an Einstein space of the form ${}^{(D-2)}R_{AB} = k(D-3) h_{AB}$. The global structure for the four-dimensional spacetimes with $k = 0$ is investigated systematically. The most general solutions that represent a Type $II$ fluid in such a high dimensional spacetime are found, and showed that topological charged black holes can be formed from the gravitational collapse of such a fluid. When the spacetime is (asymptotically) self-similar, the collapse always forms black holes for $k = 0, -1$, in contrast to the case $k = 1$, where it can form either balck holes or naked singularities.

We study an extension of the symplectic formalism in order to quantize reducible systems. We show that a procedure like \it ghost-of-ghost of the BFV method can be applied in terms of Lagrange multipliers. We use the developed formalism to quantize the antisymmetric Abelian gauge fields.