Mathematical Physics and Harmonic Analysis Seminar

Date: February 12, 2021

Time: 2:00PM - 2:50PM

Location: Zoom

Speaker: Benito Juarez-Aubry, IIMAS-UNAM

Title: Semiclassical gravity in static spacetimes as a constrained initial value problem

Abstract: Semiclassical gravity is the theory in which gravity is treated classically and matter is treated in the framework of quantum field theory. The spacetime metric tensor, which encodes gravitational effects in its curvature, interacts with matter through the semiclassical Einstein equations: matter sources the dynamics of the spacetime metric via the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of the quantum fields, while the quantum fields propagate in curved spacetime. It is currently unknown whether semiclassical gravity has a well-posed initial value formulation even for free fields. In this talk, I will discuss the situation in static spacetimes, where time-translation symmetry greatly reduces the difficulty of the problem, and where one can show well-posedness. I will also discuss the main ideas on how to generalise these results to non-static spacetimes under some special circumstances. Based on arXiv:2011.05947 and on some unpublished work in progress with S. Modak.