Wormholes in Euclidean quantum gravity

Author: Ridgway, Stuart Alexander

Year: 1992

Degree: Dissertation (Ph.D.)

Advisor: Preskill, John P.

Committee Member: Unknown, Unknown

Option: Physics

DOI: 10.7907/187A-X978

Abstract

I present a summary of the developments in wormhole physics. I then investigate the (Euclidean time) decay of axion charge that occurs in a 3-sphere of constant volume when there is a small charge violating operator perturbing the Hamiltonian. I demonstrate that in the limit of large Euclidean time T, axion charge decays like CT[superscript -1], where C depends only logarithmically on the coefficient of the charge-violating operator. I apply this result to axionic wormholes, and argue that small wormholes will destabilize large wormholes because of this charge decay. In another model, I demonstrate the existence of wormhole solutions with topology S[superscript 1]xS[superscript 2]xR. I interpret these wormholes in terms of topological charge violation on flat R[superscript 4].

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