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# Quantum Effects of Scalar Fields in Black Hole and Cosmological Spacetimes

## Electronic Theses and Dissertations

### Item Details

abstract
Using a background field calculation, an analysis is presented of the effects of free quantum scalar fields upon the geometry of a cosmological spacetime containing a big rip singularity. The spacetime investigated is that of a spatially flat FRW metric in which the scale factor increases as a power-law with a divergence at some future time $t=t_{\text{rip}}$. Results of analytical and numerical computations of the expectation value of the stress tensor for massive and massless minimally and conformally coupled quantized scalar fields are presented. It is shown that, for physically realistic spacetimes, and for reasonable choices of the state of the quantum field, there is no evidence that quantum effects become important prior to the point where the scalar curvature reaches the Planck scale.
subject
big rip
black hole
de Sitter
quantum field theory
stochastic gravity
contributor
Anderson, Paul (committee chair)
Parsley, Jason (committee member)
Carlson, Eric (committee member)
Cook, Greg (committee member)
Williams, Richard (committee member)
date
2012-06-12T08:36:03Z (accessioned)
2012-06-12T08:36:03Z (available)
2012 (issued)
degree
Physics (discipline)
identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/10339/37298 (uri)
language
en (iso)
publisher
Wake Forest University
title
Quantum Effects of Scalar Fields in Black Hole and Cosmological Spacetimes
type
Dissertation