Abstract
Wave noise is correlated. While it may look random in space, correlations appear in space–time, because the noise is carried by wave propagation. These correlations of wave noise give rise to fluctuation forces such as the Casimir force, they are responsible for the particle creation in the dynamical Casimir effect and in the expanding Universe. This paper considers the noise correlations for light waves in non-exponentially expanding flat space. The paper determines the high-frequency asymptotics of the correlation spectrum in the conformal vacuum. These noise correlations give rise to a nontrivial vacuum energy that may appear as the cosmological constant.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 024001 |
| Number of pages | 31 |
| Journal | Journal of physics. A, Mathematical and theoretical |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 13 Jan 2023 |
Funding
Two and a half decades ago Michael Berry’s work on the optical Aharonov Bohm effect inspired me to look for connections between quantum optics and general relativity, and he has been an inspiration ever since. I am most grateful to him and wish him a happy anniversary. I would also like to thank Dror Berechya, David Bermudez, Nikolay Ebel, Jonathan Kogman, Amaury Micheli, and Scott Robertson for discussions and comments on this paper. The paper has been supported by the Israel Science Foundation and the Murray B Koffler Professorial Chair.