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del Rio, A., Sanchis-Gual, N., Mewes, V., Agullo, I., Font, J. A., & Navarro-Salas, J. (2020). Spontaneous Creation of Circularly Polarized Photons in Chiral Astrophysical Systems. Phys. Rev. Lett., 124(21), 211301–6pp.
Abstract: This work establishes a relation between chiral anomalies in curved spacetimes and the radiative content of the gravitational field. In particular, we show that a flux of circularly polarized gravitational waves triggers the spontaneous creation of photons with net circular polarization from the quantum vacuum. Using waveform catalogs, we identify precessing binary black holes as astrophysical configurations that emit such gravitational radiation and then solve the fully nonlinear Einstein's equations with numerical relativity to evaluate the net effect. The quantum amplitude for a merger is comparable to the Hawking emission rate of the final black hole and small to be directly observed. However, the implications for the inspiral of binary neutron stars could be more prominent, as argued on symmetry grounds.
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Agullo, I., del Rio, A., & Navarro-Salas, J. (2017). Electromagnetic Duality Anomaly in Curved Spacetimes. Phys. Rev. Lett., 118(11), 111301–5pp.
Abstract: The source-free Maxwell action is invariant under electric-magnetic duality rotations in arbitrary spacetimes. This leads to a conserved classical Noether charge. We show that this conservation law is broken at the quantum level in the presence of a background classical gravitational field with a nontrivial Chern-Pontryagin invariant, in parallel with the chiral anomaly for massless Dirac fermions. Among the physical consequences, the net polarization of the quantum electromagnetic field is not conserved.
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del Rio, A., & Agullo, I. (2023). Chiral fermion anomaly as a memory effect. Phys. Rev. D, 108(10), 105025–22pp.
Abstract: We study the nonconservation of the chiral charge of Dirac fields between past and future null infinity due to the Adler-Bell-Jackiw chiral anomaly. In previous investigations [A. del Rio, Phys. Rev. D 104, 065012 (2021)], we found that this charge fails to be conserved if electromagnetic sources in the bulk emit circularly polarized radiation. In this article, we unravel yet another contribution coming from the nonzero, infrared “soft” charges of the external, electromagnetic field. This new contribution can be interpreted as another manifestation of the ordinary memory effect produced by transitions between different infrared sectors of Maxwell theory, but now on test quantum fields rather than on test classical particles. In other words, a flux of electromagnetic waves can leave a memory on quantum fermion states in the form of a permanent, net helicity. We elaborate this idea in both 1 + 1 and 3 + 1 dimensions. We also show that, in sharp contrast, gravitational infrared charges do not contribute to the fermion chiral anomaly.
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Sanchis-Gual, N., & del Rio, A. (2023). Precessing binary black holes as engines of electromagnetic helicity. Phys. Rev. D, 108, 044052–11pp.
Abstract: We show that binary black hole mergers with precessing evolution can potentially excite photons from the quantum vacuum in such a way that total helicity is not preserved in the process. Helicity violation is allowed by quantum fluctuations that spoil the electric-magnetic duality symmetry of the classical Maxwell theory without charges. We show here that precessing binary black hole systems in astrophysics generate a flux of circularly polarized gravitational waves which, in turn, provides the required helical background that triggers this quantum effect. Solving the fully nonlinear Einstein’s equations with numerical relativity we explore the parameter space of binary systems and extract the detailed dependence of the quantum effect with the spins of the two black holes. We also introduce a set of diagrammatic techniques that allows us to predict when a binary black hole merger can or cannot emit circularly polarized gravitational radiation, based on mirror-symmetry considerations. This framework allows to understand and to interpret correctly the numerical results, and to predict the outcomes in potentially interesting astrophysical systems.
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Beltran-Palau, P., del Rio, A., & Navarro-Salas, J. (2023). Quantum corrections to the Schwarzschild metric from vacuum polarization. Phys. Rev. D, 107(8), 085023–15pp.
Abstract: We explore static and spherically symmetric solutions of the 4-dimensional semiclassical Einstein's equations using the quantum vacuum polarization of a conformal field as a source. These solutions may be of interest for the study of exotic compact objects (ECOs). The full backreaction problem is addressed by solving the semiclassical Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff (TOV) equations making use of effective equations of state inspired by the trace anomaly and an extra simplifying and reasonable assumption. We combine analytical and numerical techniques to solve the resulting differential equations, both perturbatively and nonperturbatively in h. In all cases the solution is similar to the Schwarzschild metric up p ffiffito the vicinity of the classical horizon r = 2M. However, at r = 2M + epsilon, with epsilon similar to O(root h), we find a coordinate singularity. In the case of matching with a static star, this leads to an upper bound in the compactness, and sets a constraint on the family of stable ECOs. We also study the corrections that the quantum-vacuum polarization induces on the propagation of waves, and discuss the implications. For the pure vacuum case, we can further extend the solution by using appropriate coordinates until we reach another singular point, where this time a null curvature singularity arises and prevents extending beyond. This picture qualitatively agrees with the results obtained in the effective two-dimensional approach, and reinforces the latter as a reasonable method.
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