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This work presents a method for studying low-energy physics in highly correlated magnetic systems using the matrix product state (MPS) manifold. We adapt the spin-wave approach, which has been very successful in modeling certain low-entanglement magnetic materials, to systems where the ground state is better represented by an MPS, such as the S = 1 Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) model. We argue that the quasi-local action of tensor fluctuations and the natural K\"ahler structure of the MPS manifold facilitate a description in terms of bosonic modes. We apply this approach to compute fluctuation corrections to the bilinear-biquadratic Heisenberg model, whose ground state we expect to be close to the exact bond dimension 2 AKLT state in a certain parameter range. Our results show significant improvements in energy approximations, highlighting both the qualitative and quantitative potential of this paradigm for studying complex entangled systems. This approach paves the way for new insights into the low-energy physics of correlated materials and the development of effective field theories beyond traditional semiclassical methods.

We consider self-interacting scalar fields with a conformal coupling in the dS background and study the quantum corrections from bubble loop diagrams. Incorporating the perturbative in-in formalism, we calculate the quantum corrections in the vacuum zero point energy and pressure of self-interacting fields with the potential $V \propto \Phi^n $ for even values of $n$. We calculate the equation of state corresponding to these quantum corrections and examine the scaling of the divergent terms in the vacuum zero point energy and pressure associated to the dimensional regularization scheme. In particular, we show that for quartic self-interacting scalar field the conformal invariance is respected at two-loop order at the conformal point., Comment: 21 Pages, 4 figures

We give a vacuum description with zero-point density for virtual fluctuations. One of the goals is to explain the origin of the vacuum permittivity and permeability and to calculate their values. In particular, we improve on existing calculations by avoiding assumptions on the volume occupied by virtual fluctuations. We propose testing of the models that assume a finite lifetime of virtual fluctuation. If during its propagation, the photon is stochastically trapped and released by virtual pairs, the propagation velocity may fluctuate. The propagation time fluctuation is estimated for several existing models. The obtained values are measurable with available technologies involving ultra-short laser pulses, and some of the models are already in conflict with the existing astronomical observations. The phase velocity is not affected significantly, which is consistent with the interferometric measurements.

We study the vacuum zero point energy associated to a scalar field with an arbitrary mass and conformal coupling in a dS background. Employing dimensional regularization scheme, we calculate the regularized zero point energy density, pressure and the trace of the energy momentum tensor. It is shown that the classical relation $\langle T \rangle =-4 \langle \rho \rangle$ for the vacuum stress energy tensor receives anomalous quantum correction which depends on the mass and the conformal coupling while the relation $\langle \rho \rangle = - \langle P \rangle$ does hold. We calculate the density contrast associated to the vacuum zero point energy and show that $\delta \rho \sim \langle \rho \rangle$ indicating an inhomogeneous and non-perturbative distribution of the zero point energy. Finally, we calculate the skewness associated to the distribution of the zero point energy and pressure and show that they are highly non-Gaussian., Comment: 23 pages

Mixed Quantum Classical (MQC)-IVR is a recently introduced semiclassical framework that allows for selective quantization of the modes of a complex system. In the quantum limit, MQC reproduces the semiclassical Double Herman-Kluk IVR results, accurately capturing nuclear quantum coherences and conserving zero-point energy. However, in the classical limit, while MQC mimics the Husimi-IVR for real-time correlation functions with linear operators, it is significantly less accurate for non-linear correlation functions with errors even at time zero. Here, we identify the origin of this discrepancy in the MQC formulation and propose a modification. We analytically show that the modified MQC approach is exact for all correlation functions at time zero, and in a study of zero-point energy (ZPE) flow, we numerically demonstrate that it correctly obtains the quantum and classical limits as a function of time. Interestingly, while classical-limit MQC simulations show the expected, unphysical ZPE leakage, we find it is possible to predict and even modify the direction of ZPE flow through selective quantization of the system, with the quantum-limit modes accepting energy additions but preserving the minimum quantum mechanically required energy.

Starting from the theory of Axion Electrodynamics, we work out the axionic modifications to the electromagnetic Casimir energy using the Green's function, both when the axion field is initially assumed purely time-dependent and when the axion field configuration is a static domain wall. For the first case it means that the oscillating axion background is taken to resemble an axion fluid at rest in a conventional Casimir setup with two infinite parallel conducting plates, while in the second case we evaluate the radiation pressure acting on an axion domain wall. We extend previous theories in order to include finite temperatures. Various applications are discussed. 1. We review the theory of Axion Electrodynamics and particularly the energy-momentum conservation in a linear dielectric and magnetic material. We treat this last aspect by extending former results by Brevik and Chaichian (2022) and Patkos (2022). 2. Adopting the model of the oscillating axion background we discuss the axion-induced modifications to the Casimir force between two parallel plates by using a Green's function approach. 3. We calculate the radiation pressure acting on an axion domain wall at finite temperature T. Our results for an oscillating axion field and a domain wall are also useful for condensed matter physics, where "axionic topological insulators" interact with the electromagnetic field with a Chern-Simons interaction, like the one in Axion Electrodynamics, and there are experimental systems analogous to time-dependent axion fields and domain walls as the ones showed by Jiang, Q. D., \& Wilczek, F. (2019) and Fukushima et al. (2019). 4. We compare our results, where we assume time-dependent or space-dependent axion configurations, with the discussion of the optical activity of Axion Electrodynamics by Sikivie (2021) and Carrol et al. (1990)., Comment: To appear in the Annals of Physics

It was long believed that there is a zero-point energy in the form of h\omega/2 for massive particles, which is obtained from Schr\"odinger equation for the harmonic oscillator model. In this paper, it is shown, by the Dirac oscillator, that there is no such a zero-point energy. It is argued that when a particle's wave function can spread in the whole space, it can be static. This does neither violate wave-particle duality nor uncertainty relationship. Dirac equation correctly describes physical reality, while Schr\"odinger equation does not when it is not the nonrelativistic approximation of Dirac equation with a certain model. The conclusion that there is no zero-point energy in the form of h\omega/2 is applied to solve the famous cosmological constant problem for massive particles., Comment: 14 pages, 1 table

The response of a superconductor to a gravitational wave is shown to obey a London-like constituent equation. The Cooper pairs are described by the Ginzburg-Landau free energy density embedded in curved spacetime. The lattice ions are modeled by quantum harmonic oscillators characterized by quasi-energy eigenvalues. This formulation is shown to predict a dynamical Casimir effect since the zero-point energy of the ionic lattice phonons is modulated by the gravitational wave. It is also shown that the response to a gravitational wave is far less for the Cooper pair density than for the ionic lattice. This predicts a "charge separation effect" which can be used to detect the passage of a gravitational wave., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2207.08062

We study the quantum vacuum zero point energy in the Schwarzschild black hole as well as in the Nariai limit of the dS-Schwarzschild backgrounds. We show that the regularized vacuum energy density near the black hole and also in the Nariai setup match exactly with the corresponding value in the flat background, scaling with the fourth power of the mass of the quantum field. The horizon radius of the dS space created from the vacuum zero point energy introduces a new length scale which should be compared with the black hole horizon radius. There is an upper limiting mass for the black hole immersed in the vacuum zero point energy which is determined by the mass of the Nariai metric associated to the dS background constructed from zero point energy. We calculate the variance in the distribution of the vacuum zero point energy and the density contrast and show that it develops strong inhomogeneities on sub-horizon scales., Comment: v3, typos corrected. v2, discussions improved, matches published version. 27 pages, 3 figures

The celebrated Meyer-Miller mapping model has been a useful approach for generating practical trajectory-based nonadiabatic dynamics methods. It is generally assumed that the zero-point-energy (ZPE) parameter is positive. The constraint implied in the conventional Meyer-Miller mapping Hamiltonian for an F-electronic-state system actually requires that parameter \gamma is larger than -1/F for the ZPE parameter for each electronic degree of freedom. Both negative and positive values are possible for such a parameter. We first establish a rigorous formulation to construct exact mapping models in the Cartesian phase space when the constraint is applied. When nuclear dynamics is approximated by the linearized semiclassical initial value representation, a negative ZPE parameter could lead to reasonably good performance in describing dynamic behaviors in typical spin-boson models for condensed-phase two-state systems, even at challenging zero temperature.

We investigate the Casimir effect in the systems that consist of parallel but misaligned finite-size plates from the point of view of zero-point energy. We elaborate the zero-point energies of the radiation field in the perfect conductor systems would generate a tangential Casimir force, and explore the properties and consequences of this tangential force in various conductor systems. Thereafter, we generalize our discussion to dielectrics. After calculating the total zero-point energies of the surface modes in the multilayered systems, we show that the tangential force also exists in dielectrics. We obtain the finite-conductivity corrections to the tangential force for imperfectly conducting plates, and calculate the finite-temperature corrections to the force. The typical strength of the tangential force suggests it might be observable., Comment: v2: dielectrics included; v3: minor revision, mainly for finite temperature; eq.17 simplified; v4: generalization to dielectrics revised

Substantial developments in pattern recognition and machine learning offer unique advancements to study the deeper structures of plasma physics. We have employed the Kernel principal component analysis(KPCA) of Argon glow discharge plasmas over time-resolved UV-Vis spectra for different pressure scans. 3D vector fields obtained by KPCA reveal the chaotic structure, strange attractors. The presence of the cross magnetic field (B=100G) and the addition of pressure increase the degree of chaos. Lower scale vector fields show that phonon sinks and traps and cool the plasma electron temperatures. The average electron and ion density profiles are provided by the 2D particle in cell simulation. Welch's transformation of the lower to higher scale vector fields illuminates the symmetric zero-point energy fluctuations of particles, antiparticles, and virtual particles. These positive and negative energies cancel each other and the combination of these energy fields form another type of fractal structure.

Replacing the canonical pair q and p of the harmonic oscillator (HO) by the locally and symplectically equivalent pair angle phi and action variable I implies a qualitative change of the global topological structure of the associated phase spaces: the pair (q,p) is an element of a topologically trivial plane R^2 whereas the pair (phi,I>0) is an element of a topologically non-trivial, infinitely connected, punctured plane R^2-{0}, which has the group SO(1,2) as its "canonical" group. Due to its infinitely many covering groups the resulting ("symplectic") spectrum of the associated quantum Hamiltonian is given by {hbar omega (n+b), n =0,1,...; b in (0,1]}, in contrast to the "orthodox" spectrum {hbar omega (n+1/2)}. The potentially most important implications concern the vibrations of diatomic molecules in the infrared, e.g. those of molecular hydrogen H_2. Those symplectic spectra of the HO may provide a simultaneous key to two outstanding astrophysical puzzles, namely the nature of dark (vacuum) energy and that of dark matter: To the former because the zero-point energy b hbar omega of free electromagnetic wave oscillator modes can be extremely small > 0 (b ca. exp(-35) for the measured dark energy density). And a key to the dark matter problem because the quantum zero-point energies of the Born-Oppenheimer potentials in which the two nuclei of H_2 or the nuclei of other primordial diatomic molecules vibrate can be lower, too, and, therefore, may lead to spectrally detuned "dark" H_2 molecules during the "Dark Ages" of the universe and forming WIMPs in the hypothesized sense. All results appear to be in surprisingly good agreement with the LambdaCDM model of the universe. Besides laboratory experiments the search for 21-cm radio signals from the Dark Ages of the universe and other astrophysical observations can help to explore those hypothetical implications., Comment: 33 pages, 4 figures

Optomechanical cavities in the well-resolved-sideband regime are ideally suited for the study of a myriad of quantum phenomena with mechanical systems, including backaction-evading measurements, mechanical squeezing, and generation of non-classical states. For these experiments, the mechanical oscillator should be prepared in its ground state; residual motion beyond the zero-point motion must be negligible. The requisite cooling of the mechanical motion can be achieved using the radiation pressure of light in the cavity by selectively driving the anti-Stokes optomechanical transition. To date, however, laser-absorption heating of optical systems far into the resolved-sideband regime has prohibited strong driving. For deep ground-state cooling, previous studies have therefore resorted to passive cooling in dilution refrigerators. Here, we employ a highly sideband-resolved silicon optomechanical crystal in a $^3$He buffer gas environment at $\sim 2\text{K}$ to demonstrate laser sideband cooling to a mean thermal occupancy of $0.09_{-0.01}^{+0.02}$ quantum (self-calibrated using motional sideband asymmetry), which is $-7.4\text{dB}$ of the oscillator's zero-point energy and corresponds to 92% ground state probability. Achieving such low occupancy by laser cooling opens the door to a wide range of quantum-optomechanical experiments in the optical domain.

We derive an explicit expression for the functional derivative of the subleading term in the strong interaction limit expansion of the generalized Levy--Lieb functional for the special case of two electrons in one dimension. The expression is derived from the zero point energy (ZPE) functional, which is valid if the quantum state reduces to strongly correlated electrons in the strong coupling limit. The explicit expression is confirmed numerically and respects the relevant sum-rule. We also show that the ZPE potential is able to generate a bond mid-point peak for homo-nuclear dissociation and is properly of purely kinetic origin. Unfortunately, the ZPE diverges for Coulomb systems, whereas the exact peaks should be finite., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures

We demonstrate that the Lifshitz interaction energy (excluding the self-energies of the inner and outer spherical regions) for three concentric spherical dielectric media can be evaluated easily using the immense computation power in recent processors relative to those of a few decades ago. As a prototype, we compute the Lifshitz interaction energy for a spherical shell of water immersed in water vapor of infinite extent while enclosing a spherical ball of ice inside the shell, such that two concentric spherical interfaces are formed: one between solid ice and liquid water and the other between liquid water and gaseous vapor. We evaluate the Lifshitz interaction energy for the above configuration at the triple point of water when the solid, liquid, and gaseous states of water coexist, and, thus, extend the analysis of Elbaum and Schick in Phys. Rev. Lett. 66 (1991) 1713 to spherical configurations. We find that, when the Lifshitz energy contributes dominantly to the total energy of this system, which is often the case when electrostatic interactions are absent, a drop of water surrounded by vapor of infinite extent is not stable at the triple point. This instability, that is a manifestation of the quantum fluctuations in the medium, will promote formation of ice in water, which will then grow in size indefinitely. This is a consequence of the finding here that the Lifshitz energy is minimized for large (micrometer size) radius of the ice ball and small (nanometer size) thickness of the water shell surrounding the ice. These results might be relevant to the formation of hail in thunderclouds. These results are tentative in that the self-energies are omitted; surface tension and nucleation energy are not considered., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, conclusions toned down

We analyze the zero point energy of composite particles (or resonances) which are dynamically created from relativistic fermions. We compare the zero point energies in medium to the vacuum one, taking into account the medium modification of the constituent particles. Treating composite particles as if quasi-particles, their zero point energies contain the quadratic and logarithmic UV divergences even after the vacuum subtraction. The coefficients of these divergences come from the difference between the vacuum and in-medium fermion propagators. We argue that such apparent divergences can be cancelled by consistently using fermion propagators to compute the quasi-particle contributions as well as their interplay, provided that the self-energies of the constituents at large momenta approach to the vacuum ones sufficiently fast. In the case of quantum chromodynamics, mesons and baryons, which may be induced or destroyed by medium effects, yield the in-medium divergences in the zero point energies, but the divergences are assembled to cancel with those from the quark zero-point energy. This is particularly important for unified descriptions of hadronic and quark matter which may be smoothly connected by the quark-hadron continuity., Comment: v3) 32 pages, 13 figures; published in PRD

Traditional quantum field theory can lead to enormous zero-point energy, which markedly disagrees with experiment. Unfortunately, this situation is built into conventional canonical quantization procedures. For identical classical theories, an alternative quantization procedure, called affine field quantization, leads to the desirable feature of having a vanishing zero-point energy. This procedure has been applied to renormalizable and nonrenormalizable covariant scalar fields, fermion fields, as well as general relativity. Simpler models are offered as an introduction to affine field quantization., Comment: 8 pages. additional subjects, multiple minor improvements, version approved by the referee. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1710.05085

An earlier forward and backward in time formalism developed by us to discuss non-relativistic electron diffraction is generalized to the relativistic case and here applied to photons. We show how naturally the zero-point energy emerges in the Planck black-body spectrum once symmetric in time motion - inherent in the Maxwell equations - is invoked for photons. Then, a detailed study is made of two-slit experiments for photons and some novel phenomena, amenable to experiments, are proposed, that arise due to the spin of the photon., Comment: 10 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1510.06272

Semiclassical techniques constitute a promising route to approximate quantum dynamics based on classical trajectories starting from a quantum-mechanically correct distribution. One of their main drawbacks is the so-called zero-point energy (ZPE) leakage, that is artificial redistribution of energy from the modes with high frequency and thus high ZPE to that with low frequency and ZPE due to classical equipartition. Here, we show that an elaborate semiclassical formalism based on the Herman-Kluk propagator is free from the ZPE leakage despite utilizing purely classical propagation. This finding opens the road to correct dynamical simulations of systems with a multitude of degrees of freedom that cannot be treated fully quantum-mechanically due to the exponential increase of the numerical effort., Comment: 6 pages 2 figures

We analyze the zero point energy in a dense matter of quarks or hadrons with particular attention on the renormalization of the UV divergences. Besides divergences removable by the vacuum subtraction and counter terms, there are also UV divergences associated with non-perturbative modifications of quark bases appearing in the in-medium propagators. The latter would remain after the self-energies and vertices are renormalized, unless a proper set of medium contributions is included at a given truncation. We use the formalism of the two particle irreducible action to clarify how the UV divergences are assembled to cancel. An example is given for the thermodynamic potentials with mesons as composite particles whose zero point energies apparently diverge but can be cancelled by the quark self-energy contributions. Important applications of this work are quark matter with hadronic correlations which may be realized at the core of neutron stars., Comment: v2: 12 pages, 4 figures, discussions of renormalizability were revised

The dynamics of an electronic two-level system coupled to an electromagnetic field are simulated explicitly for one and three dimensional systems through semiclassical propagation of the Maxwell-Liouville equations. We consider three flavors of mixed quantum-classical dynamics: the classical path approximation (CPA), Ehrenfest dynamics, and symmetrical quantum-classical (SQC) dynamics. The CPA fails to recover a consistent description of spontaneous emission. A consistent "spontaneous" emission can be obtained from Ehrenfest dynamics--provided that one starts in an electronic superposition state. Spontaneous emission is always obtained using SQC dynamics. Using the SQC and Ehrenfest frameworks, we further calculate the dynamics following an incoming pulse, but here we find very different responses: SQC and Ehrenfest dynamics deviate sometimes strongly in the calculated rate of decay of the transient excited state. Nevertheless, our work confirms the earlier observations by W. Miller [J. Chem. Phys. 69, 2188-2195, 1978] that Ehrenfest dynamics can effectively describe some aspects of spontaneous emission and highlights new possibilities for studying light-matter interactions with semiclassical mechanics., Comment: 15 figures

Since 1925, exactly four arguments have been forwarded for the assumption of a diverging (respectively --- after regularization --- very huge) zero-point energy of elementary quantum fields. And exactly three arguments have been forwarded against this assumption. In this article, all seven arguments are reviewed and assessed. It turns out that the three CONTRA arguments against the assumption of that zero-point energy are overwhelmingly stronger than the four PRO arguments.

Zero-point energy is generally known to be unphysical. Casimir effect, however, is often presented as a counterexample, giving rise to a conceptual confusion. To resolve the confusion we study foundational aspects of Casimir effect at a qualitative level, but also at a quantitative level within a simple toy model with only 3 degrees of freedom. In particular, we point out that Casimir vacuum is not a state without photons, and not a ground state for a Hamiltonian that can describe Casimir force. Instead, Casimir vacuum can be related to the photon vacuum by a non-trivial Bogoliubov transformation, and it is a ground state only for an effective Hamiltonian describing Casimir plates at a fixed distance. At the fundamental microscopic level, Casimir force is best viewed as a manifestation of van der Waals forces., Comment: 21 pages, version accepted for publication in Annals of Physics

We address the long-standing controversy regarding the correct description of the electromagnetic energy-momentum tensor in media and its consequences for the Casimir force. The latter being due to the zero-point momentum of the electromagnetic field, competing approaches based on the Abraham or Maxwell stress tensor lead to different predictions. We consider the test scenario of two colloidal spherical particles submerged in a dielectric medium and use three criteria to distinguish the two approaches: we show that the Abraham stress tensor, and not the Maxwell stress tensor, leads to a Casimir force that is form-equivalent to Casimir-Polder and van der Waals forces, obeys duality as a fundamental symmetry and is consistent with microscopic many-body calculations., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures

We analyze the divergent zero-point energy of a dilute and ultracold gas of atoms in D spatial dimensions. For bosonic atoms we explicitly show how to regularize this divergent contribution, which appears in the Gaussian fluctuations of the functional integration, by using three different regularization approaches: dimensional regularization, momentum-cutoff regularization and convergence-factor regularization. In the case of the ideal Bose gas the divergent zero-point fluctuations are completely removed, while in the case of the interacting Bose gas these zero-point fluctuations give rise to a finite correction to the equation of state. The final convergent equation of state is independent of the regularization procedure but depends on the dimensionality of the system and the two-dimensional case is highly nontrivial. We also discuss very recent theoretical results on the divergent zero-point energy of the D-dimensional superfluid Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover. In this case the zero-point energy is due to both fermionic single-particle excitations and bosonic collective excitations, and its regularization gives remarkable analytical results in the BEC regime of composite bosons. We compare the beyond-mean-field equations of state of both bosons and fermions with relevant experimental data on dilute and ultracold atoms quantitatively confirming the contribution of zero-point-energy quantum fluctuations to the thermodynamics of ultracold atoms at very low temperatures., Comment: 56 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in Physics Reports