Scalar Field Vacuum Expectation Value Induced by Gravitational Wave Background

Authors

Preston Jones, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical UniversityFollow
Patrick McDougall, California State University, FresnoFollow
Michael Ragsdale, Fresno City CollegeFollow
Douglas Singleton, California State University, FresnoFollow

Submitting Campus

Prescott

Department

Physics and Astronomy

Document Type

Article

Publication/Presentation Date

2018

Abstract/Description

We show that a massless scalar field in a gravitational wave background can develop a non-zero vacuum expectation value. We draw comparisons to the generation of a non-zero vacuum expectation value for a scalar field in the Higgs mechanism and with the dynamical Casimir vacuum. We propose that this vacuum expectation value, generated by a gravitational wave, can be connected with particle production from gravitational waves and may have consequences for the early Universe where scalar fields are thought to play an important role.

Publication Title

Physics Letters B

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2018.04.055

Publisher

Elsevier

Required Publisher’s Statement

Open access article under the CC BY license.

Scholarly Commons Citation

Jones, P., McDougall, P., Ragsdale, M., & Singleton, D. (2018). Scalar Field Vacuum Expectation Value Induced by Gravitational Wave Background. Physics Letters B, 781(). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2018.04.055