Abstract
We consider a timelike geodesic congruence in the presence of perturbative quantum fluctuations of the spacetime metric. We calculate the change in the volume of a bundle of geodesics due to such fluctuations and thereby obtain a quantum-gravitationally modified timelike Raychaudhuri equation. Quantum gravity generically increases the convergence of congruences and the production of caustics.
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Acknowledgments
We thank George Zahariade for helpful discussions. MP is supported in part by Heising-Simons Foundation grant 2021-2818, Department of Energy grant DE-SC0019470 and Government of India DST VAJRA Faculty Scheme VJR/2017/000117. The research of S.S. is supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India under the SERB CRG Grant CRG/2020/004562.
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Bak, SE., Parikh, M., Sarkar, S. et al. Quantum gravity fluctuations in the timelike Raychaudhuri equation. J. High Energ. Phys. 2023, 125 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2023)125
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2023)125