Wormholes in Euclidean quantum gravity

Citation

Ridgway, Stuart Alexander (1992) Wormholes in Euclidean quantum gravity. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/187A-X978. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-12082008-100051

Abstract

I present a summary of the developments in wormhole physics. I then investigate the (Euclidean time) decay of axion charge that occurs in a 3-sphere of constant volume when there is a small charge violating operator perturbing the Hamiltonian. I demonstrate that in the limit of large Euclidean time T, axion charge decays like CT[superscript -1], where C depends only logarithmically on the coefficient of the charge-violating operator. I apply this result to axionic wormholes, and argue that small wormholes will destabilize large wormholes because of this charge decay. In another model, I demonstrate the existence of wormhole solutions with topology S[superscript 1]xS[superscript 2]xR. I interpret these wormholes in terms of topological charge violation on flat R[superscript 4].

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