Space and Time Averaged Quantum Stress Tensor Fluctuations

2021

We extend previous work on the numerical diagonalization of quantum stress tensor operators in the Minkowski vacuum state, which considered operators averaged in a finite time interval, to operators averaged in a finite spacetime region. Since real experiments occur over finite volumes and durations, physically meaningful fluctuations may be obtained from stress tensor operators averaged by compactly supported sampling functions in space and time. The direct diagonalization, via a Bogoliubov transformation, gives the eigenvalues and the probabilities of measuring those eigenvalues in the vacuum state, from which the underlying probability distribution can be constructed. For the normal-orde…