Photon Productions in a Gravitational Collapsing

Abstract

We study a possible gravitational vacuum-effect, in which vacuum-energy variation is due to variation of gravitational field, vacuum state gains gravitational energy and releases it by spontaneous photon emissions. Based on the path-integral representation, we present a general formulation of vacuum transition matrix and energy-momentum tensor of a quantum scalar field theory in curved spacetime. Using analytical continuation of dimensionality of the phase space, we calculate the difference of vacuum-energy densities in the presence and absence of gravitational field. Using the dynamical equation of gravitational collapse, we compute the rate of vacuum state gaining gravitational energy. Computing the transition amplitude from initial vacuum state to final vacuum state in gravitational collapsing process, we show the rate and spectrum of spontaneous photon emissions for releasing gravitational energy. We compare our idea with the Schwinger idea for Sonoluminiescence and contrast our scenario with the Hawking effect.