Quantum Singularities in Static Spacetimes

Abstract

We review the mathematical framework necessary to understand the physical content of quantum singularities in static spacetimes. We present many examples of classical singular spacetimes and study their singularities by using wave packets satisfying Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations. We show that in many cases the classical singularities are excluded when tested by quantum particles but unfortunately there are other cases where the singularities remain from the quantum mechanical point of view. When it is possible we also find, for spacetimes where quantum mechanics does not exclude the singularities, the boundary conditions necessary to turn the spatial portion of the wave operator into self-adjoint and emphasize their importance to the interpretation of quantum singularities.