Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetime

By B. S. Kay. 2006

685 citations recorded by the source corpus.

I begin with an informal introduction to the subject of Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetime, indicating its status as an approximate theory, its basic physical effect, and its range of validity. I emphasize the importance of the Hawking effect, and of the fact that — while an approximation — the subject appears to admit a consistent mathematical and conceptual framework in its own right. After some brief historical and motivational remarks, I then outline such a suitable mathematical framework for the case of a linear field theory. Its principal elements are a suitable algebra and a suitable set of admissible states. The discussion of the latter incorporates recent work of R.M. Wald and the author. Evidence is given that this framework is complete, allows for the definition of a suitable energy-momentum tensor, and — through a result of R.M. Wald and the author — gives new insight into the Hawking effect. I end by stating two conjectures whose resolution may lead to a deeper understanding of the subject. I point out a close connection between these conjectures and a question posed by Fredenhagen and Haag in their recent axiomatic discussion of quantum gravity.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7543326c8f2e9a21f3e845cf06aa4657861e4a54

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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Citations in the corpus

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Quantum tunneling and trace anomaly (2008, methodology): “Now keeping in mind that the ingoing probability P(in) = |φ(in)|2 has to be unity in the classical limit (i.e. h̄ → 0), instead of zero or infinity [16], we obtain, using (6) and (14), Im t = −Im ∫ dr √ f(r)g(r) .”
Infrared effects in inflationary correlation functions (2010, methodology): “A manifestly local and covariant formulation of this expansion in curved spacetime has been given by Hollands and Wald [112–116], which in principle could be applied to the study of infrared effects in nearly de Sitter spacetimes.”