Quantization of the Maxwell field in curved spacetimes of arbitrary dimension
Michael J. Pfenning
备注：
17 pages, 1 figure, typset in RevTeX4. This version contains substantial revisions in the discussion of the Cauchy problem for the generalized Maxwell field equation
We quantize the massless p-form field that obeys the generalized Maxwell field equations in curved spacetimes of dimension n > 1. We begin by showing that the classical Cauchy problem of the generalized Maxwell field is well posed and that the field possess the expected gauge invariance. Then the classical phase space is developed in terms of gauge equivalent classes, first in terms of the Cauchy data and then reformulated in terms of Maxwell solutions. The latter is employed to quantize the field in the framework of Dimock. Finally, the resulting algebra of observables is shown to satisfy the wave equation with the usual canonical commutation relations.
We develop a quantization scheme for Maxwell's equations without source on an arbitrary four dimensional globally hyperbolic spacetime. The field strength tensor is the key dynamical object and it is not assumed a priori that it descends from a vector potential. It is shown that, in general, the associated field algebra can contain a non trivial centre and, on account of this, such a theory cannot be described within the framework of general local covariance unless further restrictive assumptions on the topology of the spacetime are made.
This note aims to give a self-contain and detail explanation about U(k')times U(k) Pati-Salam model in curved space-time which derived from (1+n)-dimensional square root Lorentz manifold by self-parallel transportation principle. The concepts foundation of manifold from view point of category theory, fiber bundle and sheaf theories are reviewed. There are extra U(k')times U(k)-principal bundle and U(k)-associated bundle than (1+n)-dimensional Lorentz manifold. The conservative currents on square root Lorentz manifold are discussed preliminary. A detail proof of relation from sheaf quantization…
Ambiguities arising in different approaches (canonical, quasiclassical, path integration) to quantization are discussed by an example of the mechanics of a point-like particle in the Riemannian space (the geodesic dynamics). A way to select a single rule of quantization is proposed by requirement of a consistency of the quantum mechanics' following from the canonical and quasiclassical approaches. This rule selects also a definition of the path integration. A geometric interpretation of the noncovariance of the canonical Hamilton operator of a particle with respect to the diffeomorphisms of th…
In this manuscript, we present an alternative method for calculating null geodesics in General Static Isotropic Metrics in General Relativity and Extended Theories of Gravity. By applying a conformal transformation, we are able to consider an analogue gravity model, where curvature is encoded in the dielectric and magnetic properties of a medium. In other words, we pass from curved to flat space-times, where instead of the Einstein field equations, the Maxwell equations are solved. Within this geometrical background, the photon geodesics are calculated. Then, given different black hole and wor…
Knotted solutions to electromagnetism are investigated as an independent subsector of the theory. We write down a Lagrangian and a Hamiltonian formulation of Bateman's construction for the knotted electromagnetic solutions. We introduce a general definition of the null condition and generalize the construction of Maxwell's theory to massless free complex scalar, its dual two form field, and to a massless DBI scalar. We set up the framework for quantizing the theory both in a path integral approach, as well as the canonical Dirac method for a constrained system. We make several observations abo…
The symmetry studies of Maxwell equations gave new insight on the nature of electromagnetic (EM) field. Tey are reviewed in the work presented. It is drawing the attention on the following aspects. EM-field has in general case quaternion structure, consisting of four independent field constituents, which differ from each other by the parities under space inversion and time reversal. There exists physical conserving quantity, which is simultaneously invariant under both Rainich dual and additional hyperbolic dual symmetry transformation of Maxwell equations. It is spin in general case or spiral…
In this thesis we investigate the Proca field in arbitrary globally hyperbolic curved spacetimes. We rigorously construct solutions to the classical Proca equation, including external sources and without restrictive assumptions on the topology of the spacetime, and investigate the classical zero mass limit. We find that the limit exists if we restrict the class of test one-forms to those that are co-closed, effectively implementing a gauge invariance by exact distributional one-forms of the vector potential. In order to obtain also the Maxwell dynamics in the limit, one has to restrict the ini…
Combination of a construction of unambiguous quantum conditions out of the conventional one and a simultaneous quantization of the positions, momenta, angular momenta and Hamiltonian leads to the geometric potential given by the so-called thin-lay quantization.
A relationship between the functional Schrödinger representation and the precanonical quantization of a scalar field theory is extended to an arbitrary curved space-time. The canonical functional derivative Schrödinger equation is derived from the manifestly covariant precanonical Schrödinger equation and the Schrödinger wave functional is expressed as the trace of the product integral of Clifford-algebra-valued precanonical wave functions restricted to a certain field configuration when the ultraviolet parameter $\varkappa$ introduced in precanonical quantization is infinite. Thus the standar…
Starting with the first-order singular Lagrangian, the problem of the quantization of a dynamical system constrained to a submanifold embedded in the higher-dimensional Euclidean space is investigated within the framework of operatorial quantization formalism. Through the projection operator method (POM) with the constraint star-products, it is shown that both of the constraint quantum system with the usual constraint and that with the derivative-type constraint are naturally constructed from one Lagarangian. It is proved that the system with the usual constraint is the sub-system of that with…
We show that the Witten covariant phase space for p-branes with thickness in an arbitrary background is endowed of a symplectic potential, which although is not important to the dynamics of the system, plays a relevant role on the phase space, allowing us to generate a symplectic structure for the theory and therefore give a covariant description of canonical formalism for quantization.
This paper presents the extension from flat spacetime into curved spacetime of the area of theoretical investigation that has been known as topological gauge field theory. The extension here presented is based upon a new derivation of the expression for topological charge for bosons and fermions in flat spacetime, a derivation which has been presented elsewhere [1]. This new approach was developed because the established instanton solution could not be extended to curved spacetime. The new approach can be extended to curved spacetime by coupling the major equations of relativistic quantum mech…
We explore the quantization of a $(1+1)$-dimensional inhomogeneous scalar field theory in which Poincaré symmetry is explicitly broken. We show the `classical equivalence' between a scalar field theory on curved spacetime background and its corresponding inhomogeneous scalar field theory. This implies that a hidden connection may exist among some inhomogeneous field theories, which corresponds to general covariance in field theory on curved spacetime. Based on the classical equivalence, we propose how to quantize a specific field theory with broken Poincaré symmetry inspired by standard field …
We investigate the classical and quantum Proca field (a massive vector potential) of mass $m>0$ in arbitrary globally hyperbolic spacetimes and in the presence of external sources. We motivate a notion of continuity in the mass for families of observables $\left\{O_m\right\}_{m>0}$ and we investigate the massless limit $m\to0$. Our limiting procedure is local and covariant and it does not require a choice of reference state. We find that the limit exists only on a subset of observables, which automatically implements a gauge equivalence on the massless vector potential. For topologically non-t…
We investigate linearized gauge theories on globally hyperbolic spacetimes in the BRST formalism. A consistent definition of the classical phase space and of its Cauchy surface analogue is proposed. We prove that it is isomorphic to the phase space in the subsidiary condition approach of Hack and Schenkel in the case of Maxwell, Yang-Mills, and Rarita-Schwinger fields. Defining Hadamard states in the BRST formalism in a standard way, their existence in the Maxwell and Yang-Mills case is concluded from known results in the subsidiary condition (or Gupta-Bleuler) formalism. Within our framework,…
It has been shown that, for all dimensions and signatures, the most general first-order linear symmetry operators for the Dirac equation including interaction with Maxwell field in curved background are given in terms of Killing-Yano (KY) forms. As a general gauge invariant condition it is found that among all KY-forms of the underlying (pseudo) Riemannian manifold, only those which Clifford commute with the Maxwell field take part in the symmetry operator. It is also proved that associated with each KY-form taking part in the symmetry operator, one can define a quadratic function of velocitie…
For particles constrained on a curved surface, how to perform quantization within Dirac's canonical quantization scheme is a long-standing problem. On one hand, Dirac stressed that the Cartesian coordinate system has fundamental importance in passing from the classical Hamiltonian to its quantum mechanical form while preserving the classical algebraic structure between positions, momenta and Hamiltonian to the extent possible. On the other, on the curved surface, we have no exact Cartesian coordinate system within intrinsic geometry. These two facts imply that the three-dimensional Euclidean s…
We argue that quantum theory in curved spacetime should be invariant under the continuous spacetime symmetries thaat are connected with the identity. For typical warped-product spacetimes, we prove that such invariance can be actually implemented, at least at the level of first quantization. Our approach rests on a mode decomposition which is special to the context of warped spacetimes.
An overview of maximally superintegrable classical Hamitonians on spherically symmetric spaces is presented. It turns out that each of these systems can be considered either as an oscillator or as a Kepler-Coulomb Hamiltonian. We show that two possible quantization prescriptions for all these curved systems arise if we impose that superintegrability is preserved after quantization, and we prove that both possibilities are gauge equivalent.
A fundamental result of classical electromagnetism is that Maxwell's equations imply that electric charge is locally conserved. Here we show the converse: Local charge conservation implies the local existence of fields satisfying Maxwell's equations. This holds true for any conserved quantity satisfying a continuity equation. It is obtained by means of a strong form of the Poincaré lemma presented here that states: Divergence-free multivector fields locally possess curl-free antiderivatives on flat manifolds. The above converse is an application of this lemma in the case of divergence-free vec…
Extended $U_e(1)\times U_g(1)$ electromagnetism containing both a photon and a pseudo-photon is introduced at variational level and is justified by the violation of the Bianchi identities in conceptual systems, either in the presence of magnetic monopoles or non-regular external fields, not being accounted by the standard Maxwell Lagrangian. It is carried a dimensional reduction that renders a $U_e(1)\times U_g(1)$ Maxwell-BF type theory and it is considered canonical functional quantization in planar systems which may be relevant in Hall systems.
It is generally known that linear (free) field theories are one of the few QFT that are exactly soluble. In the Schroedinger functional description of a scalar field on flat Minkowski spacetime and for flat embeddings, it is known that the usual Fock representation is described by a Gaussian measure. In this paper, arbitrary globally hyperbolic space-times and embeddings of the Cauchy surface are considered. The classical structures relevant for quantization are used for constructing the Schroedinger representation in the general case. It is shown that in this case, the measure is also Gaussia…
It is well-known that coupling a spin $\frac32$-field to a gravitational or electromagnetic background leads to potential problems both in the classical and in the quantum theory. Various solutions to these problems have been proposed so far, which are all restricted to a limited class of backgrounds. On the other hand, negative results for general gravitational backgrounds have been reported only for a limited set of couplings to the background to date. Hence, to our knowledge, a comprehensive analysis of all possible couplings to the gravitational field and general gravitational backgrounds …
In this article we study the quantization of a free real scalar field on a class of noncommutative manifolds, obtained via formal deformation quantization using triangular Drinfel'd twists. We construct deformed quadratic action functionals and compute the corresponding equation of motion operators. The Green's operators and the fundamental solution of the deformed equation of motion are obtained in terms of formal power series. It is shown that, using the deformed fundamental solution, we can define deformed *-algebras of field observables, which in general depend on the spacetime deformation…
We give a complete framework for the Gupta-Bleuler quantization of the free electromagnetic field on globally hyperbolic space-times. We describe one-particle structures that give rise to states satisfying the microlocal spectrum condition. The field algebras in the so-called Gupta-Bleuler representations satisfy the time-slice axiom, and the corresponding vacuum states satisfy the microlocal spectrum condition. We also give an explicit construction of ground states on ultrastatic space-times. Unlike previous constructions, our method does not require a spectral gap or the absence of zero mode…
The source-free Maxwell action is invariant under electric-magnetic duality rotations in arbitrary spacetimes. This leads to a conserved classical Noether charge. We show that this conservation law is broken at the quantum level in presence of a background classical gravitational field with a non-trivial Chern-Pontryagin invariant, in a parallel way to the chiral anomaly for massless Dirac fermions. Among the physical consequences, the net polarization of the quantum electromagnetic field is not conserved.
We examine the problem of the construction of a first order symmetric hyperbolic evolution system for the Einstein-Maxwell-Euler system. Our analysis is based on a 1+3 tetrad formalism which makes use of the components of the Weyl tensor as one of the unknowns. In order to ensure the symmetric hyperbolicity of the evolution equations implied by the Bianchi identity, we introduce a tensor of rank 3 corresponding to the covariant derivative of the Faraday tensor. Our analysis includes the case of a perfect fluid with infinite conductivity (ideal magnetohydrodynamics) as a particular subcase.
Existence and uniqueness of advanced and retarded fundamental solutions (Green's functions) and of global solutions to the Cauchy problem is proved for a general class of first order linear differential operators on vector bundles over globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds. This is a core ingredient to CAR-/CCR-algebraic constructions of quantum field theories on curved spacetimes, particularly for higher spin field equations.
Time-independent gauge transformations are implemented in the canonical formalism by the Gauss law which is not covariant. The covariant form of Gauss law is conceptually important for studying asymptotic properties of the gauge fields. For QED in $3+1$ dimensions, we have developed a formalism for treating the equations of motion (EOM) themselves as constraints, that is, constraints on states using Peierls' quantization. They generate spacetime dependent gauge transformations. We extend these results to the Maxwell-Chern-Simons (MCS) Lagrangian. The surprising result is that the covariant Gau…
