Abstract
We study the issue of conformal rotation in compact cosmologies in the Bianchi type-I universe. Its Euclidean action, like that for the full theory, is unbounded below. However, the physical degrees of freedom can be isolated explicitly and quantities such as propagators can be expressed as convergent Euclidean functional integrals in terms of them. From these integrals we derive convergent Euclidean functional integrals over the full set of variables for these same quantities. These integrals appear weighted by actions with one variable rotated to complex values, that corresponding to the intrinsic time. This model provides insight into the physical meaning of the conformal rotation of Gibbons, Hawking, and Perry in the compact case. Compact spatial geometries carry intrinsic time information; conformal rotation corresponds to Euclideanizing this intrinsic time.
- Received 3 August 1988
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.39.2192
©1989 American Physical Society