Microcausality in curved space-time

Sergei Dubovsky, Alberto Nicolis, Enrico Trincherini, and Giovanni Villadoro
Phys. Rev. D 77, 084016 – Published 17 April 2008

Abstract

It is well known that in Lorentz-invariant quantum field theories in flat space the commutator of spacelike separated local operators vanishes (microcausality). We provide two different arguments showing that this is a consequence of the causal structure of the classical theory, rather than of Lorentz invariance. In particular, microcausality holds in arbitrary curved space-times, where Lorentz invariance is explicitly broken by the background metric. As illustrated by an explicit calculation on a cylinder this property is rather nontrivial at the level of Feynman diagrams.

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  • Received 19 September 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.77.084016

©2008 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Sergei Dubovsky1,2, Alberto Nicolis1,3, Enrico Trincherini1, and Giovanni Villadoro1

  • 1Jefferson Physical Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
  • 2Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 60th October Anniversary Prospect, 7a, 117312 Moscow, Russia
  • 3Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA

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Issue

Vol. 77, Iss. 8 — 15 April 2008

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