Causal signal transmission by quantum fields. V: Generalised Keldysh rotations and electromagnetic response of the Dirac sea (Q714003)

The authors construct in the quantum-field theoretic formalism a family of generalized Keldysh rotations depending on a parameter \(s\) in \([-1,1]\). When \(s=0\), the usual Keldysh rotation of real-time quantum field theory is recovered by a simple change of basis in the Green function, yielding the average retarded commutator and the average anticommutator. When \(s=1\), the generalized Keldysh rotation, called response transformation [Ann. Phys. 323, No. 8, 1989--2017 (2008; Zbl 1154.82016)], is a non-local time transformation, based on the positive/negative frequency decomposition of the time delta kernel, which produces time normal-ordered products of Heisenberg operators, with vanishing zero-point fluctuations. General formulas for time-normal ordered \(n\)-point functions of the quantized electromagnetic field, based on a generating functional, appear in Equation (B.20), making Equation (76) explicit. The authors study in this formalism the example of the relativistic electromagnetic field interacting with the Dirac vacuum in a linearized one-loop approximation (see appendices B to E). As underlined in the conclusion, the response transformation is, however, not invariant under Lorentz transformations in general.