Causality and micro-causality in curved spacetime

DOI10.1016/J.PHYSLETB.2007.08.073zbMATH Open1246.81175arXiv0707.2302OpenAlexW2007729814WikidataQ126077272 ScholiaQ126077272MaRDI QIDQ446799FDOQ446799

Authors: Timothy J. Hollowood, Graham M. Shore 

Publication date: 8 September 2012

Published in: Physics Letters B (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We consider how causality and micro-causality are realised in QED in curved spacetime. The photon propagator is found to exhibit novel non-analytic behaviour due to vacuum polarization, which invalidates the Kramers-Kronig dispersion relation and calls into question the validity of micro-causality in curved spacetime. This non-analyticity is ultimately related to the generic focusing nature of congruences of geodesics in curved spacetime, as implied by the null energy condition, and the existence of conjugate points. These results arise from a calculation of the complete non-perturbative frequency dependence of the vacuum polarization tensor in QED, using novel world-line path integral methods together with the Penrose plane-wave limit of spacetime in the neighbourhood of a null geodesic. The refractive index of curved spacetime is shown to exhibit superluminal phase velocities, dispersion, absorption (due to gamma o e^+e^-) and bi-refringence, but we demonstrate that the wavefront velocity (the high-frequency limit of the phase velocity) is indeed c, thereby guaranteeing that causality itself is respected.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0707.2302

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zbMATH Keywords

causalitycurved spacetimeQEDmicro-causality

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum field theory on curved space or space-time backgrounds (81T20) Electromagnetic interaction; quantum electrodynamics (81V10)

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Cited In (16)

• The effect of gravitational tidal forces on renormalized quantum fields
• String quantum gravity, Lorentz-invariance violation and gamma ray astronomy
• Amplitude's positivity vs. subluminality: causality and unitarity constraints on dimension 6 \& 8 gluonic operators in the SMEFT
• Superluminality, black holes and EFT
• Massive gravity
• Graviton propagation and vacuum polarization in curved space
• The unbearable beingness of light: dressing and undressing photons in black hole spacetimes
• The causal structure of QED in curved spacetime: analyticity and the refractive index
• The Maslov index and some applications to dispersion relations in curved space times
• Decoherence and CPT violation in a stringy model of space-time foam
• The refractive index of curved spacetime: The fate of causality in QED
• Softness and amplitudes' positivity for spinning particles
• Initial value problem in string-inspired nonlocal field theory
• Causality of 3D extended gravity theories
• A cautionary case of casual causality
• Gravitational causality and the self-stress of photons

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