The causal structure of QED in curved spacetime: analyticity and the refractive index

DOI10.1088/1126-6708/2008/12/091MaRDI QIDQ905569zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Timothy J. Hollowood, Graham M. Shore

Publication date 20 January 2016

Published in Journal of High Energy Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0806.1019

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

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

Abstract: The effect of vacuum polarization on the propagation of photons in curved spacetime is studied in scalar QED. A compact formula is given for the full frequency dependence of the refractive index for any background in terms of the Van Vleck-Morette matrix for its Penrose limit and it is shown how the superluminal propagation found in the low-energy effective action is reconciled with causality. The geometry of null geodesic congruences is found to imply a novel analytic structure for the refractive index and Green functions of QED in curved spacetime, which preserves their causal nature but violates familiar axioms of S-matrix theory and dispersion relations. The general formalism is illustrated in a number of examples, in some of which it is found that the refractive index develops a negative imaginary part, implying an amplification of photons as an electromagnetic wave propagates through curved spacetime.

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Cited in

(20)

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• A new twist on the geometry of gravitational plane waves
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• A local effective action for photon-gravity interactions
• Superluminal chaos after a quantum quench
• The effect of gravitational tidal forces on renormalized quantum fields
• Propagation of photons in spacetime
• Causality and micro-causality in curved spacetime
• Normalizability analysis of the generalized quantum electrodynamics from the causal point of view
• Graviton propagation and vacuum polarization in curved space
• The unbearable beingness of light: dressing and undressing photons in black hole spacetimes
• Global propagation of massive quantum fields in the plane gravitational waves and electromagnetic backgrounds
• Light propagation on quantum curved spacetime and back reaction effects
• Exactly solvable 2D model for photon propagation in curved space: loss of interference and Bell inequality violation
• The Maslov index and some applications to dispersion relations in curved space times
• Perturbations of plane waves and quadratic quasinormal modes on the lightring
• Scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity: infrared causality and detectability of GW observations
• Derivation of a vacuum refractive index in a stringy space-time foam model
• The refractive index of curved spacetime: The fate of causality in QED

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