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

DOI10.1088/1126-6708/2008/12/091zbMATH Open1329.81379arXiv0806.1019OpenAlexW2088651089MaRDI QIDQ905569FDOQ905569

Authors: Timothy J. Hollowood, Graham M. Shore 

Publication date: 20 January 2016

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

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.

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

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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 (18)

• A local effective action for photon-gravity interactions
• Superluminal chaos after a quantum quench
• The effect of gravitational tidal forces on renormalized quantum fields
• Derivation of a vacuum refractive index in a stringy space-time foam model
• Exactly solvable 2D model for photon propagation in curved space: loss of interference and Bell inequality violation
• A new twist on the geometry of gravitational plane waves
• Leptogenesis from loop effects in curved spacetime
• Propagation of photons in spacetime
• Causality and micro-causality in curved spacetime
• Superluminality, black holes and EFT
• 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
• The Maslov index and some applications to dispersion relations in curved space times
• The refractive index of curved spacetime: The fate of causality in QED
• Light propagation on quantum curved spacetime and back reaction effects
• Memory, Penrose limits and the geometry of gravitational shockwaves and gyratons

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