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Negative Power Spectra in Quantum Field Theory

Quantum Physics 2015-05-20 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We consider the spatial power spectra associated with fluctuations of quadratic operators in field theory, such as quantum stress tensor components. We show that the power spectrum can be negative, in contrast to most fluctuation phenomena where the Wiener-Khinchine theorem requires a positive power spectrum. We show why the usual argument for positivity fails in this case, and discuss the physical interpretation of negative power spectra. Possible applications to cosmology are discussed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1012.3226,
  title  = {Negative Power Spectra in Quantum Field Theory},
  author = {Jen-Tsung Hsiang and Chun-Hsien Wu and L. H. Ford},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1012.3226},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

4 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-21T16:58:52.056Z