Related papers: Fermionic alpha-vacua
A free scalar field propagating in de Sitter space has a one parameter family of invariant states called the alpha-vacua. In an interacting theory, all except a unique state, the Bunch-Davies vacuum, produce non-renormalizable divergences.…
When examining a field theory in a general state, the propagator must be made consistent with that state and new counterterms are allowed if the state breaks some of the space-time's symmetries. This talk describes the specific example of…
An interacting scalar field theory in de Sitter space is non-renormalizable for a generic alpha-vacuum state. This pathology arises since the usual propagator used allows for a constructive interference among propagators in loop…
We set up a consistent renormalizable perturbation theory of a scalar field in a nontrivial alpha vacuum in de Sitter space. Although one representation of the effective action involves non-local interactions between anti-podal points, we…
We show that a notion of one-particle state and the corresponding vacuum state exists in general curved backgrounds for spin $\frac{1}{2}$ fields. A curved spacetime can be equipped with a coordinate system in which the metric component…
We study the fermion propagator in a spatially varying classical background field, and show that, contrary to common wisdom, it may get nontrivial gradient corrections already at the first order in derivative expansion. This occurs whenever…
de Sitter space-time has a one complex parameter family of invariant vacua for the theory of a free, massive scalar field. For most of these vacua, in an interacting scalar theory the one loop corrections diverge linearly for large values…
Field theory in de Sitter space admits a one-parameter family of vacua determined by a superselection parameter alpha. Of these vacua, the Euclidean vacuum uniquely extrapolates to the vacuum of flat Minkowski space. States which resemble…
The higher-derivative $\alpha'$ corrections consistent with $O(d,d)$ duality invariance can be completely classified for cosmological, purely time-dependent backgrounds. This result is used to show that there are duality invariant theories…
The unique off-shell fermionic gauge invariance of a vector-spinor field theory is found, and the invariant action is derived. The latter is Weyl invariant in any dimension in the massless limit, and it coincides with the singular point of…
It is shown that the so-called $\alpha$-vacua which have been proposed as candidates for states of free quantum fields on de Sitter space have infinitely strong fluctuations for typical observables as averaged renormalized energy momentum…
We discuss the possibility to construct an effective quantum field theory for an axial vector coupled to a Dirac spinor field. A massive axial vector describes antisymmetric torsion. The consistency conditions include unitarity and…
A partial resummation of perturbation theory is described for field theories containing spin-1/2 particles in states that may be far from thermal equilibrium. This allows the nonequilibrium state to be characterized in terms of…
The propagator of a scalar field on a stationary slowly varying in space gravitational background is derived retaining only the second derivatives of the metric. The corresponding one-loop effective action is constructed. The propagator and…
We present a rigorous derivation of a semiclassical propagator for anticommuting (fermionic) degrees of freedom, starting from an exact representation in terms of Grassmann variables. As a key feature of our approach the anticommuting…
In relativistic quantum field theory particles of half-integer spin must obey Fermi-Dirac statistics. Their quantum operators must anticommute at spacelike separation in contrast to commuting physical observables. We show that Fermi-Dirac…
The influence of vector backgrounds with restored Lorentz invariance on non-abelian gauge field theories is studied. Lorentz invariance is ensured by taking the average over a Lorentz invariant ensemble of background vectors. Like in the…
We construct the propagator for a free fermionic unparticle field from basic considerations of scale and Lorentz invariance. The propagator is fixed up to a normalization factor which is required to recover the result of a free massless…
From a geometric point of view, massless spinors in $3+1$ dimensions are composed of primary fields of weights $(\frac{1}{2},0)$ and $(0,\frac{1}{2})$, where the weights are defined with respect to diffeomorphisms of a sphere in momentum…
We describe a background independent quantization of the scalar field that provides an explicit realization of Fock-like states and associated operators in a polymer Hilbert space. The vacuum expectation values of the commutator and…