Quantum Field Theory in

Curved Spacetime
Peng Zhao
Trinity College, Cambridge
4 December, 2008

Michaelmas Term
Part III Seminars

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What is ... QFT in curved spacetime?

Build QFT on the spacetime of General Relativity.

Simple idea but leads to interesting (and puzzling)
predictions.
Vacuum may contain particles or thermally radiate
depending on the observer.
Connection to the Hawking radiation in black hole
thermodynamics.
Hard questions: divergence of the energy momentum
tensor, renormalization, etc.

Caveat:
We are not trying to quantize gravity. QFT in curved spacetime is a semiclassical theory.
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Outline
QFT in flat spacetime
QFT in curved spacetime
The Unruh effect
The Hawking radiation
Spin fields and vielbein

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QFT in flat spacetime

Special Relativity assumes spacetime is a Lorentzian
manifold M with a flat Minkowski metric
= diag(1, 1, 1, 1).
Klein-Gordon L = 21 21 m2 2 .
Hamiltonian H = L.
Expand into Fourier modes:
Z

d3 p 1  ipx
ipx
(x) =
a
e
+
a
e
.
p
~
p
~
(2)3 2Ep~
Quanize:
[(t, ~x), (t, ~y )] = i(~x ~y ) [ap~ , aq~] = (2)3 (~p ~q).

ap~ , ap~ annihilates and creates particles in the Fock

space. Vacuum |0i s.t. ap~ |0i = 0 for all ap~ .
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Frequency modes
Z



d3 p ap~ fp~ + ap~ fp~ .

(x) =

The positive frequency modes

1
1 ipx
fp~ = (2)
,
t fp~ = ifp > 0.
3 2E e
p
~

The negative frequency modes

1 ipx
1
fp~ = (2)
,
t fp~ = ifp~ > 0.
3 2E e
p
~

{fp~ , fp~ } form an orthonormal

basis w.r.t. the inner
Z
d3 x(f t g t f g ).

product (f, g) = i

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Poincar symmetry
Important:
We are able to pick out the positive and negative frequency
modes because of the existence of timelike Killing vector
t associated with the Poincar symmetry in Minkowski
spacetime (GR example sheet 3).
In curved spacetime, Poincar symmetry is lost and there
is no preferred set of modes. We will see the
consequence of this.

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From flat to curved spacetime

In General Relativity, spacetime is a Lorentizan manifold
(M, g) of signature (+ ) that is locally Minkowskian.
The Recipe
g .
.

L = g 21 g 12 m2 2 .

L
=
= g0 .
(0 )

Next we wish to expand into Fourier modes and

quantize...

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The vacuum state

As before,
an orthonormal basis {fi , fi } such
Xthere exists
that =
(ai fi + ai fi ).
i
Quantize

= Get vacuum state |0if s.t. ai |0if = 0 for all ai .

But the choice of basis is not X

unique. Instead, could have

chosen {gi , gi } such that =

(bi gi + bi gi ).
i
Quantize

= Get vacuum state |0ig s.t. bi |0ig = 0 for all bi .

Is 0if = 0ig ?

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The Bogolubov transformation

Write
gi =

fj =

ij fj + ij fj ,

gi + ij gi .
ij

The Bogolubov cofficients ij , ij satisfy

X

ik jk
ik jk
= ij ,
k

= 0.
ik jk
ik jk

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The Bogolubov transformation

We can also expand operators using the Bogolubov
coefficients:

X

bj ,
ji bj + ji
ai =
j

bi =

X

ij
aj + ij aj .

In general, ai does not annihilate |0ig . |0ig is a vacuum

state in one Fock space, but not in the other.

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The vacuum state?

Recall: the number operator Np~ = ap~ ap~ acts on Fock
space and tells us the number of particles present.

The vacuum expectation value (v.e.v) of Ni = ai ai is

P

2
g h0|Ni |0ig = g h0|ai ai |0ig =
j |ji | .
P
2
The vacuum |0ig contains
j |ji | particles in the fi
mode!
Observers with different notions of positive and
negative frequency modes cannot agree on the
vacuum state.

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The Unruh effect

An accelerating observer
in Minkowski spacetime
detects a thermal
spectrum of particles in
the vacuum state.

Analogous to the Hawking radiation in black hole

spacetime.
In fact, it was discovered by Bill Unruh in 1976 in
order to better understand the Hawking radiation.

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The Rindler coordinates

Particle of uniform
acceleration (t, x) =

1
sinh a, a1 cosh a
a
follows motion along the
hyperbola t2 x2 = a2 .

Choose(
coordinates (, ) defined by


1 a
e sinh(a), a1 ea cosh(a)
a


(t, x) =
a1 ea sinh(a), a1 ea cosh(a)

in R
.
in L

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The wave equation

Massless Klein-Gordon wave equation
 = (t2 x2 ) = 0.
Plane wave solution (x) = 1 ei(t+kx) .
4
Z


=
dk ak fk + ak fk .

Minkowski Vacuum |0M i s.t. ak |0iM = 0 for all ak .

The conformal metric ds2 = e2a (d 2 d 2 ) is
independent of , so is a Killing vector, giving
prefered modes.


 = e2a 2 2 = 0.

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The Rindler vacuum

e2a 2 2 = 0.

Plane wave solutions

1
ei(k) .
= 4

Positive frequency modes

(
1 ei(+k) in R
(1)
(1)
(1)
4
gk =
, gk = igk .
0
in L
(
0
in R
(2)
(2)
(2)
gk =
, () gk = igk .
1
i(+k)

e
in
L
4
Z


(1) (1)
(1) (1)
(2) (2)
(2) (2)
=
dk bk gk + bk gk + bk gk + bk gk
.

(1)

(2)

Rindler Vacuum |0R i s.t. bk |0R i = bk |0R i = 0.

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The Unruh effect

Use the Bogolubov transformation to relate ak and bk .
The v.e.v. of the number operator is

(1) (1)

h0M |bk bk |0M i =

But

1
e2/a

is just a
e2/a 1
black body spectrum of
a
temperature T = 2
.
vacuum is warm!

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The Hawking radiation

Black holes aint so black

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Hawking radiation from Unruh

Freely falling observer close to the event horizon
experiences large acceleration a1 .
Spacetime looks flat over scale a1
1 .
Assumption: The quantum state of some scalar field
looks like the Minkowski vacuum 0iM .
Static observer at r1 looks like accelerating observer
in flat spacetime, thus detects Unruh radiation at
a1
T1 = 2
.
Far away from the event horizon, the temperature is
V1
V1 a1

red-shifted to T2 = T = lim
=
.
r2GM 2
V2
2
q
1
Redshift factor V = 1 2GM
, surface gravity = 4GM
.
r

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Hawking v.s. Unruh

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Spin fields in curved spacetime

The Lorentz group is generated by S = 14 [ , ], the
spinor representation of the Lorentz algebra.
Dirac spinor S[] under
Lorentz transformation
, where S[] = exp 12  S .
Dirac Lagrangian

L = (i m), { , } = 2 .
Need to transform ??? so that { , } = 2g .
Need covariant derivative s.t. L remains a scalar.
The missing ingredient: the vielbein formalism (c.f.
Ricardos talk).

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The vielbein formalism

Let (M, g) be the spacetime, and { } the coordinate
induced basis of the tangent space Tp M for p M.
Vielbein an orthonormal basis of Tp M:
{ea } = {Va } s.t. g(ea , eb ) = ab . g Va Vb = ab .
c
Define = and a eb = ba
ec .
Write a eb in coordinate induced basis
b
a
= Va Vb + Vb Va .

b
The (1,1)-tensor valued one-form ab a
dx is
called a spin connection.

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Cartan structural equations

Write torsion and curvature compactly as:
T a = dea + ba eb . (1)
Rba = dba + ca bc . (2)
They are called Cartan structural equations.
a
T a d(Va dx ) + b
dx (Vb dx )


a
= Vb + Vb b
dx dx


= Va dx dx .

But T a = Va T
dx dx , so T
= .

Similarly, (2) recovers the Riemann curvature tensor in
terms of Christoffel symbols.

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Spin fields in curved spacetime

Use the spin connection ab to formulate Dirac
Lagrangian in curved spacetime.


b
Define a = Va + i 12 c
Sbc .

a transforms as a S[]ba b .
Dirac Lagrangian

L = g (i a a m),

where a Va satisfies { a , b } = 2Va Vb = 2g ab .

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Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this brief tour of QFT in curved
spacetime:
The concept of vacuum is observer dependent.
Uniformly accelerating observer in vacuum detects
thermal radiation.
The Hawking temperature can be deduced from the
Unruh effect.
Spin fields can be written in covariant form using the
vielbein formalism.

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Further Reading

N.D. Birrell and P. C. W. Davies

Quantum Fields in Curved Space.
Cambridge University Press, 1982.
R. M. Wald
Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetime and
Black Hole Thermodynamics.
University of Chicago Press, 1994.

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Thank You!
Any Questions?

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Bonus slide: Which observer?

The number of particles in vacuum depends on the

observer.
But experimental evidence suggests that the number
of particles is well-defined.
Operation definition: the number of particles is that
measured by a particle detector in its rest frame.

Bonus slide: Wheres the heat?

Where does the thermal radiation come from?

The v.e.v. of the energy-momentum tensor
h0|T| 0i = 0.
Energy comes from the work done on the detector to
keep it accelerating.

Bonus slide: Experimental evidence

~c3
is too small to be
8GM k
8
measurable ( 10 K for a solar mass black hole).
The next best thing is to test the Unruh radiation, but
this is far from easy as well.
Hope to accelerate electrons extremely rapidly in ultra
intense laser background (Chen, Tajima, 1999).

Hawking temperature T =

Bonus slide:
Problems with divergence persist in QFT in curved
spacetime. In fact, it is harder.
For QFT in flat spacetime, can simply cut off at a
reasonable energy scale, say lplanck , or claim only
energy difference is measurable.
In curved spacetime, Einsteins equation says
G = T cant just throw away infinite energy.
Renormalization.