Ultraviolet asymptotics of particle creation with respect to a congruence of observers

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the ultraviolet behavior of particle creation in quantum field theory relative to general observer congruences, revealing divergence issues and unitarity violations in certain conditions.

Contribution

It provides explicit ultraviolet asymptotics for particle creation and demonstrates divergence and unitarity violation for non-spacelike hypersurfaces in general congruences.

Findings

Total particle number diverges in the ultraviolet limit.

Unitarity is violated when hypersurfaces are not spacelike.

Results hold even in Minkowski spacetime.

Abstract

The construction of quantum field theory (QFT) of a free massive scalar field with respect to a general congruence of observers is considered, the splitting into positive- and negative-frequency modes being defined by diagonalization of the instantaneous Hamiltonian. The explicit expression for the ultraviolet asymptotics of the average number of particles created from the vacuum is found. It is shown that, for a general congruence of observers in the $D$-dimensional spacetime with $D\geqslant3$, the total number of created particles diverges in the ultraviolet domain in the regularization removal limit. This holds even in the Minkowski spacetime. Therefore, in this case, the quantum evolution is not unitary in the regularization removal limit. It is proved that not all classically admissible congruences of observers are proper on a quantum level. Namely, unitarity of QFT with respect to a congruence of observers is violated when the equal time hypersurfaces of this congruence are not spacelike, even for a theory with a finite cutoff. The implications of these results are discussed.