Secular growths and their relation to equilibrium states in perturbative QFT

TL;DR

This paper investigates conditions under which secular growths in perturbative quantum field theory can be avoided, demonstrating that spatially compact interactions and suitable background states prevent these growths, especially in thermal equilibrium.

Contribution

It shows that secular effects can be avoided in perturbative QFT with compact spatial support of interactions and specific background states, extending previous results to more general states.

Findings

Secular growths are avoided with compact spatial support of interactions.

Thermalisation ensures no secular effects in the large time limit.

Results apply to scalar and Dirac fields in external electromagnetic potentials.

Abstract

In the perturbative treatment of interacting quantum field theories, if the interaction Lagrangian changes adiabatically in a finite interval of time, secular growths may appear in the truncated perturbative series also when the interaction Lagrangian density is returned to be constant. If this happens, the perturbative approach does not furnish reliable results in the evaluation of scattering amplitudes or expectation values. In this paper we show that these effects can be avoided for adiabatically switched-on interactions, if the spatial support of the interaction is compact and if the background state is suitably chosen. We start considering equilibrium background states and show that, when thermalisation occurs (interaction Lagrangian of spatial compact support), secular effects are avoided. Furthermore, no secular effects pop up if the limit where the Lagrangian is supported everywhere in space is taken after thermalisation (large time limit), in contrast to the reversed order. This result is generalized showing that if the interaction Lagrangian is spatially compact, secular growths are avoided for generic background states which are only invariant under time translation and to states whose explicit dependence of time is not too strong. Finally, as an application, the presented theorems are used to study a complex scalar and a Dirac field, on a background KMS state, in a classical external electromagnetic potential and the contribution to the two point-function given by a generic loop diagram arising from a second order perturbative expansion.