An analytic approach to the stress energy tensor in quantum field theory

TL;DR

This paper develops a framework for quantum fields in curved spacetime, demonstrating the existence and properties of the stress energy tensor as a local field and analyzing its implications for quantum field theory.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to the stress energy tensor in curved spacetime, showing its role as a connection form and analyzing its properties in the Klein-Gordon field.

Findings

Existence of a stress energy tensor as a local field in certain quantum field theories.

The scattering matrix for metric perturbations exists and is smooth in the Fock space.

Microlocal analysis of parameter-dependent fundamental solutions is established.

Abstract

We discuss a framework for quantum fields in curved spacetimes that possess a stress energy tensor as a connection one form on a suitable moduli space of metrics. In generic spacetimes the existence of such a tensor is thought to be a replacement for the existence of symmetries that the Minkowski theory relies on. It is shown that the local time-slice property and the implementability of local isometries are consequences of the existence of a stress energy tensor that is a local field. We prove that the Klein-Gordon field, in an irreducible Fock representation determined by a quasifree Hadamard state, is an example. In this example we show that the scattering matrix for compactly supported metric perturbations exists in the Fock space and is smooth on a dense set with respect to the perturbation parameter. This generalises results by Dimock and Wald. As a tool we also establish the precise microlocal properties of parameter dependent fundamental solutions.