The semiclassical propagator in field theory
Michael Joyce, Kimmo Kainulainen, Tomislav Prokopec
TL;DR
This paper develops a semiclassical approximation for the propagator in scalar field theory with a spatially varying mass, revealing quantum correlations in momentum space and aligning with WKB results.
Contribution
It introduces a semiclassical propagator for scalar fields with spatially varying parameters, highlighting quantum correlations due to localization.
Findings
Semiclassical dispersion relation matches WKB results.
Localization induces quantum correlations in momentum space.
Constructs a semiclassical propagator for varying mass fields.
Abstract
We consider scalar field theory in a changing background field. As an example we study the simple case of a spatially varying mass for which we construct the semiclassical approximation to the propagator. The semiclassical dispersion relation is obtained by consideration of spectral integrals and agrees with the WKB result. Further we find that, as a consequence of localization, the semiclassical approximation necessarily contains quantum correlations in momentum space.
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