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Utah State University

1999

Mathematical Physics

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Functional Evolution Of Free Quantum Fields, Charles G. Torre, Madhavan Varadarajan Jan 1999

Functional Evolution Of Free Quantum Fields, Charles G. Torre, Madhavan Varadarajan

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We consider the problem of evolving a quantum field between any two (in general, curved) Cauchy surfaces. Classically, this dynamical evolution is represented by a canonical transformation on the phase space for the field theory. We show that this canonical transformation cannot, in general, be unitarily implemented on the Fock space for free quantum fields on flat spacetimes of dimension greater than 2. We do this by considering time evolution of a free Klein-Gordon field on a flat spacetime (with toroidal Cauchy surfaces) starting from a flat initial surface and ending on a generic final surface. The associated Bogolubov transformation …