Quantum Fields without Wick Rotation

We discuss the calculation of one-loop effective actions in Lorentzian spacetimes, based on a very simple application of the method of steepest descent to the integral over the field. We show that for static spacetimes this procedure agrees with the analytic continuation of Euclidean calculations. W...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Alessio Baldazzi, Roberto Percacci, Vedran Skrinjar
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	MDPI AG 2019-03-01
Series:	Symmetry
Subjects:	Quantum Field Theory Wick rotation heat kernel zeta function
Online Access:	http://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/11/3/373

id	doaj-b4d82cdccba64d8591d755480f647e65
record_format	Article
spelling	doaj-b4d82cdccba64d8591d755480f647e652020-11-25T02:17:14ZengMDPI AGSymmetry2073-89942019-03-0111337310.3390/sym11030373sym11030373Quantum Fields without Wick RotationAlessio Baldazzi0Roberto Percacci1Vedran Skrinjar2International School for Advanced Studies, via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, ItalyInternational School for Advanced Studies, via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, ItalyInternational School for Advanced Studies, via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, ItalyWe discuss the calculation of one-loop effective actions in Lorentzian spacetimes, based on a very simple application of the method of steepest descent to the integral over the field. We show that for static spacetimes this procedure agrees with the analytic continuation of Euclidean calculations. We also discuss how to calculate the effective action by integrating a renormalization group equation. We show that the result is independent of arbitrary choices in the definition of the coarse-graining and we see again that the Lorentzian and Euclidean calculations agree. When applied to quantum gravity on static backgrounds, our procedure is equivalent to analytically continuing time and the integral over the conformal factor.http://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/11/3/373Quantum Field TheoryWick rotationheat kernelzeta function
collection	DOAJ
language	English
format	Article
sources	DOAJ
author	Alessio Baldazzi Roberto Percacci Vedran Skrinjar
spellingShingle	Alessio Baldazzi Roberto Percacci Vedran Skrinjar Quantum Fields without Wick Rotation Symmetry Quantum Field Theory Wick rotation heat kernel zeta function
author_facet	Alessio Baldazzi Roberto Percacci Vedran Skrinjar
author_sort	Alessio Baldazzi
title	Quantum Fields without Wick Rotation
title_short	Quantum Fields without Wick Rotation
title_full	Quantum Fields without Wick Rotation
title_fullStr	Quantum Fields without Wick Rotation
title_full_unstemmed	Quantum Fields without Wick Rotation
title_sort	quantum fields without wick rotation
publisher	MDPI AG
series	Symmetry
issn	2073-8994
publishDate	2019-03-01
description	We discuss the calculation of one-loop effective actions in Lorentzian spacetimes, based on a very simple application of the method of steepest descent to the integral over the field. We show that for static spacetimes this procedure agrees with the analytic continuation of Euclidean calculations. We also discuss how to calculate the effective action by integrating a renormalization group equation. We show that the result is independent of arbitrary choices in the definition of the coarse-graining and we see again that the Lorentzian and Euclidean calculations agree. When applied to quantum gravity on static backgrounds, our procedure is equivalent to analytically continuing time and the integral over the conformal factor.
topic	Quantum Field Theory Wick rotation heat kernel zeta function
url	http://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/11/3/373
work_keys_str_mv	AT alessiobaldazzi quantumfieldswithoutwickrotation AT robertopercacci quantumfieldswithoutwickrotation AT vedranskrinjar quantumfieldswithoutwickrotation
_version_	1724887510385950720

Quantum Fields without Wick Rotation

Similar Items