Renormalization of the quantum stress-energy tensor in inhomogeneous spacetimes: Adiabatic regularization method

Journal Article · Fri Feb 15 00:00:00 EST 1991 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.43.1262· OSTI ID:5907812

Huang, W ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan 70101, Republic of China (CN)

The adiabatic regularization method, known to be a particularly efficient method for numerical study of quantum field dynamics in curved spacetimes, is applicable to evaluate the renormalized stress-energy tensor for matter in any background metric which has sufficient symmetry to allow a decomposition of the quantized field into modes. In this paper we extend this method to more general spacetimes with a small inhomogeneity which is invariant under spatial reflection. We overcome the difficulty of the mode-mixing behavior arising from the inhomogeneity of spacetime and show a possible way of obtaining the WKB solution of the time-dependent mode function under the early-time approximation. As an illustration, we investigate the renormalization of the quantum stress-energy tensor for a massive scalar field with an arbitrary curvature coupling to the inhomogeneous conformally flat spacetime. Our expressions are useful in formulating the semiclassical theory of gravity and in the numerical study of the back reaction of quantized fields in the early Universe with a small inhomogeneity.

• OSTI ID: 5907812
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (USA), Vol. 43:4; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
RENORMALIZATION
EINSTEIN FIELD EQUATIONS
GRAND UNIFIED THEORY
GRAVITATIONAL FIELDS
KLEIN-GORDON EQUATION
METRICS
QUANTIZATION
SCALAR FIELDS
SEMICLASSICAL APPROXIMATION
SPACE-TIME
SYMMETRY BREAKING
TENSORS
UNIVERSE
WKB APPROXIMATION
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS
FIELD EQUATIONS
FIELD THEORIES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
PARTICLE MODELS
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS
UNIFIED-FIELD THEORIES
WAVE EQUATIONS
645400* - High Energy Physics- Field Theory
645300 - High Energy Physics- Particle Invariance Principles & Symmetries
657002 - Theoretical & Mathematical Physics- Classical & Quantum Mechanics