Quantum diffeomorphisms and conformal symmetry

Journal Article · Tue Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1997 · Physical Review, D

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.55.4756· OSTI ID:554241

Antoniadis, I ^[1]; Mazur, P O ^[2]; Mottola, E ^[3]

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1. Centre de Physique Theorique, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau (France)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208 (United States)
3. Theoretical Division, T-8, Mail Stop B285, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)

We analyze the constraints of general coordinate invariance for quantum theories possessing conformal symmetry in four dimensions. The character of these constraints simplifies enormously on the Einstein universe R{times}S{sup 3}. The SO(4,2) global conformal symmetry algebra of this space determines uniquely a finite shift in the Hamiltonian constraint from its classical value. In other words, the global Wheeler-De Witt equation is {ital modified} at the quantum level in a well-defined way in this case. We argue that the higher moments of T{sup 00} should not be imposed on the physical states {ital a priori} either, but only the weaker condition {l_angle}{dot T}{sup 00}{r_angle}=0. We present an explicit example of the quantization and diffeomorphism constraints on R{times}S{sup 3} for a free conformal scalar field. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}

• OSTI ID: 554241
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D, Journal Name: Physical Review, D Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 55; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
ALGEBRA
CONFORMAL GROUPS
FOUR-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
HAMILTONIANS
QUANTIZATION
QUANTUM GRAVITY
SCALAR FIELDS
SO GROUPS
SPACE
UNIVERSE