Infrared propagator corrections for constant deceleration

T.M. Janssen, S. Miao, T. Prokopec, R.P. Woodard

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Abstract

We derive the propagator for a massless, minimally coupled scalar on a $D$-dimensional, spatially flat, homogeneous and isotropic background with arbitrary constant deceleration parameter. Our construction uses the operator formalism, by integrating the Fourier mode sum. We give special attention to infrared corrections from the nonzero lower limit associated with working on finite spatial sections. These corrections eliminate infrared divergences that would otherwise be incorrectly treated by dimensional regularization, resulting in off-coincidence divergences for those special values of the deceleration parameter at which the infrared divergence is logarithmic. As an application we compute the expectation value of the scalar stress-energy tensor.
Original languageUndefined/Unknown
Pages (from-to)245013
Number of pages34
JournalClassical and Quantum Gravity
Volume25
Publication statusPublished - 2008

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