0585908 - FZÚ 2025 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Glavan, Dražen
Photon quantization in cosmological spaces.
Physical Review D. Roč. 109, April (2024), č. článku 085014. ISSN 2470-0010. E-ISSN 2470-0029
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA20-28525S
Institutional support: RVO:68378271
Keywords : quantum fields in curved spacetime * gauge theories * cosmology
OECD category: Particles and field physics
Impact factor: 5, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access

Canonical quantization of the photon - a free massless vector field - is considered in cosmological spacetimes in a two-parameter family of linear gauges that treat all the vector potential components on equal footing. The goal is setting up a framework for computing photon two-point functions appropriate for loop computations in realistic inflationary spacetimes. The quantization is implemented without relying on spacetime symmetries, but rather it is based on the classical canonical structure. Special attention is paid to the quantization of the canonical first-class constraint structure that is implemented as the condition on the physical states. This condition gives rise to subsidiary conditions that the photon two-point functions must satisfy. Some of the de Sitter space photon propagators from the literature are found not to satisfy these subsidiary conditions, bringing into question their consistency.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0353548