2 ysics Lab oratory en, Connecticut 06520-8120 and Alan Cho dos v 1 ysics, Sloane Ph , New Ha as Kaiser y ale.edu ale.edu ersit Andr ysics.y of de Sitter Spacetime ysics.y View metadata,citationandsimilarpapersatcore.ac.uk ale Univ ter for Theoretical Ph Y alph2.ph 〉 Cen PostScript processed by the SLAC/DESY Libraries on 29 Jan 1995. HEP-TH-9501130 ho dos@y c [email protected] 2 1 Symmetry Breaking in the Static Co ordinate System provided byCERNDocumentServer brought toyouby CORE
Abstract:
We study symmetry breaking in the static co ordinate-system of de Sitter space. This is done with
the help of the functional-Schrodinger approach used in previous calculations by Ratra [1]. We consider a
massless, minimally coupled scalar eld as the parameter of a continuous symmetry (the angular comp onent
of an O(2) symmetry). Then we study the correlation function of the massless scalar eld, to derive the
correlation function of the original eld, which nally shows the restoration of the continuous symmetry.
1.Intro duction
Studying quantum eld theory in de Sitter space has a long history [2], and the interest in the in ationary
mo del of the universe brought some attention to the study of symmetry breaking in this spacetime [3]. As
is known from previous results [1,4], the question of whether an internal symmetry is sp ontaneously broken
in a eld theory quantized on a de Sitter background may dep end on the co ordinate system that is chosen.
In this pap er, wecho ose to do the computation for a minimally coupled scalar eld in the so-called static
co ordinate system, which is distinguished by the fact that the interpretation of the results is particularly
transparent in this case.
The co ordinate-system we wish to use has the sp ecial prop erty that its spatial sections are geo desic
hyp ersurfaces with identical metric, and the time co ordinate for each slice is given by the prop er time of
the observer whose spatial co ordinate is the origin. In this sense this system is the one that describ es the
spacetime as a geo desic observer p erceives it. It inherently excludes anything b eyond the event horizon of the
observer, and manifests time-translational invariance, b ecause time-translation is generated by an element
of the de Sitter group (which is not the case for the systems used previously), namely the one that translates
the observer along its world-line ( , rotation in the 0-4 plane according to the co ordinate de nitions of
04
i! t
section 2). Only if the eld is quantized in this system, will the eld mo des have e time-dep endence, with
the t co ordinate time b eing the prop er time of the observer at the origin. The imp ortant consequence of this
prop erty is that this quantization gives us the Fock-space as p erceived by the observer (i.e. the vacuum state
of this quantization will b e the state in which the observer do esn't detect particles, etc.). So if wewantto
de ne symmetry breaking according to the eld measurements of our geo desic observer in its vacuum state,
then wemust calculate the exp ectation value of the eld on the vacuum state of this quantization.
2.The static system
De Sitter spacetime can b e emb edded in a 5D Minkowski-space (we use signature < +; ; ; ; >),
where it is a 4D hyp ersurface determined by
2 2 2 2 2 2
0 1 2 3 4
x x x x x = (2:1)