Negative Power Spectra in Quantum Field Theory

Abstract

We consider the spatial power spectra associated with fluctuations of quadratic operators in field theory, such as quantum stress tensor components. We show that the power spectrum can be negative, in contrast to most fluctuation phenomena where the Wiener-Khinchine theorem requires a positive power spectrum. We show why the usual argument for positivity fails in this case, and discuss the physical interpretation of negative power spectra. Possible applications to cosmology are discussed.

4 pages, 1 figure

References in corpus (2)

• Possible Constraints on the Duration of Inflationary Expansion from Quantum Stress Tensor Fluctuations
• Quantum Stress Tensor Fluctuations of a Conformal Field and Inflationary Cosmology

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