Scalar field in ${\mathrm{AdS}}_2$ and representations of $\widetilde{\mathrm{SL}}(2,\mathbb{R})$

Abstract

We study the solutions to the Klein-Gordon equation for the massive scalar field in the universal covering space of two-dimensional anti-de Sitter space. For certain values of the mass parameter, we impose a suitable set of boundary conditions which make the spatial component of the Klein-Gordon operator self-adjoint. This makes the time-evolution of the classical field well defined. Then, we use the transformation properties of the scalar field under the isometry group of the theory, namely, the universal covering group of $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$, in order to determine which self-adjoint boundary conditions are invariant under this group, and which lead to the positive-frequency solutions forming a unitary representation of this group and, hence, to a vacuum state invariant under this group. Then we examine the cases where the boundary condition leads to an invariant theory with non-invariant vacuum state and determine the unitary representation to which the vacuum state belongs.

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