Photon propagator in de Sitter space in the general covariant gauge

Abstract

We consider a free photon field in $D$-dimensional de Sitter space, and construct its propagator in the general covariant gauge. Canonical quantization is employed to define the system starting from the classical theory. This guarantees that the propagator satisfies both the equation of motion and subsidiary conditions descending from gauge invariance and gauge fixing. We first construct the propagator as a sum-over-modes in momentum space, carefully accounting for symmetry properties of the state. We then derive the position space propagator in a covariant representation, that is our main result. Our conclusions disagree with previous results as we find that the position space photon propagator necessarily breaks de Sitter symmetry, except in the exact transverse gauge limit.

47 pages

References in corpus (22)

• Vector Inflation
• Stochastic Inflationary Scalar Electrodynamics
• Can a vector field be responsible for the curvature perturbation in the Universe?
• Violent Preheating in Inflation with Nonminimal Coupling
• Schwinger Effect in 4D de Sitter Space and Constraints on Magnetogenesis in the Early Universe
• Inflationary Perturbations: the Cosmological Schwinger Effect
• Two loop stress-energy tensor for inflationary scalar electrodynamics
• Infrared Propagator Corrections for Constant Deceleration
• Two Loop Scalar Bilinears for Inflationary SQED
• A Maximally Symmetric Vector Propagator
• Non-minimally coupled vector curvaton
• One Loop Corrected Mode Functions for SQED during Inflation
• Excitation of Photons by Inflationary Gravitons
• Stueckelberg massive electromagnetism in de Sitter and anti-de Sitter spacetimes: Two-point functions and renormalized stress-energy tensors
• Covariant Vacuum Polarizations on de Sitter Background
• Infrared behavior and gauge artifacts in de Sitter spacetime: The photon field
• Deducing Cosmological Observables from the S-matrix
• One loop graviton corrections to dynamical photons in de Sitter
• Photon propagator in de Sitter space in the general covariant gauge
• Even the photon propagator must break de Sitter symmetry
• Radiative Lifting of Flat Directions of the MSSM in de Sitter Background
• Reheating with Effective Potentials

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Photon propagator in de Sitter space in the general covariant gauge
• When tadpoles matter: One-loop corrections for spectator Higgs in inflation
• Photon propagator for inflation in the general covariant gauge
• Photon quantization in cosmological spaces