In-in correlators and scattering amplitudes on a causal set
arXiv:2402.08555 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.109.106014
Abstract
Causal set theory is an approach to quantum gravity in which spacetime is fundamentally discrete at the Planck scale and takes the form of a Lorentzian lattice, or "causal set", from which continuum spacetime emerges in a large-scale (low-energy) approximation. In this work, we present new developments in the framework of interacting quantum field theory on causal sets. We derive a diagrammatic expansion for in-in correlators in local scalar field theories with finite polynomial interactions. We outline how these same correlators can be computed using the double-path integral which acts as a generating functional for the in-in correlators. We modify the in-in generating functional to obtain a generating functional for in-out correlators. We define a notion of scattering amplitudes on causal sets with non-interacting past and future regions and verify that they are given by S-matrix elements (matrix elements of the time-evolution operator). We describe how these formal developments can be implemented to compute early universe observables under the assumption that spacetime is fundamentally discrete.
34 pages
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