Approximate spectral functions in thermal field theory

Abstract

Causality requires, that the (anti-) commutator of two interacting field operators vanishes for space-like coordinate differences. This implies, that the Fourier transform of the spectral function of this quantum field should vanish in the space-like domain. We find, that this requirement imposes some constraints on the use of resummed propagators in high temperature gauge theory.

15 pages, latex, 3 figures included. Major rewriting of paper. Available also at ftp://tpri6c.gsi.de/pub/phenning/h95comm/ or at http://www.gsi.de/~phenning/pahtft.html

References in corpus (3)

• Towards a Relativistic KMS Condition
• Soft Photons from Off-shell Particles in a Hot Plasma
• Photon Production from a Quark--Gluon Plasma

Cited by in corpus (10)

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• Axiomatic Analyticity Properties and Representations of Particles in Thermal Quantum Field Theory
• The fermionic limit of the delta-function Bose gas: a pseudopotential approach
• Dispersion relations alone cannot guarantee causality
• Pseudo-scalar meson spectral properties in the chiral crossover region of QCD
• Analytic Properties of Finite-Temperature Self-Energies
• Microcausality in strongly interacting fields
• Dynamics of Resonances in Strongly Interacting Systems
• Gluon plasmon frequency near the light-cone
• Hard thermal loops in a magnetic field and the chiral anomaly