Physics
Scientific paper
Nov 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992phrvd..46.4456f&link_type=abstract
Physical Review D (Particles, Fields, Gravitation, and Cosmology), Volume 46, Issue 10, 15 November 1992, pp.4456-4469
Physics
34
Theory Of Quantized Fields
Scientific paper
The scattering of free quantum fields is well defined on a class of asymptotically flat spacetimes with closed timelike curves (CTC's), and, at least on these spacetimes, the S matrix is unitary as well. For interacting fields, however, the preceding paper has obtained a set of unitarity relations that must be satisfied by the Feynman propagator if the scattering is to be unitary to each order in perturbation theory. In a globally hyperbolic spacetime, the causal form of the propagator guarantees that the relations are satisfied, but for spacetimes with CTC's, the form of the propagator is altered, and we show that the unitarity relations are not satisfied for interacting fields. We consider the λφ4 theory in detail, but the results appear to hold for a wide class of fields. Although a conventional interpretation of quantum mechanics leads to inconsistency, a path-integral interpretation appears to allow a consistent assignment of probabilities to histories.
Friedman John L.
Papastamatiou Nicolas J.
Simon Jonathan Z.
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