Title:	Path integral quantization of parametrized field theory
Authors:	Varadarajan, Madhavan
Issue Date:	12-Oct-2004
Publisher:	The American Physical Society
Citation:	Physical Review D, 2004, Vol.70, 084013
Abstract:	Free scalar field theory on a flat spacetime can be cast into a generally covariant form known as parametrized field theory in which the action is a functional of the scalar field as well as the embedding variables which describe arbitrary, in general curved, foliations of the flat spacetime. We construct the path integral quantization of parametrized field theory in order to analyze issues at the interface of quantum field theory and general covariance in a path integral context. We show that the measure in the Lorentzian path integral is nontrivial and is the analog of the Fradkin-Vilkovisky measure for quantum gravity. We construct Euclidean functional integrals in the generally covariant setting of parametrized field theory using key ideas of Schleich and show that our constructions imply the existence of nonstandard "Wick rotations" of the standard free scalar field two-point function. We develop a framework to study the problem of time through computations of scalar field two-point functions. We illustrate our ideas through explicit computation for a time independent (1 + 1)-dimensional foliation. Although the problem of time seems to be absent in this simple example, the general case is still open. We discuss our results in the contexts of the path integral formulation of quantum gravity and the canonical quantization of parametrized field theory.
URI:	http://hdl.handle.net/2289/1176
ISSN:	1550-7998 1550-2368 (online)
Alternative Location:	http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v70/e084013
Copyright:	(2004) by the American Physical Society
Appears in Collections:	Research Papers (TP)

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