Algebraic approach to quantum field theory on non-globally-hyperbolic spacetimes

Abstract

The mathematical formalism for linear quantum field theory on curved spacetime depends in an essential way on the assumption of global hyperbolicity. Physically, what lie at the foundation of any formalism for quantization in curved spacetime are the canonical commutation relations, imposed on the field operators evaluated at a global Cauchy surface. In the algebraic formulation of linear quantum field theory, the canonical commutation relations are restated in terms of a well-defined symplectic structure on the space of smooth solutions, and the local field algebra is constructed as the Weyl algebra associated to this symplectic vector space. When spacetime is not globally hyperbolic, e.g. when it contains naked singularities or closed time-like curves, a global Cauchy surface does not exist, and there is no obvious way to formulate the canonical commutation relations, hence no obvious way to construct the field algebra. In a paper which appears elsewhere in this journal, we report on a generalization of the algebraic framework for quantum field theory to arbitrary topological spaces which do not necessarily have a spacetime metric defined on them at the outset. Taking this generalization as a starting point, in this paper we give a prescription for constructing the field algebra of a (massless or massive) Klein--Gordon field on an arbitrary background spacetime. When spacetime is globally hyperbolic, the theory defined by our construction coincides with the ordinary Klein--Gordon field theory on a globally hyperbolic background. We explore some basic features of our generalized Klein--Gordon theory on arbitrary spacetimes, and study its specific properties on simple examples of non-globally-hyperbolic backgrounds that contain closed time-like curves or naked singularities.