Faddeev-Popov-ghost propagators for Yang-Mills theories and perturbative quantum gravity in the covariant gauge in de Sitter spacetime

Abstract

The propagators of the Faddeev-Popov (FP) ghosts for Yang-Mills theories and perturbative quantum gravity in the covariant gauge are infrared (IR) divergent in de Sitter spacetime. We point out, however, that the modes responsible for these divergences will not contribute to loop diagrams in computations of time-ordered products in either Yang-Mills theories or perturbative quantum gravity. Therefore, we propose that the IR-divergent FP-ghost propagator should be regularized by a small mass term that is sent to zero in the end of any perturbative calculations. This proposal is equivalent to using the effective FP-ghost propagators, which we present in an explicit form, obtained by removing the modes responsible for the IR divergences. We also make some comments on the corresponding propagators in anti-de Sitter spacetime.