Quantization of Scalar Field in the Presence of Imaginary Frequency Modes

Abstract

Complex frequency modes occur for a scalar field near a rapidly rotating star {\it with ergoregion but no event horizon}. Such complex frequency modes must be included in the quantization of the field. As a model for this system, we have investigated a real scalar field with mass $\mu $ in a one-dimensional square-well potential. If the depth of the potential is greater than $\mu^2$, then there exist imaginary frequency modes. It is possible to quantize this simple system, but the mode operators for imaginary frequencies satisfy unusual commutation relations and do not admit a Fock-like representation or a ground state. Similar properties have been discussed already by Fulling for a complex scalar field interacting with an external electrostatic potential. We are interested in the field dynamics in the physical case where the initial state of the quantum field is specified before the complex frequency modes develop. As a model for this, we investigated a free scalar field whose ``mass" is normal in the past and becomes ``tachyonic" in the future. A particle detector in the far future placed in the in-vacuum state shows non-vanishing excitations related to the imaginary frequency modes as well. Implications of these results for the question of vacuum stability near rapidly rotating stars and possible applications to other fields in physics are discussed briefly.