THE GENERAL-COVARIANT AND GAUGE-INVARIANT THEORY OF QUANTUM PARTICLES IN CLASSICAL BACKGROUNDS

Abstract

A new approach to the concept of particles and their production in quantum field theory is developed. A local operator describing the current of particle density is constructed for scalar and spinor fields in arbitrary gravitational and electromagnetic backgrounds. This enables one to describe particles in a local, general-covariant and gauge-invariant way. However, the current depends on the choice of a 2-point function. There is a choice that leads to the local non-conservation of the current in a gravitational or an electromagnetic background, which describes local particle production consistent with the usual global description based on the Bogoliubov transformation. The most natural choice based on the Green function calculated using the Schwinger–DeWitt method leads to the local conservation of the current, provided that interactions with quantum fields are absent. Interactions with quantum fields lead to the local non-conservation of the current which describes local particle production consistent with the usual global description based on the interaction picture.