Renormalization for a Scalar Field in an External Scalar Potential Academic Article

abstract

• 2018 by the authors. The Pauli-Villars regularization procedure confirms and sharpens the conclusions reached previously by covariant point splitting. The divergences in the stress tensor of a quantized scalar field interacting with a static scalar potential are isolated into a three-parameter local, covariant functional of the background potential. These divergences can be naturally absorbed into coupling constants of the potential, regarded as a dynamical object in its own right; here, this is demonstrated in detail for two different models of the field-potential coupling. There is a residual dependence on the logarithm of the potential, reminiscent of the renormalization group in fully-interacting quantum field theories; these terms are finite, but numerically dependent on an arbitrary mass or length parameter, which is purely a matter of convention. This work is one step in a program to elucidate boundary divergences by replacing a sharp boundary by a steeply-rising smooth potential.

authors

• Fulling, Stephen

published proceedings

• SYMMETRY-BASEL

altmetric score

• 2

author list (cited authors)

• Fulling, S. A., Settlemyre, T. E., & Milton, K. A.

citation count

• 15

complete list of authors

• Fulling, Stephen A||Settlemyre, Thomas E||Milton, Kimball A

publication date

• March 2018

publisher

• MDPI  Publisher

keywords

• Boundary
• Pauli-villars
• Point Splitting
• Potential
• Renormalization
• Scalar Field
• Vacuum Energy

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.3390/sym10030054

start page

• 54

end page

• 54

volume

• 10

issue

• 3

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/sym10030054