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

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.

altmetric score

  • 2.5

author list (cited authors)

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

citation count

  • 6

complete list of authors

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

publication date

  • February 2018