format: text

text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Loop quantum gravity , a program for the canonical quantization of general relativity, has lead to a well-understood theory of quantum geometry  predicting discrete spectra for geometrical operators like area or volume . The main open problems concern the semiclassical limit and the dynamics of the quantum theory. Recently, a strategy to attack the first problem has been proposed  by constructing coherent states which are peaked around a given classical configuration.

As for dynamics, there are a number of anomaly free quantizations of the Hamiltonian constraint  and a class of very special solutions . It is, however, not clear how to interpret any possible solution, in part because of conceptual problems, most importantly the problem of time, which are already present in the classical canonical formulation. These classical conceptual questions have been mainly investigated in reduced models subject to a symmetry condition such that one has a good control over all solutions. Most prominent in this context are cosmological models which are homogeneous in space and present examples of mini-superspaces which after reduction can be quantized similar to a conventional mechanical system . In the first part of this series  a way was proposed how to perform such a symmetry reduction at the kinematical level of loop quantum gravity based on the general concept of symmetric states in diffeomorphism invariant quantum theories of connections . Equivalently, this can be seen as a loop quantization of a mini-superspace, but the quantum states can always be interpreted as generalized, symmetric states of loop quantum gravity. Based on the kinematical level, the next step is to quantize the reduced Hamiltonian constraint of a given model resulting in the Wheeler–DeWitt operator which governs its dynamics. Having such a quantization one can then look whether the classical conceptions regarding the problem of time apply and what they imply for the quantum dynamics .

Quantizations of the Hamiltonian constraints for some models are the subject of the present paper. Because the aim is to understand the dynamics of loop quantum gravity, we will follow the basic construction in Ref.  as close as possible. Although the ensuing Wheeler–DeWitt operators will be quite similar to the one of the full theory, there is additional input needed in their quantization, essentially due to the following basic ingredient: in order to obtain the curvature components present in the classical constraints, one has to lay a loop in the space manifold whose holonomy approximates the curvature of the Ashtekar connection. In the full theory, one then couples the classical limit with a continuum limit in which all these infinitesimal loops exactly reproduce the curvature components. Moreover, one has to use diffeomorphism invariance in order to ensure that the continuum limit does not affect the quantum constraint. In homogeneous models we then have to face the following problems: First, there is no place for such loops because the reduced models are formulated in a single point and their quantum states are based on point holonomies rather than ordinary holonomies. Therefore, a new regularization is needed which also provides a substitute for the continuum limit which played an important role in the quantization of the Hamiltonian constraint in the full theory. We will do this by extending the point, in which the reduced model is formulated, to an auxiliary manifold using the structure of the symmetry group. This step has already been done in the construction of derivative operators . The next problem then is to lay the loops in such a way that the Wheeler–DeWitt operator respects the symmetry, resulting in the main difference to the operator in the full theory .

We will start by reviewing the structure of loop quantum cosmological models in Section 2 and the construction of the Wheeler–DeWitt operator in the full theory in Section 3. Then we will be ready to quantize the Hamiltonian constraint of Bianchi class A models (Section 4) and subsequently of locally rotationally symmetric and isotropic models (Section 5).

## 2 Bianchi class A, LRS and Isotropic Models

In this section we recall the results of a symmetry reduction for cosmological models and their quantization at the kinematical level. For details we refer to Ref. .

Bianchi models are homogeneous models which have a symmetry group $`S`$ with structure constants $`c_{IJ}^K`$ acting freely and transitively on the space manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. Bianchi class A models are characterized by $`c_{JI}^I=0`$. Some of them can be reduced by requiring a non-trivial isotropy group which is isomorphic either to $`U(1)`$ (locally rotationally symmetric, LRS models) or to $`SO(3)`$ (isotropic models). In all cases, $`S`$ is a semidirect product of a translation group $`N`$ and an isotropy group $`F`$. We are interested in the reduction of general relativity formulated in real Ashtekar variables and, therefore, need the general expressions of invariant $`SU(2)`$-connections and $`SU(2)`$-valued density weighted dreibein fields.

An invariant connection can always be decomposed as $`A=\varphi _I^i\omega ^I\tau _i`$ using the generators $`\tau _j=\frac{i}{2}\sigma _j`$ (with Pauli matrices $`\sigma _j`$) of $`G=SU(2)`$ and left invariant one-forms $`\omega ^I`$ on the translation group $`N`$ (which is identical to $`S`$ for Bianchi models). Invariant connections are parameterized by the components $`\varphi _I^i`$ of a linear map $`\varphi :NG`$ which is arbitrary for general Bianchi models, but restricted to be of the form

$$\varphi _1^i=2^{\frac{1}{2}}(a\mathrm{\Lambda }_1^i+b\mathrm{\Lambda }_2^i),\varphi _2^i=2^{\frac{1}{2}}(b\mathrm{\Lambda }_1^i+a\mathrm{\Lambda }_2^i),\varphi _3^i=c\mathrm{\Lambda }_3^i$$
(1)
for LRS models and $`\varphi _I^i=c\mathrm{\Lambda }_I^i`$ for isotropic models. $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_I^i`$ is a dreibein which is rotated by the internal $`SU(2)`$-gauge transformations.

Similarly, an invariant density weighted dreibein field can be decomposed as $`E_i^a=\sqrt{g_0}p_i^IX_I^a`$ with left invariant vector fields on $`N`$ satisfying $`\omega ^I(X_J)=\delta _J^I`$ and the determinant $`g_0`$ of a left invariant metric on $`N`$ defined by $`\omega ^1\omega ^2\omega ^3=\sqrt{g_0}\mathrm{d}^3x`$. Again, for Bianchi models the coefficients $`p_i^I`$ are arbitrary, but restricted to be of the form

$$p_i^1=2^{\frac{1}{2}}(p_a\mathrm{\Lambda }_1^i+p_b\mathrm{\Lambda }_2^i),p_i^2=2^{\frac{1}{2}}(p_b\mathrm{\Lambda }_1^i+p_a\mathrm{\Lambda }_2^i),p_i^3=p_c\mathrm{\Lambda }_3^i$$

for LRS models and $`p_i^I=p\mathrm{\Lambda }_i^I`$ for isotropic models.

The symplectic structure is given by

$$\{\varphi _I^i,p_j^J\}=\kappa \iota ^{}\delta _j^i\delta _I^J$$

for Bianchi models,

$$\{a,p_a\}=\{b,p_b\}=\{c,p_c\}=\kappa \iota ^{}$$

and vanishing in all other cases for LRS models, and $`\{c,p\}=\kappa \iota ^{}`$ for isotropic models. Here, $`\kappa =8\pi G`$ is the gravitational constant and $`\iota ^{}:=\iota V_0^1`$ the reduced Immirzi parameter with $`V_0:=_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{d}^3x\sqrt{g_0}`$.

Reduced expressions can be derived by inserting invariant connections and dreibein fields into the unreduced expressions of the full theory. In this paper we need the Euclidean parts of the reduced Hamiltonian constraints, which are

$`g_0^1^{(\mathrm{E})}`$ $`=`$ $`g_0^1ϵ_{ijk}F_{IJ}^iE_j^IE_k^J=ϵ_{ijk}c_{IJ}^K\varphi _K^ip_j^Ip_k^J+ϵ_{ijk}ϵ_{ilm}\varphi _I^l\varphi _J^mp_j^Ip_k^J`$ (2)
$`=`$ $`ϵ_{ijk}c_{IJ}^K\varphi _K^ip_j^Ip_k^J+\varphi _I^j\varphi _J^kp_j^Ip_k^J\varphi _I^k\varphi _J^jp_j^Ip_k^J`$
for Bianchi models,

$`g_0^1^{(\mathrm{E})}`$ $`=`$ $`(n^{(1)}+n^{(2)})(ap_a+bp_b)p_cn^{(3)}c(p_a^2+p_b^2)`$ (3)
$`+(ap_a+bp_b+cp_c)^2\frac{1}{2}(ap_a+bp_b)^2(cp_c)^2+\frac{1}{2}(ap_bbp_a)^2`$
for LRS models, where the constants $`n^{(I)}`$ specify the Bianchi type, and

$$g_0^1^{(\mathrm{E})}=2(n^{(1)}+n^{(2)}+n^{(3)})cp^2+6(cp)^2$$
(4)
for isotropic models, where $`n^{(1)}=n^{(2)}=n^{(3)}=0`$ for the isotropic flat model (isotropic Bianchi I), and $`n^{(1)}=n^{(2)}=n^{(3)}=1`$ for the isotropic closed model (isotropic Bianchi IX).

To check the constraint algebras, we will also need the diffeomorphism constraints, which are

$$𝒟_I=(\kappa \iota ^{})^1c_{IJ}^K\varphi _K^ip_i^J$$
(5)
for Bianchi models, and vanish identically for LRS models (provided that the Gauß constraint is solved) and isotropic models. So only for Bianchi models demanding an anomaly free representation of the constraint algebra will put restrictions on the quantization of the constraints, although not for all types (for Bianchi type I the structure constants vanish, and so the diffeomorphism constraint).

For a non-vanishing diffeomorphism constraint, the constraint algebra can be derived from the full theory: the Poisson bracket of a diffeomorphism constraint smeared with a shift vector field $`N^a`$ and a Hamiltonian constraint smeared with lapse function $`N`$ yields a Hamiltonian constraint with a lapse function given by the shift vector field and the derivatives of the lapse function $`N`$. In a reduction to homogeneous configurations, the lapse function is a constant, and so its derivatives vanish. Therefore, the diffeomorphism constraint and the Hamiltonian constraint Poisson commute. Moreover, as can easily be checked by a direct calculation using the Jacobi identity for the structure constants $`c_{IJ}^K`$, the diffeomorphism constraint (5) commutes with the Euclidean part of the Hamiltonian constraint (2).

We now come to a description of the kinematical sector of loop quantum cosmology . For Bianchi models, the three scalars $`\varphi _I^i\tau _i`$ are exponentiated to point holonomies  taking values in $`SU(2)`$. The auxiliary Hilbert space $`_{\mathrm{aux}}=L^2(SU(2)^3,\mathrm{d}\mu _\mathrm{H}^3)`$ consists of functions of these point holonomies being square integrable with respect to the three-fold copy of Haar measure. A basis is given by spin network states which combinatorially can be associated to spin networks with three closed edges meeting in a single $`6`$-vertex $`x_0`$. After extending $`x_0`$ to an auxiliary manifold, they can be identified with spin networks embedded in this manifold. The diffeomorphism constraint generates transformations which correspond to conjugations in $`S`$, e.g. rotations for the Bianchi type IX model.

The auxiliary Hilbert spaces of LRS and isotropic models can be obtained from that of Bianchi models by a further reduction which takes care of the fact that for those models point holonomies which are rotated by an element of the isotropy group are gauge equivalent: while kinematical quantum states for Bianchi models are given by functions $`f(h_1,h_2,h_3)`$ with $`h_I:=\mathrm{exp}(\varphi _I^i\tau _i)SU(2)`$, for LRS models quantum states are given by functions

$$f(h_1,\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_3)h_1\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_3),h_3)$$

where $`h_3`$ is a function of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_3:=\mathrm{\Lambda }_3^i\tau _i`$ via $`h_3=\mathrm{exp}(c\mathrm{\Lambda }_3)`$, and for isotropic models by functions

$$f(\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_2)h_3\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_2),\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_1)h_3\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_1),h_3).$$

Therefore, their states can be represented with a reduced number of edges. However, the configuration spaces are not subgroups of $`SU(2)^3`$, but only subsets given by a union of conjugacy classes. This implies that quantum states can no longer be represented as ordinary spin network states, but as generalized spin network states with insertions (see Ref.  for a discussion).

## 3 The Hamiltonian Constraint in the Full Theory

For real Ashtekar variables, the Hamiltonian constraint in Lorentzian signature is given by

$$[N]=_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{d}^3xN(detq)^{\frac{1}{2}}ϵ^{ij}_kE_i^aE_j^b\left(F_{ab}^k2(1+\iota ^2)E_{[i}^aE_{j]}^bK_a^iK_b^j\right)$$
(6)
where $`F_{ab}`$ are the curvature components of the Ashtekar connection and

$$K_a^i:=(detq)^{\frac{1}{2}}K_{ab}E^{bi}$$

are the coefficients of the extrinsic curvature of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. The extrinsic curvature coefficients are complicated functions of the phase space variables, but luckily they are contained only in the second term of the constraint (6). An important step towards a quantization of the Hamiltonian constraint has been done in Refs.  leading to a first consistent regularization of the constraint. An important input was a procedure to treat the second term of the constraint containing the curvature coefficients $`K_a^i`$, which has been achieved by first writing

$$=2(detq)^{\frac{1}{2}}(1+\iota ^2)tr([K_a,K_b][E^a,E^b])^{(\mathrm{E})}$$
(7)
where

$$^{(\mathrm{E})}=2(detq)^{\frac{1}{2}}tr(F_{ab}[E^a,E^b])$$
(8)
is the Euclidean constraint. In these formulae the variables are written as $`SU(2)`$-valued, e.g. $`E^a:=E_i^a\tau ^i`$. The square brackets and $`tr`$ denote the commutator and trace in this Lie algebra.

It is then necessary to represent the curvature components $`K_a=K_a^i\tau _i`$ as quantum operators. The recipe of Ref.  starts from the observation that the trace

$$K:=_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{d}^3x\sqrt{detq}K_{ab}q^{ab}=_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{d}^3xK_a^iE_i^a$$

is the time derivative of the volume (independent of the space-time signature) which can in a Hamiltonian formulation be written as Poisson bracket of Hamiltonian and volume:

$$K=_tV=\{V,^{(\mathrm{E})}\}.$$

When one then uses the important fact that $`\{\mathrm{\Gamma }_a^i,K\}=0`$  to represent the components of the intrinsic curvature as

$$K_a^i=\frac{\delta K}{\delta E_i^a}=(\kappa \iota )^1\{A_a^i,K\},$$

translates all Poisson brackets into commutators, expresses the connection coefficients by holonomies and uses a quantization of the volume  one can trace back the quantization of the second term of (6) to a quantization of the first term.

Furthermore, in Ref.  a quantization of the Euclidean constraint $`^{(\mathrm{E})}`$ has been given which completes the quantization of $``$. Here a key point is that in a diffeomorphism invariant context only expressions with the correct density weight can be quantized without a background structure. This means that the determinant of the metric must not be absorbed into the lapse function in order to have a polynomial constraint because this would change the density weight. Instead, the key identity

$$(detq)^{\frac{1}{2}}[E^a,E^b]^i=ϵ^{abc}e_c^i=2ϵ^{abc}\frac{\delta V}{\delta E_i^c}=2(\kappa \iota )^1ϵ^{abc}\{A_c^i,V\}$$
(9)
is used and quantized by turning the Poisson bracket into a commutator, representing the connection coefficients by a holonomy and using the known volume operator $`\widehat{V}`$.

To regularize the constraint, the manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is triangulated in a way adapted to the graph of a cylindrical function on which the constraint operator is to act. This is done in such a manner that for each triple of edges meeting in a vertex $`v`$ a triangle $`\alpha _{ij}`$, which consists of two pieces $`s_i`$ and $`s_j`$ of two edges and a third curve $`a_{ij}`$ connecting their endpoints, is chosen as a base of the tetrahedron spanned by $`s_i`$, $`s_j`$ and a piece $`s_k`$ of the third edge. The rest of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is triangulated arbitrarily. Using the above identities and an expansion of holonomies for infinitesimal length one can see that the vertex contributions

$$ϵ^{ijk}tr(h_{\alpha _{ij}}h_{s_k}[h_{s_k}^1,\widehat{V}])$$

summed over all triples of edges meeting in $`v`$ have the correct classical limit for a local contribution of the Euclidean constraint.

Contained in the classical limit is a continuum limit in which the width of the triangulation vanishes. In the quantum theory, however, such a continuum limit is trivial provided we quantize the constraint on the Hilbert space $`_{\mathrm{diff}}`$ where the diffeomorphism constraint is solved. In this case two operators which are obtained by a triangulation and a refinement of it are identical because their actions on a fixed cylindrical function by construction differ only by a diffeomorphism moving the edges $`a_{ij}`$.

When acting on a cylindrical function the Euclidean constraint changes the graph due to the holonomies to the curves $`a_{ij}`$ in such a way that in the neighborhood of any non-planar vertex for each two edges incident there a new edge connecting them is generated. The action of the operator is well understood, but there are only some rather trivial explicitly known solutions and the complete solution space is not under any control. Furthermore, there are a lot of ambiguities in the construction of a particular operator and it is not clear which one to use. This question can probably be answered only by investigating whether the theory has the correct classical limit. A strategy proposed here is to use similar regularizations of the Hamiltonian constraint on appropriate sectors of symmetric states for a comparison with the corresponding classical mini-superspaces.

## 4 Hamiltonian Constraints for Bianchi Models

We are now ready to present a quantization of the Hamiltonian constraints for cosmological models, starting with Bianchi models. Our construction will follow that of Ref.  in the full theory, but there are important points where new input is necessary. This is the case because, first, our regularization has to respect the symmetry conditions and, second, because connection coefficients are coded in point holonomies rather than ordinary holonomies. Furthermore, Eq. (2) shows that the constraint contains two different parts: a part linear in the scalar fields which via the structure constants $`c_{IJ}^K`$ depends on the Bianchi type, and a second part quadratic in the scalar fields which is independent of the type. Therefore, although the original expression (6) does not bear any reference to the symmetry type, all the reduced models will have different Wheeler–DeWitt operators and different dynamics.

As already mentioned, we will follow the procedure presented in Ref.  and recalled in Section 3 when quantizing the expressions (2), (3) and (4) on the respective kinematical Hilbert spaces. Some steps can immediately be copied, for instance we can restrict ourselves to the Euclidean constraints because the additional part in the Lorentzian constraint can be treated in complete analogy to the full theory by using the extrinsic curvature $`K`$. Furthermore, we will also make use of commutators of holonomies with the volume operator, i.e. this operator will again play a prominent role. At this place it is fortunate that it simplifies in symmetric regimes  such that an analysis of the matrix elements of the Hamiltonian constraint will be easier.

What we cannot copy in our reduced models is the use of a triangulation of space and the subsequent continuum limit. At first sight, we may seem to be in a better situation because we are considering a finite dimensional model and do not have to bother about a continuum limit. But in the regularization used in the full theory this limit also serves the purpose to express the curvature components $`F_{ab}^i`$ entering (6) in terms of closed loops in the following way: As recalled above, one starts with a triangulation of space which is adapted to the graph of a spin network the Hamiltonian constraint operator is supposed to act on. Forming a triangular loop $`\alpha _{ij}`$ based in $`v`$ one can compute the holonomy $`h_{\alpha _{ij}}`$ appearing in each vertex contribution discussed in Section 3. In the continuum limit any such loop shrinks to $`v`$ such that the holonomies approximate the curvature components. Here one makes use of the expansion

$$h(A)=1+\frac{1}{2}ϵ^2u^av^bF_{ab}^i\tau _i+O(ϵ^3)$$

for a holonomy $`h`$ along an infinitesimal parallelogram spanned by two edges of length $`ϵ`$ with directions $`u^a`$ and $`v^a`$ in Euclidean space. This is the final ingredient needed to turn all contributions to the classical Hamiltonian constraint into quantum operators.

The ensuing Wheeler–DeWitt operator then contains the holonomies along all the triangular loops $`\alpha _{ij}`$ as multiplication operators creating new edges $`a_{ij}`$. Although the construction of these loops depends on the triangulation, the action of the operator is triangulation independent once it is considered to act on the kinematical Hilbert space where the diffeomorphism constraint is solved. In this sense, the continuum limit is trivial in the quantum theory because for a finer triangulation the newly created edges are just moved using a diffeomorphism thus representing the same diffeomorphism invariant quantum state.

Obviously, we cannot use these techniques to generate the curvature components in a symmetric model: First, the prescription to generate new edges violates our symmetry conditions (e.g., in the Bianchi models there are just the three edges obtained by smearing the point holonomies, and no edge connecting two of them can be generated). Second, we do not have a continuum limit in which course loops would shrink and could be approximated using curvature components.

We will present now alternative techniques which are adapted to the symmetry and which make use of the methods developed to deal with point holonomies. As in the computation of the derivative operators in Ref.  the regularizing edges will be important. All this will be discussed in detail for the Bianchi models and then used in LRS and isotropic models.

As demonstrated in Ref. , we have to provide the Euclidean part (2) of the Hamiltonian constraint with the correct density weight in order to be able to quantize it in a background independent manner. We thus divide the earlier expression by $`\sqrt{detq}=\sqrt{\frac{1}{6}g_0|ϵ^{ijk}ϵ_{IJK}p_i^Ip_j^Jp_k^K|}`$, multiply with a constant (due to homogeneity) lapse function $`N`$ and integrate over the manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$:

$$^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]=_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{d}^3xN(detq)^{\frac{1}{2}}g_0ϵ^{ijk}p_i^Ip_j^JF_{IJk}$$

with

$$F_{IJ}^i=c_{IJ}^K\varphi _K^i+ϵ^i{}_{jk}{}^{}\varphi _{I}^{j}\varphi _J^k.$$

This can immediately be integrated to

$`^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]`$ $`=`$ $`V_0N\left(\frac{1}{6}\left|ϵ^{lmn}ϵ_{LMN}p_l^Lp_m^Mp_n^N\right|\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}ϵ^{ijk}p_i^Ip_j^JF_{IJk}`$
$`=`$ $`\frac{1}{6}V_0(\kappa \iota ^{})^1N\left(\frac{1}{6}\left|ϵ^{lmn}ϵ_{LMN}p_l^Lp_m^Mp_n^N\right|\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\{\varphi _K^k,ϵ_{OPQ}ϵ^{ijl}p_i^Op_j^Pp_l^Q\}ϵ^{IJK}F_{IJk}`$
$`=`$ $`2(\kappa \iota ^{})^1Nϵ^{IJK}\{\varphi _K^k,V\}F_{IJk}`$
where we used

$$V=V_0\sqrt{\frac{1}{6}|ϵ^{ijk}ϵ_{IJK}p_i^Ip_j^Jp_k^K|}$$

and

$$\{\varphi _K^k,ϵ_{MNL}ϵ^{ijl}p_i^Mp_j^Np_l^L\}=3\kappa \iota ^{}ϵ^{ijk}ϵ_{MNK}p_i^Mp_j^N$$
(10)
which, divided by $`\sqrt{detq}`$ is essentially the key identity (9) used in Ref.  to quantize the inverted triad components. The expression of $`F_{IJ}^k`$ in terms of the scalar fields depends on the particular symmetry group, i.e. on the Bianchi type, which will be taken care of when we choose the route of loops below.

### 4.1 Auxiliary Manifolds

But before this we have to discuss our regularization scheme which, as already noted, has to be different from that in the full theory because we cannot use a triangulation as regulator and the continuum limit in connection with diffeomorphism invariance to remove it. After integrating over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ we arrived above at an expression for the Hamiltonian constraint which is completely composed of the reduced field components sitting in the single point $`x_0`$ of the reduced manifold $`B:=\mathrm{\Sigma }/S=\{x_0\}`$. Obviously in this reduced description there is no substitute for a triangulation of space which could be used as regulator. Note, however, that in order to compute derivative operators in point holonomies  we already had to smear point holonomies along auxiliary edges. To that end we have, in the present context of cosmological models, introduced an auxiliary manifold $`\overline{S/F}`$ (a suitable compactification of the homogeneous space $`S/F`$) in which these edges are to lie, where in the construction of both the auxiliary manifold and the edges we made use of the structure of $`\overline{S/F}`$ as a homogeneous space. This structure can now also be used in order to regulate the Hamiltonian constraint, but again we cannot simply copy the procedure of the full theory (applied to the $`6`$-vertex lying in the auxiliary manifold) because this would spoil the symmetry (we are not allowed to create new edges, but only to retrace existing ones).

Although we then manage to respect the symmetry, we immediately have to face another problem: In order to approximate the curvature component by the attached loops and to recover the correct classical limit we have to shrink the loops to the vertex, which in the full theory was achieved by the continuum limit which we now do not have at our disposal. Our only possibility is to shrink the whole auxiliary manifold and with it the auxiliary edges to the point $`x_0`$. In this limit we will recover the classical limit, whereas the quantum theory is independent of the extension of our auxiliary manifold. This is completely analogous to the full theory, where the diffeomorphism invariant quantum theory is triangulation independent.

Let us now follow in detail the program outlined above. We have a compact homogeneous auxiliary manifold $`\overline{S/F}`$ containing the point $`x_0`$. Each point of $`\overline{S/F}`$ can be reached from $`x_0`$ by following pieces of integral curves to the left invariant vector fields $`X_I`$ (which also have been used to define the auxiliary edges smearing point holonomies). If we always normalize the invariant vector fields in such a way that their closed (by construction of $`\overline{S/F}`$) integral curves have a fixed parameter length, then shrinking the auxiliary manifold is equivalent to multiplying the vector field by a number $`ϵ`$ smaller than one. So we can describe the shrinking of $`\overline{S/F}`$ to $`\overline{S/F}_ϵ`$ by replacing $`X_I`$ with $`ϵX_I`$ where eventually we will consider the limit $`ϵ0`$ in connection with the classical limit.

We now illustrate the shrinking procedure for the Bianchi I model on the manifold $`^3`$. In terms of coordinates $`x^I`$ adapted to the symmetry (the usual Cartesian coordinates), left invariant vector fields are $`X_I=\frac{}{x^I}`$. The manifold $`^3`$ is non-compact, but we can compactify it to a three-torus, which then plays the role of $`\overline{S/F}`$, by restricting the coordinates to $`0x^I1`$ and identifying the points with $`x^I=0`$ and $`x^I=1`$ for each $`I`$. By this compactification the integral curves of the vector fields $`X_I`$ are rendered closed and will be used as auxiliary edges based in a base point $`x_0`$ in the three-torus. Denoting the flow generated by a vector field $`X`$ by $`\mathrm{\Phi }_t(X):\overline{S/F}\overline{S/F}`$, we can write

$$\overline{S/F}=\{\mathrm{\Phi }_{t_3}(X_3)\mathrm{\Phi }_{t_2}(X_2)\mathrm{\Phi }_{t_1}(X_1)x_0:t_IS^1/\}.$$

The shrinking manifolds $`\overline{S/F}_ϵ`$ are then obtained for fixed $`t_I`$-intervals by replacing $`X_I`$ with $`ϵX_I`$ everywhere. Then the three-torus as well as the closed integral curves shrink and, for infinitesimal $`ϵ`$, holonomies along the integral curves (i.e. the smeared point holonomies) are approximated by $`ϵ`$ times the respective scalar field component ($`h_I=1+ϵ\varphi _I+O(ϵ^2)`$), and volume integrals over the auxiliary manifold are approximated by $`ϵ^3`$ times the reduced quantity defined in the base point.

### 4.2 Regularization

Our previous expression for the Hamiltonian constraint was written down in the reduced description on the point $`x_0`$. To extend it to the auxiliary manifold we just have to integrate it, yielding just a factor of $`ϵ^3`$ because the constraint is constant on $`\overline{S/F}_ϵ`$. We thus have

$$_ϵ^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]:=_{\overline{S/F}_ϵ}\mathrm{d}^3x^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]=2ϵ^3(\kappa \iota ^{})^1Nϵ^{IJK}\{\varphi _K^k,V\}F_{IJk}$$
(11)
as point of departure for the quantization. An integration is mandatory here in order to obtain an expression without density weight (which can be defined using scale transformations respecting the symmetry). The original, unregulated expression can be recovered as (in this expression the limit is trivial which will, however, not be the case if we introduce holonomy variables below)

$$\underset{ϵ0}{lim}ϵ^3_{\overline{S/F}_ϵ}\mathrm{d}^3x^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]=^{(\mathrm{E})}[N].$$
(12)
One factor of $`ϵ`$ can be used to express $`ϵ\varphi _K^k`$ as infinitesimal holonomy, whereas the remaining square of $`ϵ`$ will be used to express the curvature components via a holonomy along an infinitesimal loop, to which we turn now.

Because the curvature components, expressed in terms of scalar fields, are the only place where the Hamiltonian constraint depends on the symmetry group, we have to make use of its structure when expressing the curvature by means of suitably laid loops. This can be done most easily by composing the loop of pieces of integral curves to the invariant vector fields, i.e. as a geodesic parallelogram in an arbitrary homogeneous metric. E.g., in the Bianchi I model we can use a chart with coordinates $`x^I`$ which is adapted to the symmetry in such a way that the (commuting) invariant vector fields are given by $`X_I=\frac{}{x^I}`$. Using the flows $`\mathrm{\Phi }_t(X_I)`$ generated by these vector fields, we can form parallelograms in $`\overline{S/F}`$ composed of the four edges $`c_1:t\mathrm{\Phi }_t(X_I)x_0`$, $`c_2:t\mathrm{\Phi }_t(X_J)c_1(1)`$, $`c_3:t\mathrm{\Phi }_t(X_I)c_2(1)`$ and $`c_4:t\mathrm{\Phi }_t(X_J)c_3(1)`$, for all $`1IJ3`$, which is closed because the vector fields $`X_I`$ and $`X_J`$ commute. We can now use the constant scalar fields $`\varphi _I=\varphi (X_I)`$ parameterizing a homogeneous connection $`A_a^i=\varphi _K^i\omega _a^K`$ to compute the holonomy along the parallelogram: $`\mathrm{exp}(\varphi _I)\mathrm{exp}(\varphi _J)\mathrm{exp}(\varphi _I)\mathrm{exp}(\varphi _J)`$ using, e.g.

$$h_{c_1}(A)=𝒫\mathrm{exp}_{c_1}dt\dot{e}^aA_a^i\tau _i=𝒫\mathrm{exp}_{c_1}dtX_I^a\omega _a^K\varphi _K^i\tau _i=\mathrm{exp}(\varphi _I^i\tau _i).$$

What remains is to note that point holonomies were defined in just the same way by calculating holonomies along auxiliary edges defined as integral curves to an invariant vector field . We only have to take care that we run through a complete closed integral curve to a single invariant vector field which is possible due to our construction of the compactification $`\overline{S/F}`$. There are then two possibilities to shrink the parallelogram: First we can fix the homogeneous manifold and only shrink the curves by constraining the parameter $`t`$ above to an interval $`[0,ϵ]`$. This is the usual procedure for a regularization in a three-dimensional theory, but is not applicable here because we can identify a holonomy along an integral curve with a point holonomy only if the curve is closed and based in the point $`x_0`$. Thus we have to use the second shrinking procedure where both the auxiliary manifold and the curves embedded into it shrink by using the vector fields $`ϵX_I`$ as generators of both the auxiliary manifold $`\overline{S/F}_ϵ`$ and of their own closed integral curves. Now the holonomies are always along closed integral curves and can be identified with point holonomies for all values of $`ϵ`$, but due to $`\varphi (ϵX_I)=ϵ\varphi _I`$ (linearity of the map $`\varphi :NG`$) we now have the $`ϵ`$-dependent holonomy

$`\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _I)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _J)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _I)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _J)`$
$`=(1+ϵ\varphi _I+\frac{1}{2}ϵ^2\varphi _I^2)(1+ϵ\varphi _J+\frac{1}{2}ϵ^2\varphi _J^2)(1ϵ\varphi _I+\frac{1}{2}ϵ^2\varphi _I^2)(1ϵ\varphi _J+\frac{1}{2}ϵ^2\varphi _J^2)+O(ϵ^3)`$
$`=1+ϵ^2(\varphi _I\varphi _J\varphi _J\varphi _I)+O(ϵ^3)`$
$`=1+ϵ^2ϵ_{ijk}\varphi _I^i\varphi _J^j\tau ^k+O(ϵ^3)=1+ϵ^2F_{IJ}^k\tau _k+O(ϵ^3).`$
Thus we have a product of point holonomies which, for infinitesimal $`ϵ`$, reproduces the curvature components for Bianchi I.

For other Bianchi models with a non-Abelian symmetry group, the last equation does not recover the correct curvature components because of the additional term containing the structure constants $`c_{IJ}^K`$ of the symmetry group. But, also due to the non-Abelian nature of the symmetry group, the parallelogram constructed above will not be closed, even up to the order of $`ϵ^2`$ because now the vector fields used to define the edges of the parallelogram do not commute. As is well-known from differential geometry, the endpoint $`c_4(1)`$ of the above parallelogram constructed from the vector fields $`ϵX_I`$ and $`ϵX_J`$ is a distance $`[ϵX_I,ϵX_J]`$ away from the origin. So we can close our parallelogram by running through the curve $`c_5:t\mathrm{\Phi }_t([ϵX_I,ϵX_J])c_4(1)`$ after following the curves $`c_1`$ to $`c_4`$. The ensuing curve is closed to the order of $`ϵ^3`$ and can be closed by connecting the points $`c_5(1)`$ and $`x_0`$ which affects the holonomy along the loop only up to the same order. As holonomy we obtain

$`\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _I)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _J)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _I)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _J)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ^2\varphi ([X_I,X_J]))`$
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _I)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _J)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _I)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _J)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ^2c_{IJ}^K\varphi _K)`$
which, thanks to the commutator of left invariant vector fields, depends explicitly on the structure of the symmetry group. Note also that the commutator of two vector fields results in a factor of $`ϵ^2`$ for only one power of $`\varphi `$ in the last exponential. Using the previous calculations we can easily convince ourselves that this leads to the correct curvature components:

$`\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _I)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _J)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _I)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _J)\mathrm{exp}(\varphi ([ϵX_I,ϵX_J]))`$
$`=`$ $`(1+ϵ^2ϵ_{ijk}\varphi _I^i\varphi _J^j\tau ^k+O(ϵ^3))(1ϵ^2c_{IJ}^K\varphi _K+O(ϵ^4))`$
$`=`$ $`1+ϵ^2(c_{IJ}^K\varphi _K^k+ϵ_{ijk}\varphi _I^i\varphi _J^j)\tau _k+O(ϵ^3)=1+ϵ^2F_{IJ}^k\tau _k+O(ϵ^3).`$
We are now in a position to put all ingredients together in order to arrive at our regulated classical expression of the Hamiltonian constraint formulated on the regularizing manifold $`\overline{S/F}_ϵ`$. Comparing with Eq. (11), we see that

$`_ϵ^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]`$ $`:=`$ $`4(\kappa \iota ^{})^1N{\displaystyle \underset{IJK}{}}ϵ^{IJK}tr(\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _I)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _J)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _I)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _J)`$
$`\times \mathrm{exp}(ϵ^2\varphi ([X_I,X_J]))\{\mathrm{exp}ϵ\varphi _K,V\})`$
has the correct limit (see Eq. (12))

$$^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]=\underset{ϵ0}{lim}ϵ^3_ϵ^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]$$

when the regulator is removed.

### 4.3 Quantization

From now on we can again follow the steps of Ref.  in order to quantize the constraint: exponentials of scalars are replaced by (point) holonomies, the volume is quantized to the operator of Ref.  and the Poisson bracket is replaced with $`(i\mathrm{})^1`$ times a commutator. The result is

$$\widehat{}^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]=4i(\iota ^{}l_\mathrm{P}^2)^1N\underset{IJK}{}ϵ^{IJK}tr\left(h_Ih_Jh_I^1h_J^1h_{[I,J]}^1[h_K,\widehat{V}]\right)$$
(13)
where $`h_I`$ is the holonomy along the $`I`$-th regularizing edge, interpreted as multiplication operator, and $`h_{[I,J]}`$ depends on the symmetry group in the following way

$$h_{[I,J]}:=\underset{K=1}{\overset{3}{}}(h_K)^{c_{IJ}^K}.$$

What remains to do is to use the decomposition (7) and the quantization of the Euclidean part of the constraint in order to quantize the Lorentzian constraint. In the reduced formulation the decomposition reads (for a constant lapse function $`N`$)

$`[N]`$ $`=`$ $`2(1+\iota ^2){\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Sigma }}\mathrm{d}^3xN(detq)^{\frac{1}{2}}tr([K_a,K_b][E^a,E^b])^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]`$
$`=`$ $`2(1+\iota ^2){\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Sigma }}\mathrm{d}^3xN\sqrt{g_0}\left|det(p_K^l)\right|^{\frac{1}{2}}tr([k_I,k_J][p^I,p^J])^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]`$
$`=`$ $`(1+\iota ^2)V_0Nϵ_{ijk}k_I^ik_J^j\left|det(p_K^l)\right|^{\frac{1}{2}}ϵ^{klm}p_l^Ip_m^J^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]`$
$`=`$ $`2(1+\iota ^2)(\kappa \iota ^{})^3V_0^2Nϵ_{ijk}ϵ^{IJK}\{\varphi _I^i,K\}\{\varphi _J^j,K\}\{\varphi _K^k,V\}^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]`$
where we defined $`K_a^i=:k_I^i\omega _a^I`$, $`K=\mathrm{d}^3xK_a^iE_i^a=V_0k_I^ip_i^I`$ and used Eq. (10). Regularized as above, we obtain

$`_ϵ[N]`$ $`=`$ $`2(1+\iota ^2)(\kappa \iota )^3V_0Nϵ_{ijk}ϵ^{IJK}ϵ^3\{\varphi _I^i,K\}\{\varphi _J^j,K\}\{\varphi _K^k,V\}_ϵ^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]`$
$`=`$ $`8(1+\iota ^2)(\kappa \iota )^3V_0Nϵ^{IJK}tr(\{\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _I),K\}\{\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _J),K\}\{\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\varphi _K),V\})`$
$`_ϵ^{(\mathrm{E})}[N]+O(ϵ^3)`$
which can again be quantized by replacing the exponentials of scalars by (point) holonomies and the Poisson brackets by $`(i\mathrm{})^1`$ times a commutator:

$$\widehat{}[N]=8i(1+\iota ^2)(\iota l_\mathrm{P}^2)^3V_0Nϵ^{IJK}tr\left([h_I,\widehat{K}][h_J,\widehat{K}][h_K,\widehat{V}]\right)\widehat{}^{(\mathrm{E})}[N].$$
(14)
As in the full theory, we use here the quantization

$$\widehat{K}=i\mathrm{}^1[\widehat{V},\widehat{}^{(\mathrm{E})}[1]]$$

of the integrated extrinsic curvature.

A non-vanishing cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ can be included simply by adding the contribution $`2N\mathrm{\Lambda }\widehat{V}`$ using the volume operator of Ref. .

Of course, there are factor ordering ambiguities which we ignored in writing the expression above. Furthermore, as written down, the operator is not symmetric which would have to be achieved by choosing an appropriate factor ordering. In the full theory these issues are unsolved and one purpose of the reduced models discussed here can be to gain insights by studying them in a simplified, highly symmetric regime. We will, however, not enter this discussion because it requires a detailed study of these models, whereas here we are mainly interested in general aspects.

It is immediate to see that the operator (14) is manifestly independent of the regulator $`ϵ`$ which was used to reformulate the classical expression in terms of holonomy variables. This is so because, in contrast to the classical procedure where the scalar fields are fixed in the limit $`ϵ0`$ in which the regulator is removed, in the quantum theory the scalars diverge in this point limit in such a way that smeared holonomies are equal to point holonomies independent of $`ϵ`$. Recall that the quantum configuration space contains distributional scalars which are needed to accomplish this result. Therefore, it does not matter whether we formulate the operator on the auxiliary manifold $`\overline{S/F}`$, on one of the shrunk manifolds $`\overline{S/F}_ϵ`$ or even in the point limit using exclusively point holonomies. In each of these formulations we have the same state space and the same action of the Hamiltonian constraint operator. This feature, which here arose after smearing the scalar fields to regulate classical expressions, substitutes the diffeomorphism invariance which in the full theory is used to show that the continuum limit removing the regulator there is trivial in the quantum theory. Thus, although formulated in a conceptually different way, the quantization of the Hamiltonian constraint in the full theory  and ours for the Bianchi models share the same key properties. But of course our discussion was technically simplified by the fact that we only have to regard $`6`$-vertices, whereas in the full theory there can be (and have to be taken into account) vertices of arbitrary valence.

It is immediate to see that the constraints are represented in an anomaly free manner: the only non-trivial part is to check that diffeomorphisms commute with the Hamiltonian constraint which can easily be seen after recalling that diffeomorphisms, i.e. inner automorphisms on the auxiliary manifold, just move the three edges of homogeneous spin networks, whereas the Hamiltonian constraint operator fixes them and only changes their labels and the contractor.

## 5 Hamiltonian Constraints for LRS and <br>Isotropic Models

Similarly to the treatment of volume operators in Ref.  we can use the expression (14) and insert the rotated holonomies $`h_2=\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_3)h_1\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_3)`$ to arrive at the constraint operator for LRS models, and $`h_1=\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_2)h_3\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_2)`$, $`h_2=\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_1)h_3\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_1)`$ to arrive at the operator for isotropic models. The resulting operator then only contains the holonomy operators $`h_1`$, $`h_3`$ for LRS models and $`h_3`$ for isotropic models, and in addition operators coming from the exponentials of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_I`$ which manipulate the insertions (see Ref. ).

By construction, all these operators are gauge invariant, but the intermediate action of holonomies and the volume operator is on gauge non-invariant states. This means that the techniques used for gauge invariant states of isotropic models in Ref.  have to be generalized so as to deal with non-invariant states. In particular, the volume operator derived there is not sufficient to calculate the matrix elements of the Hamiltonian constraint for isotropic models.

In contrast to Bianchi models, where the three scalars $`\varphi _I`$ and so the three point holonomies $`h_I`$ are independent, for LRS and isotropic models there are restrictions for the point holonomies (see Eq. (1)) leading to the rotated holonomies above. This implies that we can apply the following lemma, which has already been used in Ref. , in order to simplify the constraint operator which contains a product of several holonomy operators.

###### Lemma 1

Let $`g:=\mathrm{exp}(A\tau _i)`$ and $`h:=\mathrm{exp}(B\tau _j)`$ with $`A,B`$, $`ij`$ be matrices in the fundamental representation of $`SU(2)`$. Then

$$gh=hg+h^1g+hg^1tr(gh).$$

Let us illustrate this for the flat isotropic model, which is obtained by restricting the Bianchi I model to isotropy. We thus start from the expression (13) with all structure constants vanishing, and insert the rotated holonomies $`h_1`$ and $`h_2`$ in terms of $`h_3`$. Then two different holonomies $`h_I`$ and $`h_J`$, $`IJ`$, appearing in the operator are always of a form such that Lemma 1 applies and we can insert

$$h_Jh_I^1=h_I^1h_J+h_Ih_J+h_I^1h_J^1tr(h_I^1h_J)$$

simplifying the sum in Eq. (13) to

$$\underset{IJK}{}ϵ^{IJK}\left(tr([h_K,\widehat{V}])+tr(h_I^2[h_K,\widehat{V}])+tr(h_J^2[h_K,\widehat{V}])tr(h_I^1h_J)tr(h_Ih_J^1[h_K,\widehat{V}])\right).$$

The first trace is symmetric in (in fact independent of) $`I`$ and $`J`$ and therefore cancels in presence of $`ϵ^{IJK}`$, and the rest can be written as

$$\underset{IJK}{}ϵ^{IJK}\left(tr((h_I^2h_I^2)[h_K,\widehat{V}])tr(h_I^1h_J)tr(h_Ih_J^1[h_K,\widehat{V}])\right).$$

Up to now the explicit expression for the rotated holonomies $`h_1`$ and $`h_2`$ in terms of $`h_3`$ have not been used, but only the fact that Lemma 1 applies because of the special character of rotated holonomies. To arrive at the final expression we have to insert the explicit formulae for $`h_1`$, $`h_2`$ which leads to a product of $`h_3`$-holonomies and exponentials of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_2`$. Here we can again apply Lemma 1 in order to collect all factors of $`h_3`$ into a single power of $`h_3`$ (except for the one appearing on the right hand side of the volume operator when the commutator is written out) and a holonomy independent factor coming from the exponentials of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_I`$. Alternatively, we can right from the beginning apply Lemma 1 to the definition of $`h_1`$, $`h_2`$:

$`h_1`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_2)h_3\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_2)`$
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_2)\left(\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_2)h_3+\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_2)h_3+\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_2)h_3^1tr(\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_2)h_3)\right)`$
$`=`$ $`h_3+h_3^1+\mathrm{exp}(\pi \mathrm{\Lambda }_2)h_3\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_2)tr(\mathrm{exp}(\frac{\pi }{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_2)h_3)`$
and similarly for $`h_2`$ such that $`h_3`$ appears always at the right hand side. After some final applications of the lemma we can collect all the factors containing $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_I`$ in a single operator which manipulates the insertion, whereas the power of $`h_3`$ changes the spin of isotropic spin networks.

Once the techniques of isotropic spin networks are generalized to gauge non-invariant states, the calculation of matrix elements of the Hamiltonian constraint operator in isotropic models can be pursued. However, although there is no new input required in addition to the procedure outlined here, the actual calculation can be expected to be quite cumbersome and we do not present any further details. These computations are needed when one begins to study specific models and are well suited to be done numerically. In LRS models the situation is similar: the essential steps have been outlined, but more work had to be done for specific models.

Because for LRS and isotropic models the diffeomorphism constraint vanishes on gauge invariant states, the constraint algebra is represented anomaly free in a trivial way.

## 6 Discussion

In this paper we have presented quantizations of Hamiltonian constraints for some cosmological models in the framework of loop quantum cosmology. The strategy was to be as close to the full theory of loop quantum gravity as possible in order to be able to compare with and to draw conclusions for the full theory. We have seen that this is possible to a large extent, but with necessary additional input taking care of the symmetry. In particular, homogeneous models are formulated in a single point $`x_0`$ and there is no continuum limit which in combination with diffeomorphism invariance plays an important role in the regularization of the Hamiltonian constraint in the full theory. We have seen that an extension of the point $`x_0`$ to an auxiliary manifold, which already appeared in the regularization of derivative operators, provides the additional structure. The Hamiltonian constraint is regularized on the auxiliary manifold, the extension of which serves as regulator, i.e. the classical expression is recovered if the auxiliary manifold is shrunk to the point $`x_0`$. But the quantization of the regulated expression is independent of the extension, and so we have an exact analog of the situation in the full theory, where the continuum limit removes the regulator classically and the quantization is regulator independent owing to diffeomorphism invariance.

Whereas the investigation of homogeneous models in loop quantum cosmology will be more complicated than and very different from the standard treatment of minisuperspace quantizations, our constraint operators are, compared with the Hamiltonian constraint operator of the full theory, very similar but slightly simpler due to the symmetry. One simplification comes from the special nature of vertices being at most $`6`$-valent. Also, the action is simpler because the graph of a spin network being acted on is not changed: no new edges are created but only the spins of existing ones and the vertex contractor are changed. Note that this implies that the large class of special solutions to the Hamiltonian constraint found in Ref.  has no counterpart in our cosmological models. Furthermore, the fact that the constraint algebra is represented anomaly free is realized rather trivially for the homogeneous models because the classical algebra is simpler, and so requiring an anomaly free representation is less restrictive as compared to the full theory . The calculation of matrix elements of the constraints for Bianchi models can be done along the lines of Ref. , whereas the computation for LRS or isotropic models would be different because techniques for generalized spin networks are needed there.

Another difference to the full theory is that we do not have to face the issue of extracting a smooth, semiclassical metric from our states. In the full theory, the quantum states represent a distributional metric with a discrete structure which, in order to perform a classical limit, have to be superposed in some way to semiclassical states. In a homogeneous regime, however, the metric is necessarily smooth and each state represents a homogeneous (but nevertheless quantum) metric. But we still have to understand how to interpret possible solutions of the constraint in a space-time picture or cosmological language, i.e. we have to interpret the dynamical constraint as an evolution equation .

## Acknowledgements

The author thanks H. Kastrup for discussions and the DFG-Graduierten-Kolleg “Starke und elektroschwache Wechselwirkung bei hohen Energien” for a PhD fellowship.


text:
# hep-th/0008187 Effective Lagrangian for the pseudoscalars interacting with photons in the presence of a background electromagnetic field

## I Introduction

Consider an interaction involving three fields. Let us approximate one of the fields to be a classical background field. We address to the following question: What will be the effective Lagrangian for the classical background field interacting with the vacuum of TWO quantum fields? This task is achieved for the $`\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}`$ interaction by integrating out the $`F`$ and $`\varphi `$ fields one after the other. The $`K`$ field is treated as a classical background electromagnetic field.

The evaluation of the effective Lagrangian for a classical background field interacting with the vacuum of a quantum field originated in the works of W. Heisenberg and H. Euler and V. Weisskopf. An explicit expression for the effective Lagrangian for the electromagnetic field interacting with the vacuum of the fermion field (by integrating out the fermion field in the QED Lagrangian) was evaluated by Julian Schwinger in . Schwinger introduced the proper time method for this purpose which involved solving for the ‘dynamics’ of a ‘particle’ with its space-time coordinates evolving with respect to a proper time variable. Schwinger’s result has been reproduced using other techniques by various authors. Systematic analysis of the formalisms and references to related works can be found in . Schwinger mechanism has attracted considerable attention because of its wide range of applicability. Recently in the SLAC E144 experiment electron positron pairs by Schwinger mechanism are reported to have been produced in the collision of intense laser beams with a high energy electron beam. Schwinger mechanism has been used to study particle creation by an external gravitational field to understand their implications on Cosmological models . There is a strong conviction that the Hawking’s theory of particle creation by black holes  can be understood using the Schwinger mechanism. In  Schwinger mechanism has been used to put bounds on the masses of particles.

Schwinger’s result was derived from the QED Lagrangian for the case of a constant classical electromagnetic field. Various generalizations and extensions to the Schwinger’s result have been attempted by different authors. Generalization of the Schwinger’s result for various other interactions involving two fields was done in . Generalization for non abelian fields in the context of the QCD vacuum breaking down into quark antiquark pairs in the presence of background colour fields was studied in . Schwinger mechanism has been extended to include finite temperature effects in . Extension for the case where the background electromagnetic field is confined to a finite volume has been studied in .

In this work we evaluate the effective Lagrangian for a classical background electromagnetic field $`K`$ interacting with the vacuum of the quantized pseudoscalar field $`\varphi `$ and the quantized electromagnetic field $`F`$. The interaction term reads as $`\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}`$. The evaluation of the effective Lagrangian involves the integration of the $`\varphi `$ and $`F`$ fields one after the other. The effective Lagrangian for the $`\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}`$ interaction has been earlier evaluated in , where the emphasis has been to use the result to put a bound on the mass of the pseudoscalar particle called axion. The calculation in  for the evaluation of the effective Lagrangian is not completely satisfactory because the integration of the $`F`$ field in the calculation is qualitatively evaluated using Feynman diagram techniques. The main goal of this paper is to complete this gap by giving the complete calculation for the integration of the $`F`$ field. This part of the calculation is very important if one intends to generalize the result for other interactions.

In section II we formulate the problem and introduce the formalism used. In section III we evaluate the $`F`$ integral. We shall explicitly show that the contribution to the effective Lagrangian obtained after the integration of the $`F`$ field is not non-local because one of the integrals leads to a delta function. In section IV we evaluate the integration involving the $`\varphi `$ field to arrive at the expression for the effective Lagrangian under consideration. Here we use the Schwinger’s proper time method to evaluate the integration of the $`\varphi `$ field. We show that the result obtained by using the proper time method exactly matches with the result obtained in  using the Green’s function method which was more in the spirit of Brown and Duff’s paper. The complete calculation of the effective Lagrangian can be summarized as:

$`[\varphi ,F,K]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}K^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}F^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\varphi )^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}`$ (1)
$`\begin{array}{c}\end{array}F\text{integration}`$ (4)
$`_{eff}^{}[\varphi ,K]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}K^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\varphi )^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}g^2K^2\varphi ^2`$ (5)
$`\begin{array}{c}\end{array}\varphi \text{integration}`$ (8)
$`_{eff}[K]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}K^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{32\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{ds}{s^3}}e^{m^2s}\left[\left\{\text{det}\left({\displaystyle \frac{gK_1s}{\mathrm{sin}gK_1s}}\right)\right\}^{\frac{1}{2}}e^{x^2gK_1\mathrm{tan}\left(\frac{gK_1s}{2}\right)}1\right]`$ (9)
where $`K_1`$ is the gradient of the electromagnetic field. As a corollary, in section V we find the expression for the probability of the vacuum to breakdown into pseudoscalar photon pairs in the presence of a classical background electromagnetic field. This is related to the imaginary part of the effective Lagrangian. We conclude that the gradient of the electric field beyond a certain threshold can give rise to pair production. This is unlike the QED case where a constant electric field contributes to pair production.

## II Formulation of the problem

The Lagrangian for a pseudoscalar field $`\varphi (x)`$ interacting with a massless vector field $`A_\mu ^{}(x)`$ is given by

$`[\varphi ,A^{}]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}F_{}^{}{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}F_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{\mu \nu }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(_\mu \varphi )(^\mu \varphi ){\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}g\varphi F_{}^{}{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}\stackrel{~}{F^{}}^{\mu \nu }.`$ (10)
The factor of $`\frac{1}{2}`$ in the kinetic term of the pseudoscalar field is to take care of the fact that we are not treating $`\varphi `$ as a complex field. In eqn. (10) $`F_{}^{}{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}(x)`$ is the field tensor corresponding to $`A_{}^{}{}_{\mu }{}^{}(x)`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{F^{}}^{\mu \nu }(x)`$ is the dual tensor corresponding to $`F_{}^{}{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}(x)`$ given by

$$\stackrel{~}{F^{}}^{\mu \nu }=\frac{1}{2}\epsilon ^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }F_{}^{}{}_{\alpha \beta }{}^{}.$$
(11)
We shall now show that under the circumstance when the $`A^{}`$ field can be treated as a superposition of two fields the $`\varphi F^{}\stackrel{~}{F^{}}`$ interaction can be approximated to $`\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}`$ interaction. Let us consider the massless vector field $`A^{}(x)`$ to be a superposition of two independent massless vector fields given by

$$A_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{\mu }(x)A^\mu (x)+a^\mu (x),$$
(12)
which amounts to

$`F_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{\mu \nu }(x)`$ $`=`$ $`F^{\mu \nu }(x)+K^{\mu \nu }(x),`$ (13)
where $`F^{\mu \nu }(x)`$ is the field tensor corresponding to the field $`A^\mu (x)`$, and $`K^{\mu \nu }(x)`$ is the field tensor corresponding to the field $`a^\mu (x)`$. Let the energy corresponding to the $`a^\mu (x)`$ field be $`E_a`$. Because of the interaction it has with the $`A^\mu (x)`$ and $`\varphi (x)`$ field the energy of the $`a^\mu (x)`$ field gets modified to $`E_a+E_{back}`$. Let us assume that the correction $`E_{back}`$ is negligible compared to $`E_a`$. That is we make the assumption

$$E_{back}<<E_a.$$
(14)
In the above approximation we are neglecting the backreaction of the $`A^\mu (x)`$ and $`\varphi (x)`$ field on the $`a^\mu (x)`$ field. This is analogous to the case in quantum electrodynamics when we neglect the radiation effects (back reaction of the electron on the electromagnetic field). Next we notice that neglecting backreaction effects (radiation effects) amounts to treating one of the fields as a classical field because radiation effects becomes significant only in the quantum regime (for distances below $`\frac{\mathrm{}}{mc}`$, where $`m`$ is the mass of the particle under consideration). That is to say, if we are neglecting the backreaction effects we can as well treat the field to be a classical field. Thus we shall interpret $`a^\mu (x)`$ as a classical background electromagnetic field. $`A^\mu (x)`$ and $`\varphi (x)`$ will be treated as quantum fields.

Including the above considerations in the interaction term of the Lagrangian in eqn. (10) we have

$`_{int}[\varphi ,A,a]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}g\varphi (F_{\mu \nu }+K_{\mu \nu })(\stackrel{~}{F}^{\mu \nu }+\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \nu })`$ (15)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}g\varphi F_{\mu \nu }\stackrel{~}{F}^{\mu \nu }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g\varphi F_{\mu \nu }\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \nu }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}g\varphi K_{\mu \nu }\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \nu },`$ (16)
where we have used the relation $`K_{\mu \nu }\stackrel{~}{F}^{\mu \nu }=F_{\mu \nu }\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \nu }`$. Since we shall be interested in the interaction of all the three fields together, i.e. the pseudoscalar field and the quantum electromagnetic field in the presence of a classical background electromagnetic field, we shall ignore the $`\varphi F\stackrel{~}{F}`$ and the $`\varphi K\stackrel{~}{K}`$ terms. This is done to simplify the calculations. Thus we have the Lagrangian to be

$`[\varphi ,A,a]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(_\mu \varphi )(^\mu \varphi ){\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g\varphi F_{\mu \nu }\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \nu },`$ (17)
where $`\stackrel{~}{K}`$ involves the classical background electromagnetic field $`a_\mu (x)`$. The corresponding action is given by

$`S[\varphi ,A,a]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^4x[\varphi ,A,a]}.`$ (18)
The vacuum to vacuum transition amplitude is given by

$`W`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{𝒟\varphi 𝒟Ae^{iS[\varphi ,A,a]}}{𝒟\varphi 𝒟Ae^{iS_0[\varphi ,A,a]}}}`$ (19)
where $`S_0[\varphi ,A,a]`$ is the Action in the absence of any interaction. We define the effective action corresponding to the approximation in eqn. (14) as

$`W`$ $`=`$ $`e^{iS_{eff}[a]}.`$ (20)
Note that the effective action is a function of the $`a^\mu (x)`$ field alone. Thus evaluation of the effective action will involve the integration of the $`\varphi `$ field and the $`A`$ field in eqn. (19). In section III we evaluate the integration of the $`A`$ field and in section IV we evaluate the integral involving the $`\varphi `$ field.

The probability for the vacuum to breakdown into pairs is given by

$`P`$ $`=`$ $`1\left|W\right|^2`$ (21)
$`=`$ $`1\mathrm{exp}\left[2\text{Im}S_{eff}[a]\right].`$ (22)
In section V we shall use this expression to calculate the probability for the vacuum to breakdown into pseudoscalar photon pairs in the presence of a classical background electromagnetic field.

## III Evaluation of the $`A`$ integration

In this section we shall begin with eqn. (19) and evaluate the integral involving the $`A`$ field. The $`A`$ integral is first converted into a Gaussian integral. The contribution to the effective Lagrangian obtained after the evaluation of the Gaussian integral on the first look seems to be non-local. We shall explicitly show that this contribution is not non-local by showing that one of the integrals leads to a delta function. In  this part of the calculation was evaluated qualitatively using Feynman diagram techniques.

To begin with we rewrite eqn. (19) as

$`W`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{𝒟\varphi e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}(_\mu \varphi )(^\mu \varphi ){\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2\right]}}𝒟Ae^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{4}}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }+{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}g\varphi F_{\mu \nu }\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \nu }\right]}}}{𝒟\varphi e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}(_\mu \varphi )(^\mu \varphi ){\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2\right]}}𝒟Ae^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{4}}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }\right]}}}}.`$ (23)
After integration by parts ($`x`$ integral) the $`A`$ integral in the numerator can be rewritten as

$`{\displaystyle 𝒟Ae^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}A_\mu \left(^\mu ^\nu g^{\mu \nu }_\alpha ^\alpha \right)A_\nu +\left\{g_\nu \left(\varphi (x)\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \nu }(x)\right)\right\}A_\mu \right]}}}.`$ (24)
The Gaussian integral formula for a massless vector field is given by

$`{\displaystyle 𝒟Ae^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{4}}F_{\mu \nu }(x)F^{\mu \nu }(x)+J_\mu (x)A^\mu (x)\right]}}}`$ (25)
$`=e^{\frac{1}{2}{\scriptscriptstyle d^4xd^4x^{}J_\mu (x)G^{\mu \nu }(xx^{})J_\nu (x^{})}}{\displaystyle 𝒟Ae^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{4}}F_{\mu \nu }(x)F^{\mu \nu }(x)\right]}}}`$ (26)
where

$`G^{\mu \nu }(xx^{})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i}{(2\pi )^4}}{\displaystyle d^4k\left[k^\mu k^\nu g^{\mu \nu }k^2\right]^1e^{ik(xx^{})}}`$ (27)
Using eqn. (26) and eqn. (24) in eqn. (23) we have

$`W`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{𝒟\varphi e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}(_\mu \varphi )(^\mu \varphi ){\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2\right]}\frac{1}{2}{\scriptscriptstyle d^4xd^4x^{}\left[g_\alpha \left(\varphi (x)\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \alpha }(x)\right)\right]G_{\mu \nu }(xx^{})\left[g_{}^{}{}_{\beta }{}^{}\left(\varphi (x^{})\stackrel{~}{K}^{\nu \beta }(x^{})\right)\right]}}}{𝒟\varphi e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}(_\mu \varphi )(^\mu \varphi ){\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2\right]}}}}.`$ (28)
Again by integration by parts we can show that the integral in the interaction term in the numerator is

$`{\displaystyle d^4x\left[g_\alpha \left(\varphi (x)\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \alpha }(x)\right)\right]d^4x^{}G_{\mu \nu }(xx^{})\left[g_{}^{}{}_{\beta }{}^{}\left(\varphi (x^{})\stackrel{~}{K}^{\nu \beta }(x^{})\right)\right]}`$ (29)
$`=g^2{\displaystyle d^4x\varphi (x)\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \alpha }(x)d^4x^{}\left[_\alpha _{}^{}{}_{\beta }{}^{}G_{\mu \nu }(xx^{})\right]\stackrel{~}{K}^{\nu \beta }(x^{})\varphi (x^{})}.`$ (30)
Using eqn. (30) in eqn. (28) we have

$`W`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{𝒟\varphi e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}(_\mu \varphi )(^\mu \varphi ){\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}g^2d^4xd^4x^{}\varphi (x)M(x,x^{})\varphi (x^{})\right]}}}{𝒟\varphi e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}(_\mu \varphi )(^\mu \varphi ){\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2\right]}}}}`$ (31)
where

$$M(x,x^{})\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \alpha }(x)\left[_\alpha _{}^{}{}_{\beta }{}^{}G_{\mu \nu }(xx^{})\right]\stackrel{~}{K}^{\nu \beta }(x^{}).$$
(32)
Thus the effective Lagrangian obtained after integrating out the $`A`$ field seems to have a non local contribution from $`M(x,x^{})`$. But we shall show that the $`M(x,x^{})`$ involves a delta function and thus show that the term is not non local.

We shall now show that $`M(x,x^{})`$ takes the following form in terms of the delta function.

$`M(x,x^{})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i}{4}}\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \nu }(x)\stackrel{~}{K}_{\mu \nu }(x^{})\delta ^4(xx^{}).`$ (33)
To arrive at the above expression we begin with eqn. (32) and using eqn. (27) we have

$`M(x,x^{})`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \alpha }(x)\stackrel{~}{K}^{\nu \beta }(x^{}){\displaystyle \frac{i}{(2\pi )^4}}{\displaystyle \frac{}{x^\alpha }}{\displaystyle \frac{}{x_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{\beta }}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}d^4k\left[k_\mu k_\nu g_{\mu \nu }k^2\right]^1e^{ik(xx^{})}.`$ (34)
Completing the differentiations with respect to $`x`$ and $`x^{}`$ and using

$$\left[k_\mu k_\nu g_{\mu \nu }k^2\right]^1=\frac{1}{k^4}(k_\mu k_\nu g_{\mu \nu }k^2)$$
(35)
we have

$`M(x,x^{})`$ $`=`$ $`i\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \alpha }(x)\stackrel{~}{K}^{\nu \beta }(x^{}){\displaystyle \frac{1}{(2\pi )^4}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}d^4k(k_\mu k_\nu g_{\mu \nu }k^2){\displaystyle \frac{k_\alpha k_\beta }{k^4}}e^{ik(xx^{})}.`$ (36)
Only the even terms in the $`d^4k`$ integral in the above expression give a non zero contribution. Thus we can evaluate the integral by replacing $`k_\alpha k_\beta `$ with $`\frac{1}{2}g_{\alpha \beta }k^2`$. Using these substitutions in eqn. (36) we have

$`M(x,x^{})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i}{4}}\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \nu }(x)\stackrel{~}{K}_{\mu \nu }(x^{}){\displaystyle \frac{1}{(2\pi )^4}}{\displaystyle d^4ke^{ik(xx^{})}}.`$ (37)
Using

$$\delta ^4(xx^{})=\frac{1}{(2\pi )^4}d^4ke^{ik(xx^{})}$$
(38)
in eqn. (37) we have the result

$`M(x,x^{})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i}{4}}\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \nu }(x)\stackrel{~}{K}_{\mu \nu }(x^{})\delta ^4(xx^{}).`$ (39)
Completing the $`x^{}`$ integral after substituting eqn. (39) in eqn. (31) and then using the relation $`\stackrel{~}{K}^{\mu \nu }(x)\stackrel{~}{K}_{\mu \nu }(x)=K^{\mu \nu }(x)K_{\mu \nu }(x)`$ we get

$`W`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{𝒟\varphi e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}(_\mu \varphi )(^\mu \varphi ){\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{8}}g^2\varphi (x)K^{\mu \nu }(x)K_{\mu \nu }(x)\varphi (x)\right]}}}{𝒟\varphi e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}(_\mu \varphi )(^\mu \varphi ){\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2\right]}}}}.`$ (40)
It should be observed that the expression in the exponential of eqn. (40) is the effective Lagrangian for the case when both the $`\varphi `$ and $`K`$ fields are treated as classical background fields.

## IV Evaluation of the $`\varphi `$ integral

In this section we shall begin with eqn. (40) and evaluate the integral involving the $`\varphi `$ field. In  this was achieved by using the Green’s function method adopted by Brown and Duff in . Here we shall do the same using the proper time method introduced by Schwinger in . Proper time method reduces the problem into an ‘associated dynamical problem’ with respect to a proper time variable. The effective Lagrangian in this method is given in terms of the trace of an evolution operator (evolving in the proper time). The evolution operator is determined by solving the ‘heat equation’ corresponding to the ‘associated dynamical problem’. We shall show that the result obtained by using the proper time method here exactly matches with the result obtained in  using the Green’s function method.

To begin with we rewrite eqn. (40) as

$`e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x_{eff}(x)}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{𝒟\varphi e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\varphi (x)\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}_\mu ^\mu {\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{8}}g^2K^2(x)\right]\varphi (x)}}}{𝒟\varphi e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\varphi (x)\left[{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}_\mu ^\mu {\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\right]\varphi (x)}}}}`$ (41)
where $`K^2=K^{\mu \nu }K_{\mu \nu }`$. Using the Gaussian integral formula for a scalar field given by

$`{\displaystyle 𝒟\varphi e^{i{\scriptscriptstyle d^4x\varphi (x)\text{M}\varphi (x)}}}`$ $`=`$ $`\text{const}\left[\text{det}\text{M}\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ (42)
where $`M`$ is any operator and exploiting the identity $`\text{det}\text{M}=\mathrm{exp}[\text{Tr}\mathrm{ln}\text{M}]`$ we have

$`{\displaystyle d^4x_{eff}(x)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}\text{Tr}\mathrm{ln}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_\mu ^\mu +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}g^2K^2(x)\right\}{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}\text{Tr}\mathrm{ln}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_\mu ^\mu +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\right\}.`$ (43)
Thus the evaluation of the effective Lagrangian involves the determination of the trace of the logarithm of an operator. We shall now very briefly give the prescription for the determination of the trace of the logarithm of an operator. Let us begin with the integrals

$`\mathrm{ln}y={\displaystyle _1^y}𝑑t{\displaystyle \frac{1}{t}}\text{and}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{t}}={\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑se^{ts}t>0.`$ (44)
Generalizing these integrals for an operator we have the integral representation for $`\mathrm{ln}\text{M}`$ to be

$`\mathrm{ln}\text{M}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{ds}{s}}e^{\text{M}s}.`$ (45)
Taking the trace of the above integral on both sides and evaluating the trace in the position basis we have

$`\text{Tr}\mathrm{ln}\text{M}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑x_0^{\mathrm{}}\frac{ds}{s}\left\{K(x,x^{};s)\right\}_{x=x^{}}}`$ (46)
where $`K(x,x^{};s)=\mathrm{exp}\left[\text{M}s\right]\delta (xx^{}).`$ By differentiating $`K(x,x^{};s)=\mathrm{exp}\left[\text{M}s\right]\delta (xx^{})`$ with respect to $`s`$ on both sides we get the differential equation for $`K(x,x^{};s)`$ to be

$`\text{M}K(x,x^{};s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{}{s}}K(x,x^{};s)`$ (47)
with the initial condition $`K(x,x^{};0)=\delta (xx^{})`$. Thus $`\text{Tr}\mathrm{ln}\text{M}`$ is given in terms of the trace of an evolution operator evolving in the proper time $`s`$. The evolution operator is to be determined by solving the differential equation in eqn. (47).

Using the prescription in eqn. (46) in the expression for the effective Lagrangian in eqn. (43) we get

$`_{eff}(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{ds}{s}}\left\{U(x,x^{};s)\right\}_{x=x^{}}{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{ds}{s}}\left\{U_0(x,x^{};s)\right\}_{x=x^{}}`$ (48)
where $`U(x,x^{};s)`$ and $`U_0(x,x^{};s)`$ satisfy the differential equations

$`\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_\mu ^\mu +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}g^2K^2(x)\right\}U(x,x^{};s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{}{s}}U(x,x^{};s)`$ (49)
and

$`\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_\mu ^\mu +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\right\}U_0(x,x^{};s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{}{s}}U_0(x,x^{};s)`$ (50)
with the initial conditions $`U(x,x^{};0)=\delta ^4(xx^{})`$ and $`U_0(x,x^{};0)=\delta ^4(xx^{})`$. Thus the problem of evaluation of the effective Lagrangian reduces to solving the differential equations in eqn. (49) and eqn. (50) with the appropriate initial conditions. Eqn. (49) cannot be solved for a general $`K^2(x)`$. We thus expand $`K_{\mu \nu }(x)`$ using Taylor expansion and take only the leading order terms. Thus we can write

$`K_{\mu \nu }(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\text{K}_0+\text{K}_1(\text{x}\text{x}_0)+\mathrm{}`$ (51)
where $`\text{K}_0K_{\mu \nu }(x_0)`$ and $`\text{K}_1_\alpha K_{\mu \nu }(x_0)`$. $`K_0`$ corresponds to the constant part of the electromagnetic field and $`K_1`$ is the gradient of the electromagnetic field. Let us choose $`x_0`$ to be the stationary point of $`K^2(x)`$ given by

$`x_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{K_0}{K_1}}.`$ (52)
This choice corresponds to the saddle point approximation. Under this approximation the differential equation in eqn. (49) becomes

$`\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_\mu ^\mu +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}g^2K_{1}^{\mu \nu }{}_{}{}^{2}x_\mu x_\nu \right\}U(x,x^{};s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{}{s}}U(x,x^{};s).`$ (53)
In appendix A we solve the above differential equation and get the solution as

$`U(x,x^{};s)`$ $`=`$ $`i{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{s^2}}e^{\frac{m^2}{2}s}\left[\text{det}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\frac{gK_1s}{2}}{\mathrm{sin}\frac{gK_1s}{2}}}\right)\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}e^{l(x,x^{};s)}`$ (54)
where

$`l(x,x^{};s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(x^2+x_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2})gK_1\mathrm{cot}\left({\displaystyle \frac{gK_1s}{2}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}xx^{}gK_1\text{cosec}\left({\displaystyle \frac{gK_1s}{2}}\right).`$ (55)
The differential equation for $`U_0(x,x^{};s)`$ can also be very easily solved. The solution is

$`U_0(x,x^{};s)`$ $`=`$ $`i{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{s^2}}e^{\frac{m^2}{2}s}e^{\frac{(xx^{})^2}{2s}}.`$ (56)
From the solutions for $`U(x,x^{};s)`$ and $`U_0(x,x^{};s)`$ it is observed that

$`\underset{K_00}{lim}\underset{K_10}{lim}U(x,x^{};s)`$ $`=`$ $`U_0(x,x^{};s)`$ (57)
which implies that in the absence of any interaction the evolution operator reduces to that of a free field. Using the solutions for $`U(x,x^{};s)`$ and $`U_0(x,x^{};s)`$ (eqn. (54) and eqn. (56)) in the expression for the effective Lagrangian in eqn. (48) we get

$`_{eff}(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{32\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{ds}{s^3}}e^{m^2s}\left[\left\{\text{det}\left({\displaystyle \frac{gK_1s}{\mathrm{sin}gK_1s}}\right)\right\}^{\frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{exp}\left\{x^2gK_1\mathrm{tan}\left({\displaystyle \frac{gK_1s}{2}}\right)\right\}1\right]`$ (58)
The above expression for the effective Lagrangian is best applicable for space time points around the stationary point $`x=\frac{K_0}{K_1}`$ because of the approximation made in eqn. (52).

## V Pseudoscalar-photon pair creation

The effective Lagrangian for the $`\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}`$ interaction in eqn. (58) when evaluated around the stationary point $`x=\frac{K_0}{K_1}`$ gives

$`_{eff}^{\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}}(K_0,K_1)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{32\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{ds}{s^3}}e^{m^2s}\left[\left\{\text{det}\left({\displaystyle \frac{gK_1s}{\mathrm{sin}gK_1s}}\right)\right\}^{\frac{1}{2}}e^{l(K_0,K_1;s)}1\right]`$ (59)
where

$`l(K_0,K_1;s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g^2K_{0}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}s{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{tan}\left(\frac{gK_1s}{2}\right)}{\frac{gK_1s}{2}}}`$ (60)
The probability of pseudoscalar photon pair production is related to the effective Lagrangian for the $`\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}`$ interaction by the formula (using eqn. (22))

$`P^{\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}}`$ $`=`$ $`1\mathrm{exp}\left[2VT\text{Im}_{eff}^{\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}}\right]`$ (61)
where $`V`$ is the total volume of the space and $`T`$ is the total time for which the system is observed. Note that $`VT`$ should be centered about the stationary point $`x=\frac{K_0}{K_1}`$. The expression for the effective Lagrangian for the $`\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}`$ interaction in eqn. (59) involves the determinant of $`K_1`$. Determinant of an operator is equal to the product of its eigenvalues. Schwinger in  evaluated the eigenvalues of the electromagnetic field tensor $`K_{\mu \nu }`$ using a very simple and elegant trick. Using the basic relations satisfied by $`K_{\mu \nu }`$ he constructed an eigenvalue equation satisfied by the eigenvalues of $`K_{\mu \nu }`$ to be

$`\lambda ^4+\left(\text{B}^2\text{E}^2\right)\lambda ^2\left(\text{B}\text{E}\right)^2`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (62)
The roots of the above equation which are the eigenvalues of $`K_{\mu \nu }`$ are $`+\lambda _r`$, $`\lambda _r`$, $`+i\lambda _i`$, $`i\lambda _i`$, where

$`\lambda _r=\sqrt{R}\mathrm{cos}{\displaystyle \frac{\theta }{2}}`$ and $`\lambda _i=\sqrt{R}\mathrm{sin}{\displaystyle \frac{\theta }{2}}.`$ (63)
$`R`$ and $`\theta `$ are constructed as

$`Re^{i\theta }`$ $``$ $`\left(\text{E}^2\text{B}^2\right)+i2\left(\text{E}\text{B}\right).`$ (64)
Thus we have

$`R^2=\left(\text{E}^2\text{B}^2\right)^2+4\left(\text{E}\text{B}\right)^2`$ and $`\mathrm{tan}\theta ={\displaystyle \frac{2\left(\text{E}\text{B}\right)}{\text{E}^2\text{B}^2}}.`$ (65)
Thus one pair of eigenvalues is always real and the other pair is always imaginary. This observation is very crucial because we shall soon see that only the real pair of eigenvalues contribute to the imaginary part of the effective Lagrangian. Note that if the electromagnetic field consists of a pure electric field then $`\lambda _r=\left|\text{E}\right|`$ and $`i\lambda _i=0`$, and if it consists of a pure magnetic field then $`\lambda _r=0`$ and $`i\lambda _i=i\left|\text{B}\right|`$.

Using the above results in eqn. (59) we have

$`\text{Im}_{eff}^{\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}}(\lambda _r,\lambda _i)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{32\pi ^2}}\text{Im}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{ds}{s^3}}e^{m^2s}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{g\lambda _r^1s}{\mathrm{sin}g\lambda _r^1s}}{\displaystyle \frac{g\lambda _i^1s}{\mathrm{sinh}g\lambda _i^1s}}e^{l(\lambda _r,\lambda _i;s)}1\right]`$ (66)
where

$`l(\lambda _r,\lambda _i;s)`$ $`=`$ $`g^2\lambda _{r}^{0}{}_{}{}^{2}s{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{tan}\left(\frac{g\lambda _r^1s}{2}\right)}{\frac{g\lambda _r^1s}{2}}}+g^2\lambda _{i}^{0}{}_{}{}^{2}s{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{tan}\left(\frac{g\lambda _i^1s}{2}\right)}{\frac{g\lambda _i^1s}{2}}}`$ (67)
where $`\lambda ^0`$ and $`\lambda ^1`$ are the coefficients of the Taylor expansion series of $`\lambda `$. That is

$`\lambda _r`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda _r^0+\lambda _r^1(xx_0)`$ (68)
$`\lambda _i`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda _i^0+\lambda _i^1(xx_0)`$ (69)
$`\text{Im}_{eff}^{\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}}`$ involves integrating the imaginary part of the above integral. This integral is not analytic in $`\lambda _r`$. Thus we evaluate $`\text{Im}_{eff}^{\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}}`$ by the prescription

$`\text{Im}_{eff}^{\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}}(\lambda _r,\lambda _i)`$ $`=`$ $`\underset{ϵ0}{lim}\text{Im}_{eff}^{\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}}(\lambda _riϵ,\lambda _i).`$ (70)
The evaluation of the $`s`$ integral is achieved by extending $`s`$ to the complex plane. The integrand has poles at points satisfying $`g\lambda _r^1s=n\pi `$ and $`g\lambda _i^1s=in\pi `$ for integer $`n`$. The prescription in eqn. (70) is equivalent to shifting the poles corresponding to $`\lambda _r^1`$ below the real line. The contour is chosen to pass along the real axis. Using these we get

$`\text{Im}_{eff}^{\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}}(\lambda _r,\lambda _i)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{32\pi ^4}}g^2\lambda _{r}^{1}{}_{}{}^{2}{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n^2}}\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{n\pi m^2}{g\lambda _r^1}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{n\pi \frac{\lambda _i^1}{\lambda _r^1}}{\mathrm{sinh}n\pi \frac{\lambda _i^1}{\lambda _r^1}}}e^{il(\lambda _r,\lambda _i)}`$ (71)
where

$`l(\lambda _r,\lambda _i)`$ $`=`$ $`n\pi g{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda _{r}^{0}{}_{}{}^{2}}{\lambda _r^1}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{tanh}\left(\frac{n\pi }{2}\right)}{\frac{n\pi }{2}}}+n\pi g{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda _{i}^{0}{}_{}{}^{2}}{\lambda _r^1}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{tanh}\left(\frac{n\pi }{2}\frac{\lambda _i^1}{\lambda _r^1}\right)}{\frac{n\pi }{2}\frac{\lambda _i^1}{\lambda _r^1}}}.`$ (72)
The above expression for the imaginary part of the effective Lagrangian for the $`\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}`$ interaction in conjunction with eqn. (22) gives the expression for the probability for the vacuum to breakdown into pseudoscalar photon pairs in the presence of a classical background electromagnetic field. The corresponding expression for the $`\varphi ^2A^2`$ interaction calculated by Schwinger in  in the above notation will be

$`\text{Im}_{eff}^{\varphi ^2A^2}(\lambda _r,\lambda _i)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{32\pi ^4}}e^2\lambda _{r}^{0}{}_{}{}^{2}{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n^2}}\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{n\pi m_e^2}{e\lambda _r^0}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{n\pi \frac{\lambda _i^0}{\lambda _r^0}}{\mathrm{sinh}n\pi \frac{\lambda _i^0}{\lambda _r^0}}}`$ (73)
where $`m_e`$ is the mass of the electron and $`e`$ is the charge of the electron. The difference in the factor of $`2`$ with the Schwinger’s result in  is because we do not consider our scalar field to be a complex field.

Observe that for the $`\varphi ^2A^2`$ interaction $`\lambda _r^0`$ (constant electric field) is responsible for pair creation. $`\lambda _r^0`$ (constant electric field) does not contribute to pair creation in the case of $`\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}`$ interaction. For the $`\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}`$ interaction $`\lambda _r^1`$ (gradient of electric field) is necessary for pair creation. Thus we conclude that for the $`\varphi F\stackrel{~}{K}`$ interaction we need a varying electric field (in space or time) for pair creation.

## VI Acknowledgments

I thank Subhendra Mohanty for introducing the problem to me and for all the fruitful discussions. I am grateful to Sudhir K. Vempati and Rishikesh Vaidya for carefully going through the manuscript.

## A Solution to the differential equation in eqn. (LABEL:eqn3.33)

Here we solve the differential equation

$`\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_\mu ^\mu +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\lambda _{\mu \nu }^2x^\mu x^\nu \right\}U(x,x^{};s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{}{s}}U(x,x^{};s)`$ (A1)
with the initial condition $`U(x,x^{};0)=\delta ^4(xx^{})`$. We begin by demanding (guided by the form of the solution for $`U_0(x,x^{};s)`$) the solution to be of the form

$`U(x,x^{};s)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{exp}\left\{x_\mu A^{\mu \nu }(s)x_\nu B_\mu (s)x^\mu C(s)\right\}.`$ (A2)
Substituting eqn. (A2) in eqn. (A1) we get the equations for the unknowns $`\text{A}(s)`$, $`\text{B}(s)`$ and $`\text{C}(s)`$ to be

$`2{\displaystyle \frac{\text{A}}{s}}`$ $`=`$ $`4\text{A}^2+\lambda ^2`$ (A3)
$`2{\displaystyle \frac{\text{B}}{s}}`$ $`=`$ $`4\text{A}\text{B}`$ (A4)
$`2{\displaystyle \frac{\text{C}}{s}}`$ $`=`$ $`\text{B}\text{B}2\text{Tr}(\text{A})+m^2.`$ (A5)
The solutions to the above equations are

$`\text{A}(s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\lambda \mathrm{cot}(2\lambda s+\text{C}_1)`$ (A6)
$`\text{B}(s)`$ $`=`$ $`\text{C}_2\text{cosec}(2\lambda s+\text{C}_1)`$ (A7)
$`\text{C}(s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\text{C}_2^2}{\lambda }}\mathrm{cot}(2\lambda s+\text{C}_1){\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\text{Tr}\left[\mathrm{ln}\text{cosec}(2\lambda s+\text{C}_1)\right]+{\displaystyle \frac{m^2}{2}}s{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\text{C}_3`$ (A8)
where $`C_1`$, $`C_2`$ and $`C_3`$ are constants with respect to $`s`$. Using eqn. (A8) in eqn. (A2) we have

$`U(x,x^{};s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi ^2}}e^{\frac{m^2}{2}s}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{(2\pi )^4\text{C}_3}{\text{det}\left(\mathrm{sin}(2\lambda s+\text{C}_1)\right)}}\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}e^{l(x,x^{};s)}`$ (A9)
where

$`l(x,x^{};s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}x^2\lambda \mathrm{cot}(2\lambda s+\text{C}_1)x\text{C}_2\text{cosec}(2\lambda s+\text{C}_1)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\text{C}_2^2}{\lambda }}\mathrm{cot}(2\lambda s+\text{C}_1).`$ (A10)
Using the initial condition $`U(x,x^{};0)=\delta ^4(xx^{})`$ and the identity

$`\delta (xx^{})`$ $`=`$ $`\underset{\sigma 0}{lim}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi \sigma }}}e^{\frac{(xx^{})^2}{2\sigma }}`$ (A11)
we can fix $`C_1`$, $`C_2`$ and $`C_3`$ to be

$`\text{C}_1=0,\text{C}_2=\lambda x^{}\text{and}\text{C}_3={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(2\pi )^4}}\text{det}(\lambda ).`$ (A12)
Using eqn. (A12) in eqn. (A9) we have

$`U(x,x^{};s)`$ $`=`$ $`i{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi ^2s^2}}e^{\frac{m^2}{2}s}\left[\text{det}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\lambda s}{\mathrm{sin}\lambda s}}\right)\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}e^{l(x,x^{};s)}`$ (A13)
where

$`l(x,x^{};s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(x^2+x_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2})\lambda \mathrm{cot}(\lambda s)xx^{}\lambda \text{cosec}(\lambda s).`$ (A14)