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Lorentz invariant measure, Scaling problem?

Physics Asked on March 11, 2021

I’m having some trouble understanding some of the Fourier stuff in QFT.
Let’s say we adopt the following convention:
$$tilde{phi}(p) = int d^4x ,, e^{-ipx} phi(x) $$
which gives us the following inverse formula:
$$phi(x) = int frac{1}{(2pi)^4} d^4p,, e^{ipx} tilde{phi}(p) $$

Now in reality, the components of $p$ are not independent and are related buy the condition $omega^2 – vec{p}-m^2=0$. So we want to write:
$$phi_t(vec{x}) = int frac{1}{(2pi)^4} d^3vec{p},, domega,, e^{ivec{p}vec{x}} tilde{phi} (p) ,, delta({omega^2 – vec{p}-m^2}) $$

The goal is enforce the condition $omega^2 – vec{p}-m^2=0$ while still being Lorentz invariant and this is indeed achieved by adding this Dirac function.

But doing this won’t give me the right final expression, because I still end up with $frac{d^3vec{p}}{(2pi)^4} $ instead of $frac{d^3vec{p}}{(2pi)^3}$. I can’t get rid of the additional $2pi$ factor.

The problem of $delta({omega^2 – vec{p}-m^2})$ is that it is in a way arbitrary, one could use $delta({frac{1}{c}(omega^2 – vec{p}-m^2}))$ instead which also enforces the same condition. And in this case we end up with $frac{cd^3vec{p}}{(2pi)^4} $.

Since there is one correct answer, how should we choose the scaling ? and why, what’s the motivation? I feel that the scaling should be coherent with some other convention that we use but I’m not sure which one.

One Answer

Although, one can do Fourier transformation of the field the way you did it in the first two equations, it is seldom done this way. Furthermore one can't jump from $int d^4p$ to $int d^3p ; domega ; delta(dots)$ as they are not equivalent mathematically.

Most textbooks start with the fields at specific fixed time. The fields are then decomposed using creation/annihilation operators, and it is observed that the states created with these operators are eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian. Due to this fact in the full time-dependent field creation/annihilation operators acquire $e^{-i omega_p}$ coefficient (through time evolution operator).

In the end the field decomposition looks like:

$$ phi(x) = int frac{d^3p}{(2pi)^3} frac{1}{sqrt{2 omega_p}} left( a_p e^{-ip cdot x} + a^dagger_p e^{ip cdot x} right) $$

You should be able to find derivation of this in almost any QFT textbook.


About the use of the delta-function in QFT integrals. One can swap integral (given $omega_p = sqrt{m^2 + |mathbf{p}|^2}$:

$$ int frac{d^4p}{(2pi)^4} (2 pi) theta(p^0) deltaleft( p^2 - m^2 right) f(p^0, mathbf{p}) $$

With:

$$ int frac{d^3p}{(2pi)^3} frac{1}{2 omega_p} f(omega_p, mathbf{p}) $$

The first integral is manifestly Lorentz-invariant, while the second one is simpler. Both are completely equivalent in any case.

Answered by Darkseid on March 11, 2021

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