Third Quantization and the Wheeler-dewitt Equation

Jun, 1988
71 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Rev.D 38 (1988) 3031-3051
Report number:
  • DOE-ER-40325-38

Citations per year

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Abstract: (APS)
Beginning with a proposal for the normalization of solutions to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation put forth by DeWitt we argue that the Wheeler-DeWitt equation naturally lends itself to a second quantization in analogy to the second quantization of the Klein-Gordon equation. We identify a conserved current, as well as DeWitt’s proposal for normalization, as coming from a Lagrangian which is the analog of a second-quantized string theory whose spatial coordinates parametrize the coset manifold SL(3,R)/SO(3). We derive a mode decomposition of the second-quantized Wheeler-DeWitt field in the linearized approximation to quantum gravity, the zero modes of which are given by the total three-volume as well as various anisotropy parameters. We discuss the possibility of adding topological interactions for the linearized theory and find a representation in terms of vertex operators. In a two-dimensional setting we discuss a connection between our formalism and a proposal by Green which may shed light on some of the interpretational problems of string theory.
  • FIELD EQUATIONS: WHEELER-DEWITT
  • Klein-Gordon equation
  • QUANTIZATION: 3
  • FIELD THEORY: PATH INTEGRAL
  • INVARIANCE: REPARAMETRIZATION
  • QUANTUM GRAVITY: WAVE FUNCTION
  • CHARGE: CONSERVATION LAW
  • SPACE-TIME: BOUNDARY CONDITION
  • POSTULATED PARTICLE: GRAVITON
  • FUNDAMENTAL CONSTANT: LENGTH