Examining a covariant and renormalizable quantum field theory in de Sitter space by studying “black hole radiation”

Abstract

Respecting that any consistent quantum field theory in curved space–time must include black hole radiation, in this paper, we examine the Krein–Gupta–Bleuler (KGB) formalism as an inevitable quantization scheme in order to follow the guideline of the covariance of minimally coupled massless scalar field and linear gravity on de Sitter (dS) background in the sense of Wightman–Gärding approach, by investigating thermodynamical aspects of black holes. The formalism is interestingly free of pathological large distance behavior. In this construction, also, no infinite term appears in the calculation of expectation values of the energy–momentum tensor (we have an automatic and covariant renormalization) which results in the vacuum energy of the free field to vanish. However, the existence of an effective potential barrier, intrinsically created by black holes gravitational field, gives a Casimir-type contribution to the vacuum expectation value of the energy–momentum tensor. On this basis, by evaluating the Casimir energy–momentum tensor for a conformally coupled massless scalar field in the vicinity of a nonrotating black hole event horizon through the KGB quantization, in this work, we explicitly prove that the hole produces black-body radiation which its temperature exactly coincides with the result obtained by Hawking for black hole radiation.