Paper detail

A Line Source in Minkowski for the de Sitter Spacetime Scalar Green's Function: Massive Case

For certain classes of space(time)s embeddable in a higher dimensional flat space(time), it appears possible to compute the minimally coupled massless scalar Green's function in the former by convolving its cousin in the latter with an appropriate scalar charge density. The physical interpretation is that beings residing in the higher dimensional flat space(time) may set up sources to fool the observer confined on the lower dimensional curved submanifold that she is detecting the field generated by a space(time) point source in her own world. In this paper we extend the general formula to include a non-zero mass. We then employ it to derive the Green's function of the massive wave operator in (d >= 2)-dimensional de Sitter spacetime and that of the Helmholtz differential operator -- the Laplacian plus a "mass term" -- on the (d >= 2)-sphere. For both cases, the trajectories of the scalar sources are the same as that of the massless case, while the required scalar charge densities are determined by solving an eigenvalue equation. To source these massive Green's functions, we show that the (d+1)-dimensional Minkowski/Euclidean experimentalists may choose to use either massive or massless scalar line charges. In de Sitter spacetime, the embedding method employed here leads directly to a manifest separation between the null cone versus tail terms of the Green's functions.