Paper detail

Semiclassical theories as initial value problems

Motivated by the initial value problem in semiclassical gravity, we study the initial value problem of a system consisting of a quantum scalar field weakly interacting with a classical one. The quantum field obeys a Klein-Gordon equation with a potential proportional to the classical field. The classical field obeys an inhomogeneous Klein-Gordon equation sourced by the renormalised expectation value of the squared quantum field in a Hadamard state, $\langle Ψ| Φ^2 Ψ\rangle$. Thus, the system of equations for the scalar fields reminisces of the semi-classical Einstein field equations with a Klein-Gordon field, where classical geometry is sourced by the renormalised stress-energy tensor of the quantum field, and the Klein-Gordon equation depends on the metric explicitly. We show that a unique asymptotic solution for the system can be obtained perturbatively at any fixed finite order in the weak coupling from initial data provided that the interaction is switched on and off smoothly in a spacetime region to the future of the initial data surface. This allows one to provide "free" initial data for the decoupled system that guarantees that the Wightman function of the quantum field be of Hadamard form, and hence that the renormalised $\langle Ψ| Φ^2 Ψ\rangle$ exist (in a perturbative sense) and be smooth. We comment on how to relax the switching of the interaction, which might be relevant for the corresponding problem in semiclassical gravity.