Energy-Momentum Tensor in Quantum Field Theory

摘要

The definition of the energy-momentum tensor as a source current coupled to the background gravitational field receives an important modification in quantum theory. In the path integral approach, the manifest covariance of the integral measure under general coordinate transformations dictates that field variables with weight 1/2 should be used as independent integration variables. An improved energy-momentum tensor is then generated by the variational derivative, and it gives rise to well-defined gravitational conformal (Weyl) anomalies. In the flat space-time limit, all the Ward-Takahashi identities associate with space-time transformations including the global dilatation become free from anomalies, reflecting the general covariance of the integral measure; the trace of this energy-momentum tensor is thus finite at the zero momentum transfer. The Jacobian for the local conformal transformation however becomes non-trivial, and it gives rise to an anomaly for the conformal identity. All the familiar anomalies are thus reduced to either chiral or conformal anomalies. The consistency of the dilatation and conformal identities at the vanishing momentum transfer determines the trace anomaly of this energy-momentum tensor in terms of the renormalization group beta -function and other parameters. In contrast, the trace of the conventional energy-momentum tensor generally diverges even at t. (Atomindex citation 13:642803)