- #1
Haorong Wu
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- TL;DR Summary
- I have found two different actions of scalar field in curved spacetime. I am not sure their differences.
First, in Anastopoulos C, Hu B L. A master equation for gravitational decoherence: probing the textures of spacetime[J]. Classical and Quantum Gravity, 2013, 30(16): 165007. , the Einstein-Hilbert action is used to analysis a quantum matter field interacting with the gravitational field, $$S=\frac 1 \kappa \int d^4 x \sqrt{-g} R + \int d^4 x \sqrt {-g} (-\frac 1 2 g^{\mu \nu} \nabla_{\mu} \phi \nabla_{\nu} \phi-\frac 1 2 m^2 \phi^2) .$$
Then, in Spacetime and geometry by Sean M. Carroll, section 9.4, the quantum field theory in curved spacetime consider the following Lagrange density $$L=\sqrt {-g} (-\frac 1 2 g^{\mu \nu} \nabla_{\mu} \phi \nabla_{\nu} \phi-\frac 1 2 m^2 \phi^2 -\xi R \phi^2) .$$
It appears that in the first paper, the curvature scalar ##R## does not couple to the scalar field, while the one in the second case does.
Are the two actions/Lagrangians describe different situations?
Then, in Spacetime and geometry by Sean M. Carroll, section 9.4, the quantum field theory in curved spacetime consider the following Lagrange density $$L=\sqrt {-g} (-\frac 1 2 g^{\mu \nu} \nabla_{\mu} \phi \nabla_{\nu} \phi-\frac 1 2 m^2 \phi^2 -\xi R \phi^2) .$$
It appears that in the first paper, the curvature scalar ##R## does not couple to the scalar field, while the one in the second case does.
Are the two actions/Lagrangians describe different situations?