On particle production by classical backgrounds

Abstract

The theory of quantum fields in classical backgrounds is re-examined for the cases in which the Lagrangian is quadratic in quantum fields. Various methods that describe particle production are discussed. It is found that all methods suffer from certain ambiguities, related to the choice of coordinates, gauge, or counter-terms. They also seem to be inconsistent with the conservation of energy. This suggests that such classical backgrounds may not cause particle production.