Charged vs. Neutral particle creation in expanding Universes: A Quantum Field Theoretic Treatment

Abstract

A complete quantum field theoretic study of charged and neutral particle creation in a rapidly/adiabatically expanding Friedman-Robertson-Walker metric for an O(4) scalar field theory with quartic interactions (admitting a phase transition) is given. Quantization is carried out by inclusion of quantum fluctuations. We show that the quantized Hamiltonian admits an su(1,1) invariance. The squeezing transformation diagonalizes the Hamiltonian and shows that the dynamical states are squeezed states. Allowing for different forms of the expansion parameter, we show how the neutral and charged particle production rates change as the expansion is rapid or adiabatic. The effects of the expansion rate versus the symmetry restoration rate on the squeezing parameter is shown.