Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Quantum field theory in flat spacetime with multiple time directions

Bin Chen1,2,3,*, Zezhou Hu2,†, and Xin-Cheng Mao2,‡

  • 1Institute of Fundamental Physics and Quantum Technology, and School of Physical Science and Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315211, People’s Republic of China
  • 2School of Physics, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Rd, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China
  • 3Center for High Energy Physics, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Rd, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China

  • *Contact author: chenbin1@nbu.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: z.z.hu@pku.edu.cn
  • ‡Contact author: maoxc1120@stu.pku.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. D 112, 085008 – Published 9 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/rq7p-lvq9

Abstract

This work serves as the generalization of the work [1], where we investigated the quantum field theory in Klein space which has two time directions. We extend studies to the general spacetime Rn,d−n(n,d−n≥2) in a similar manner; the “length of time” q is regarded as the evolution direction of the system and additional modes beyond the plane wave modes are introduced in the canonical quantization. We show that this novel formulation is consistent with the analytical continuation of the results in Minkowski spacetime.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

See Also

QFT in Klein space

Bin Chen, Zezhou Hu, and Xin-Cheng Mao
Phys. Rev. D 113, 085005 (2026)

Article Text

References (74)

  1. B. Chen, Z. Hu, and X.-C. Mao, arXiv:2505.16436.
  2. R. Britto, F. Cachazo, B. Feng, and E. Witten, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 181602 (2005).
  3. F. Cachazo, P. Svrcek, and E. Witten, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2004) 006.
  4. N. Arkani-Hamed and J. Kaplan, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2008) 076.
  5. P. Benincasa and F. Cachazo, arXiv:0705.4305.
  6. N. Arkani-Hamed, J. L. Bourjaily, F. Cachazo, A. B. Goncharov, A. Postnikov, and J. Trnka, Grassmannian Geometry of Scattering Amplitudes (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 2016).
  7. W. Melton, A. Sharma, A. Strominger, and T. Wang, J. Phys. A 58, 165401 (2025).
  8. R. Penrose, J. Math. Phys. (N.Y.) 8, 345 (1967).
  9. R. Penrose, Int. J. Theor. Phys. 1, 61 (1968).
  10. R. Penrose and W. Rindler, Spinors and Space-Time, Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 2011).
  11. S. J. Parke and T. R. Taylor, Phys. Rev. Lett. 56, 2459 (1986).
  12. M. Dunajski, Proc. R. Soc. A 458, 1205 (2002).
  13. E. Witten, Commun. Math. Phys. 252, 189 (2004).
  14. N. Arkani-Hamed, F. Cachazo, C. Cheung, and J. Kaplan, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2010) 110.
  15. R. Monteiro, D. O’Connell, D. Peinador Veiga, and M. Sergola, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2021) 268.
  16. J. Schwinger, in Proceedings of the 8th International Annual Conference on High Energy Physics (1958), pp. 134–140.
  17. J. J. Heckman, A. Joyce, J. Sakstein, and M. Trodden, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 37, 2250201 (2022).
  18. R. Penrose, Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 7, 171 (1976).
  19. M. Ko, M. Ludvigsen, E. Newman, and K. Tod, Phys. Rep. 71, 51 (1981).
  20. M. Ludvigsen, E. T. Newman, and K. P. Tod, J. Math. Phys. (N.Y.) 22, 818 (1981).
  21. T. Eguchi and A. J. Hanson, Phys. Lett. 74B, 249 (1978).
  22. E. Crawley, A. Guevara, N. Miller, and A. Strominger, J. High Energy Phys. 10 (2022) 135.
  23. R. M. Santos, L. C. T. Brito, and C. Filgueiras, Eur. Phys. J. Plus 138, 1079 (2023).
  24. G. ’t Hooft, Conf. Proc. C 930308, 284 (1993).
  25. L. Susskind, J. Math. Phys. (N.Y.) 36, 6377 (1995).
  26. J. M. Maldacena, Adv. Theor. Math. Phys. 2, 231 (1998).
  27. S. S. Gubser, I. R. Klebanov, and A. M. Polyakov, Phys. Lett. B 428, 105 (1998).
  28. E. Witten, Adv. Theor. Math. Phys. 2, 253 (1998).
  29. A. Ball, E. Himwich, S. A. Narayanan, S. Pasterski, and A. Strominger, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2019) 168.
  30. E. Casali, W. Melton, and A. Strominger, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2022) 140.
  31. L. Iacobacci, C. Sleight, and M. Taronna, J. High Energy Phys. 06 (2023) 053.
  32. W. Melton, F. Niewinski, A. Strominger, and T. Wang, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2024) 046.
  33. W. Bu and S. Seet, J. High Energy Phys. 12 (2023) 168.
  34. L. Susskind, AIP Conf. Proc. 493, 98 (1999).
  35. J. Polchinski, arXiv:hep-th/9901076.
  36. J. de Boer and S. N. Solodukhin, Nucl. Phys. B665, 545 (2003).
  37. G. Arcioni and C. Dappiaggi, Nucl. Phys. B674, 553 (2003).
  38. G. Arcioni and C. Dappiaggi, Classical Quantum Gravity 21, 5655 (2004).
  39. S. N. Solodukhin, IRMA Lect. Math. Theor. Phys. 8, 123 (2005).
  40. G. Barnich and G. Compere, Classical Quantum Gravity 24, F15 (2007).
  41. M. Guica, T. Hartman, W. Song, and A. Strominger, Phys. Rev. D 80, 124008 (2009).
  42. G. Barnich and C. Troessaert, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 111103 (2010).
  43. G. Barnich and C. Troessaert, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2010) 062.
  44. A. Bagchi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 171601 (2010).
  45. A. Bagchi, S. Detournay, R. Fareghbal, and J. Simón, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 141302 (2013).
  46. A. Bagchi and R. Fareghbal, J. High Energy Phys. 10 (2012) 092.
  47. A. Bagchi, A. Banerjee, and H. Muraki, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2022) 251.
  48. A. Banerjee, A. Bhattacharyya, P. Drashni, and S. Pawar, Phys. Rev. D 106, 126022 (2022).
  49. A. Bagchi, P. Dhivakar, and S. Dutta, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2023) 135.
  50. L. F. Alday, M. Nocchi, R. Ruzziconi, and A. Yelleshpur Srikant, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2025) 158.
  51. L. Donnay, A. Fiorucci, Y. Herfray, and R. Ruzziconi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 071602 (2022).
  52. L. Donnay, A. Fiorucci, Y. Herfray, and R. Ruzziconi, Phys. Rev. D 107, 126027 (2023).
  53. B. Chen and Z. Hu, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2024) 064.
  54. B. Chen, R. Liu, H. Sun, and Y.-f. Zheng, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2023) 170.
  55. A. Bagchi, P. Dhivakar, and S. Dutta, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2024) 144.
  56. A. Bagchi, S. Banerjee, R. Basu, and S. Dutta, Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 241601 (2022).
  57. A. Bagchi, A. Banerjee, S. Mondal, D. Mukherjee, and H. Muraki, J. High Energy Phys. 06 (2024) 215.
  58. S. Pasterski, S.-H. Shao, and A. Strominger, Phys. Rev. D 96, 065026 (2017).
  59. S. Pasterski and S.-H. Shao, Phys. Rev. D 96, 065022 (2017).
  60. S. Pasterski, S.-H. Shao, and A. Strominger, Phys. Rev. D 96, 085006 (2017).
  61. A.-M. Raclariu, arXiv:2107.02075.
  62. S. Pasterski, Eur. Phys. J. C 81, 1062 (2021).
  63. S. Pasterski, M. Pate, and A.-M. Raclariu, in Snowmass 2021 (2021), https://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/C210711/Theory.html.
  64. A. Strominger, Lectures on the Infrared Structure of Gravity and Gauge Theory (Princeton University Press, 2017).
  65. A. Atanasov, A. Ball, W. Melton, A.-M. Raclariu, and A. Strominger, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2021) 083.
  66. W. Melton, A. Sharma, and A. Strominger, Phys. Rev. D 109, L101701 (2024).
  67. W. Melton, A. Sharma, and A. Strominger, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2024) 132.
  68. W. Melton, A. Sharma, and A. Strominger, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2024) 070.
  69. S. Duary and S. Maji, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2024) 079.
  70. B. Bhattacharjee and C. Krishnan, Phys. Rev. D 106, 106018 (2022).
  71. E. Witten, in Strings 2001: International Conference (2001).
  72. Z.-Y. Wen and J. Avery, J. Math. Phys. (N.Y.) 26, 396 (1985).
  73. P. Di Francesco, P. Mathieu, and D. Senechal, Conformal Field Theory, Graduate Texts in Contemporary Physics (Springer-Verlag, New York, 1997).
  74. J. S. Avery, Hyperspherical harmonics and generalized Sturmians (Springer Science & Business Media, New York, 2002), Vol. 4.

Outline

Information

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation