Canonical Quantization Inside the Schwarzschild

Black Hole
U. A. Yajnik∗ and K. Narayan†
Physics Department, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay,
Mumbai 400 076

[gr-qc/9706021]

Abstract
We propose a scheme for quantizing a scalar field over the Schwarzschild man-
ifold including the interior of the horizon. On the exterior, the timelike Killing
vector and on the horizon the isometry corresponding to restricted Lorentz boosts
can be used to enforce the spectral condition. For the interior we appeal to CPT
invariance to construct an explicitly positive definite operator which allows identifi-
cation of positive and negative frequencies. This operator is the translation operator
corresponding to the inexorable propagation to smaller radii as expected from the
classical metric. We also propose an expression for the propagator in the interior
and express it as a mode sum. The field theory thus obtained is meaningful for
small curvatures far from the classical singularity.

To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity

∗
yajnik@niharika.phy.iitb.ernet.in
†
narayan@tristan.tn.cornell.edu (after September 1 1997)

1
1 Introduction
We propose a quantization of a scalar field inside the Schwarzschild black hole. We
adopt the conventional canonical quantization approach and the well known classical
fact that in the Schwarzschild interior test particles move inexorably inward. It thus
seems reasonable to assume that in the quantum theory we take the radial momentum
operator to be positive definite in the direction of decreasing r co-ordinate. However, the
inclusion of out-going modes with positive outward radial wave-number kω would also
be required by completeness. These then have to be interpreted as in-going modes with
positive inward wave-number but of opposite charge. This generalises the CPT theorem
as usually formulated in Minkowski space. There is a well known lucid explanation for
the existence of antiparticles in Minkowski space due to Feynman; an interesting thought
experiment was given by Weinberg [1]. Here we obtain a generalization to the black
hole interior.
From the axiomatic point of view the main issue is the spectrum condition, viz., the
existence of a positive definite operator whose spectrum would guarantee the existence
of a ground state. For the case of curved spacetime, Haag et al [2] have formulated
this as the principle of local stability of the Wightman functions. It requires that the
support of the two-point function be restricted to the forward, i.e. here, the radially
inward lightcone. We show that this principle holds for our quantization.
Candelas and Jensen [3] extended the Feynman Green Function with Hartle-Hawking
boundary conditions to the interior of the Schwarzschild black hole. This Green Function
obeys a periodic boundary condition in the time co-ordinate, and thus assumes a Kubo-
Martin-Schwinger type state as the state of lowest energy. This is appropriate to the
presence of an asymptotic heat bath. The boundary conditions that our prescription
entails are similar to those of Boulware[4] who has determined the vacuum state for
the global Schwarzschild manifold. We provide an a priori motivation for the vacuum
state strictly in the interior and construct a causal propagator. Our results agree with
those of Boulware in the interior. However, our prescription leaves open the possibility
of matching with different quantizations in the exterior.
This paper is organised as follows. In section 2 we begin with quantization conditions
and the re-interpretation of the modes, in section 3 we introduce the radial momentum
operator. In section 4 we construct the causal propagator. Section 5 contains discussion
and outlook.

2 Quantization Inside the Schwarzschild Black Hole

The Schwarzschild spacetime is described by the spherically symmetric line element

2m 2 dr 2
ds2 = (1 − )dt − − r 2 dθ 2 − r 2 sin2 θdφ2 (1)
r 1 − 2m r

2
in the {t, r, θ, φ} coordinate system. These coordinates permit separation of variables
and are suitable for finding the mode functions. We shall also need to use the so called
tortoise co-ordinate[5] r ∗ =r + 2m ln |r/2m − 1| in which the metric is
2m
ds2 = (1 − )(dt2 − dr ∗2 ) − r 2 dθ 2 − r 2 sin2 θdφ2 (2)
r
In this form the t − r part is conformal to 1+1 Minkowski space. For r < 2m, r ∗
ranges from 0 to −∞ as a monotonically decreasing function of r. The spacetime has
the Killing symmetries corresponding to time translation invariance (t → t + τ ) and
rotational invariance. It has an event horizon at r = rH = 2m. The Killing vector ∂/∂t
is timelike in the exterior, null on the horizon and spacelike in the interior. The vector
∂/∂r is spacelike in the exterior and timelike in the interior. Thus, inside the black hole,
the roles of time and space are reversed. Furthermore, any particle inside the black hole
is inexorably drawn to the singularity. In other words, the future lightcone of a particle
in the interior does not cross the horizon and necessarily terminates at the singularity.
This is what motivates our prescription for quantization. For simplicity we consider a
charged massless minimally coupled scalar field. The scheme however can be extended
to any realistic field.
Accordingly, defining the canonically conjugate momentum
∂L
Πr = = ∂r∗ φ† , (3)
∂(∂r∗ φ)
we impose the radial quantization conditions

∂φ†
[φ(r, t, Ω), (r, t0 , Ω0 )] = iδΣ (t, Ω; t0 , Ω0 ) = i[−g(Σ)]−1/2 δ(t − t0 ) δ(Ω − Ω0 ) (4)
∂r ∗
∂ ∂
[φ(r, t, Ω), φ† (r, t0 , Ω0 )] = 0 = [
∗
φ(r, t, Ω), ∗ φ† (r, t0 , Ω0 )] (5)
∂r ∂r
These are “equal r commutation relations” for the field. Quantization is performed
on constant-r hypersurfaces near the horizon in the interior (denoted by Σ), which are
Cauchy surfaces in the black hole interior. Consider the local stability requirement of
[2]. Paraphrased for the present case, it requires that the 2-point function W (2) (z1 , z2 )
has support on the forward, i.e., radially inward light cone

p·p≥0 (6)

with the radial component of the momentum

pr ≤ 0 (7)

Our quantization conditions (5) are that φ and separately π at same r commute whereas
according to (4) φ-π commutator is nontrivial in the inward directed light-cone. Thus
these can be taken to be implementation of the local stability requirement.

3
 Minkowski space quantization on hypersurfaces of constant t is covariant under rigid
Lorentz transformations of the cartesian t−~x coordinates. The background geometry of
the blackhole in Schwarzschild co-ordinates suggests a preferred slicing for quantiztion
as chosen above. The hypersurfaces of constant r are also those with TrK = constant
where K is the extrinsic curvature of the hypersurface. This choice of foliation is
standard in dynamical formulation of gravity [6]. Here the resulting field theory will be
covariant under constant translations of the t co-ordinate and rigid rotations centred on
the origin already chosen. A quantization scheme based on any other co-ordinates will
be inequivalent to the present one.
We now proceed to obtain a representation of this algebra by introducing creation
and annihilation operators. Consider the massless scalar wave equation 2φ = 0 with 2
the appropriate d’Alembertian operator for the black hole interior. Separating this in
the {t, r, θ, φ} coordinates, we obtain the mode functions

Rωl (r)
hωlm (r, t, Ω) ∼ Ylm (θ, φ) e−iωt (8)
r
where Ylm are the spherical harmonics. In the co-ordinate r ∗ , the equation satisfied by
Rωl is

d2 Rωl l(l + 1) 2m 2m
∗2
+ (ω 2 − [ 2
+ 3 ][1 − ])Rωl = 0 (9)
dr r r r
Writing this in the form

d2 Rωl
+ kω2 Rωl = 0 (10)
dr ∗2
we can identify the positive definite quantity

kω2 = ω 2 − V eff (11)

l(l + 1) 2m 2m
≡ ω2 − [ 2
+ 3 ][1 − ] (12)
r r r
with the radial wave-number squared of the mode. The V eff vanishes at the horizon
so that kω = ω there. Further, close to the horizon, i.e., for 2m − r  2m, Rωl ∼
∗
e±i(kω r −ωt) . We shall now on take kω to be the positive square root of the above
equation, and choose hωlm to be those mode functions which satisfy near the horizon1
∂
hωlm (r, t, Ω) = −ikω hωlm (r, t, Ω)
∂r ∗
(for r < 2m and 2m − r  2m) (13)
1
The e−iωt ψ l (r, −ω) of [4] correspond to our h∗ωlm

4
i.e., the positive definite eigenvalues are associated with ingoing radial momentum. This
is analogous to the condition for positive frequency modes in Minkowski space. With
appropriate normalisation, these modes satisfy the completeness relation
XZ δ(t − t0 ) δ(Ω − Ω0 )
dω hωlm (r, t, Ω) hωlm (r, t0 , Ω0 ) = δΣ (r, t, Ω; r, t0 , Ω0 ) = (14)
lm
r2

where Σ is the surface of quantization, a constant-r hypersurface near the horizon, as

before. In the mode expansion we now take summation over modes with the parameter
ω taking both positive and negative values while kω remains positive. Accordingly, the
interior Fourier expansion near the horizon is
XZ ∞ dω ∗ ∗
φin = √ √ (aω e−i(kω r −ωt) Ylm + b†ω ei(kω r −ωt) Ylm
∗
) (15)
lm −∞ 2π r 2kω
∗
where we have written hω ∼ e−i(kω r −ωt) /r as asymptotic forms near the horizon of
general modes hωlm . The indices l, m on aω and bω have been suppressed. Now imposing
the quantization conditions (4), (5) we obtain for the expansion parameters,

[aω , a†ω0 ] = δ(ω − ω 0 ) = [bω , b†ω0 ] (16)

and that all other commutators vanish.
We can justify the interpretation of modes implied by conditions (16) by paraphras-
ing the CPT invariance argument of Weinberg [1]. Consider an observer in the interior
who performs an experiment in which a particle is created at point A and is “later”, i.e.,
further down the radial direction is destroyed at B. This radial (temporal in the inte-
rior) ordering of events cannot be reversed for any classical events by another observer
without a superluminal Lorentz transformation. However for those events separated
by spacetime intervals less than the Compton wavelength of the particle, this is not
guaranteed. In this case it is possible to observe a particle of the same charge being
annihilated at B before being created at A, thus travelling backward in r. The only
way causality can be maintained is to insist that a particle of opposite charge travelled
forward in r, emitted from B and absorbed at A. Eq.s (16) are consistent with this
interpretation of the modes.

3 Recovering the Spectrum condition and CPT

Next we need to verify that the algebra of the operators corresponding to spacetime
symmetries is realised, and in particular that a positive definite operator exists, whose
spectrum guarantees the existence of a ground state upon which the spectrum generated
by the creation operators can be built. To begin with we demand the existence of a
vacuum or no-particle state | 0I i satisfying

aω | 0I i = bω | 0I i = 0, (17)

5
The global Killing symmetries of time translation (spacelike in the interior) and rotations
on surfaces of constant r are implemented by the operators
Z
Kt = dΛ Ttt (18)
Z
Kθ = dΛ Tθθ (19)
Z
Kϕ = dΛ Tϕϕ (20)

with dΛ denoting the induced 3-volume on constant r hypersurfaces and with T com-
ponents obtained in the usual way from the matter Lagrangian. These can be thought
of as the infalling mass-energy at any fixed radius and angular momentum content re-
spectively of the quantum field φ. The energy now is not positive definite, but this is
the operator corresponding to the energy operator outside. In the vacuum introduced
above, we find
h0I | Kt | 0I i = h0I | Kθ | 0I i = h0I | Kϕ | 0I i = 0 (21)
∞ R Pl
The above vanishing of the expectation values is clear because −∞ dω ω . . . and m=−l
etc. appear. The quantum dynamics is now generated by the operator
Z
Kr = dΛ Trr (22)

The radial momentum density is

Trr = Πr ∂r∗ φ + Π†r ∂r∗ φ† − L (23)

1
= [∂r∗ φ† ∂r∗ φ + φ̇† φ̇] (24)
2m
r −1
This is clearly positive definite in the black hole interior. Promoted to a quantum
operator, Kr is thus positive definite. Substituting the mode expansion (15) and using
the expression for the volume element on the constant r hypersurface near the horizon

dΛ = (2m/r − 1)1/2 r 2 sin θ dt dθ dϕ (25)

we obtain the following expression for normal ordered Kr
Z ∞
2m
: Kr : = r( − 1)−1/2 dω kω (a†ω aω + b†ω bω ) (26)
r −∞

This makes the state defined through eq.s (17) a genuine ground state as well as a no-
particle state. Note that the sign in front of kω in above eqn. is due to our choice the
sign of kω > 0 below eqn. (12).
The ground state thus characterised has been shown to be stable[4]. One may think
of it as the adiabatic vacuum useful to a freely infalling observer. The latter should
detect particle production, and the same will be finite if the vacuum specified here is

6
used as the template with which to compare his local ground states. This is similar
to what happens in Friedmann-Robertson-Walker geometries which have a conformal
timelike Killing vector. In the present case we expect copious particle production as
the singularity is approached, much as in the collapsing phase of relevant FRW metrics.
The normal ordering prescription used may seem arbitrary. But the effect of the infinite
contribution discarded manifests itself as higher derivative terms in the effective action
for gravity. It is possible to choose a renormalisation prescription such that when one
returns to the gauge specified, the numerical values of the renormalised operators will
be the same as that obtained by simple normal ordering.
Finally, CPT invariance can be realised by requiring

CφC † = φ† (27)

which implies the effect of C is

aω ↔ bω (28)
Similarly, a restricted parity operator corresponding to reflection in the blackhole
origin is given by
†
P Ω φ(r, t, θ, ϕ)P Ω = φ(r, t, π − θ, ϕ + π) (29)
which implies, under P Ω
aω,l,m ↔ aωl,−m (−1)l (30)
and for vector operators
†
P Ω V µ (r, t, θ, ϕ)P Ω = Vµ (r, t, π − θ, ϕ + π) (31)

The P Ω symmetry is complemented by reversal symmetry of the t co-ordinate

T̃ φ(r, t, Ω)T̃ † = φ(r, −t, Ω) (32)

such that T̃ is unitary. This gives

aω ↔ a−ω and bω ↔ b−ω (33)

There is no global symmetry reversing the arrow of dynamical evolution since r-

translations are not a symmetry. However in the adiabatic approximation, a local
and antiunitary r reversal operator R̃(r) may be assumed to exist such that for small
increments ∆r,
†
R̃(r)φ(r + ∆r, t, Ω)R̃(r) = φ(r − ∆r, t, Ω) (34)

4 The propagator
Since the inexorable direction of propagation is along the inward radial vector (corre-
sponding to the t variable in the exterior), the propagator in the interior is expected to
be r-ordered. This is analogous to t-ordering in the exterior.

7
Such a propagator can be written as

iG(x, x0 ) = < 0I |Rφ(x)φ† (x0 )|0I > (35)

iG(x, x0 ) = θ(r ∗ − r 0∗ ) < 0I |φ(x)φ† (x0 )|0I > + θ(r 0∗ − r ∗) < 0I |φ† (x0 )φ(x)|0I > (36)
The θ function defined above is the usual step function. This propagator satisfies the
equation

2x G(x, x0 ) = δ(x, x0 ) = [−g(x)]−1/2 δ4 (x − x0 ) (37)

thus making G(x, x0 ) a Green’s function for the wave equation in the Schwarzschild
interior geometry.
Near the horizon, the field can be expanded as in eqn.(15). Using the integral
representation for the theta function, the expression for G(r ∗ , t; r ∗0 , t0 ) (suppressing the
angular co-ordinates) becomes
Z ∗ 0∗ 0
∞ dω dΛ e−iΛ(r −r )+iω(t−t )
G(r ∗ , t; r ∗0 , t0 ) = lim (38)
→0+ −∞ (2π)2 r r 0 Λ2 − kω2 + i

5 Conclusion
We have shown that taking account of the classical inexorably inward motion and incor-
porating the requirements of CPT, a unique quantization can be obtained for a matter
field in the black hole interior. The quantization is of the kind possible in spaces with
a conformal Killing vector such as FRW universes. It can be taken to be the QFT
set up by the freely infalling observer, the equivalent of a comoving observer in FRW
spacetime. We have also shown that imposing microcausality dictates the form of the
propagator at least in the co-ordinates used. The quantization is expected to break
down close to the classical singularity where semiclassical techniques fail. It would be
interesting to ask whether there is any signature of the Hawking radiation detected in
this quantization. This requires matching of this QFT to the standard QFT in the
exterior.

References
[1] S. Weinberg Gravitation and Cosmology John Wiley (1973), sec. 2.13.

[2] R. Haag, H. Narnhofer, U. Stein, Comm. Math. Phy. 94, 219 (1984).

8
[3] P. Candelas, B. P. Jensen, Phys. Rev. D33, 1596(1986); see also ibid pg. 1590.

[4] D. G. Boulware Phys. Rev. D11, 1404 (1975). Our labelling of mode functions
differs from this reference. We treat r ∗ as the natural co-ordinate and make the split
according to positive and negative kω . See our footnote regarding eqn.(13).

[5] C. W. Misner, K. S. Thorne and J. A. Wheeler Gravitation W. H. Freeman (1973),

pg. 663

[6] see for example J. Isenberg and J. A. Wheeler in Relativity, Quanta and Cosmology
in the Development of the Scientific Thought of Albert Einstein, M. Pantaleo and
F. deFinis, ed.s, vol. I, pp 267-293 (1979)