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Main Authors: Calcagni, Gianluca, Nardelli, Giuseppe
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.21485
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author Calcagni, Gianluca
Nardelli, Giuseppe
author_facet Calcagni, Gianluca
Nardelli, Giuseppe
contents We construct representations of complex powers of the d'Alembertian operator $\Box$ in Lorentzian signature and pinpoint one which is self-adjoint and suitable for classical and quantum fractional field theory. This self-adjoint fractional d'Alembertian is associated with complex-conjugate poles, which are removed from the physical spectrum via the Anselmi--Piva prescription. As an example of empty spectrum, we consider a purely fractional propagator and its Källén--Lehmann representation. Using a cleaned-up version of the diffusion method, we formulate and solve the problem of initial conditions of the classical dynamics with a standard plus a fractional d'Alembertian, showing that the number of initial conditions is two. We generalize this result to a much wider class of nonlocal theories and discuss its applications to quantum gravity.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_21485
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Representations of the fractional d'Alembertian and initial conditions in fractional dynamics
Calcagni, Gianluca
Nardelli, Giuseppe
High Energy Physics - Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
We construct representations of complex powers of the d'Alembertian operator $\Box$ in Lorentzian signature and pinpoint one which is self-adjoint and suitable for classical and quantum fractional field theory. This self-adjoint fractional d'Alembertian is associated with complex-conjugate poles, which are removed from the physical spectrum via the Anselmi--Piva prescription. As an example of empty spectrum, we consider a purely fractional propagator and its Källén--Lehmann representation. Using a cleaned-up version of the diffusion method, we formulate and solve the problem of initial conditions of the classical dynamics with a standard plus a fractional d'Alembertian, showing that the number of initial conditions is two. We generalize this result to a much wider class of nonlocal theories and discuss its applications to quantum gravity.
title Representations of the fractional d'Alembertian and initial conditions in fractional dynamics
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.21485