Complex structures for an S-matrix of Klein–Gordon theory on AdS spacetimes
While the standard construction of the S-matrix fails on anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime, a generalized S-matrix makes sense, based on the hypercylinder geometry induced by the boundary of AdS. In contrast to quantum field theory in Minkowski spacetime, there is not yet a standard way to resolve the quantization ambiguities arising in its construction. These ambiguities are conveniently encoded in the choice of a complex structure. We explore in this paper the space of complex structures for real scalar Klein–Gordon theory based on a number of criteria. These are: invariance under AdS isometries, induction of a positive definite inner product, compatibility with the standard S-matrix picture and recovery of standard structures in Minkowski spacetime under a limit of vanishing curvature. While there is no complex structure that satisfies all demands, we emphasize two interesting candidates that satisfy most: in one case we have to give up part of the isometry invariance, and in the other case the induced inner product is indefinite.