Space/time noncommutative field theories and causality

Abstract

As argued previously, amplitudes of quantum field theories on noncommutative space and time cannot be computed using naive path integral Feynman rules. One of the proposals is to use the Gell-Mann--Low formula with time-ordering applied before performing the integrations. We point out that the previously given prescription should rather be regarded as an interaction point time-ordering. Causality is explicitly violated inside the region of interaction. It is nevertheless a consistent procedure, which seems to be related to the interaction picture of quantum mechanics. In this framework we compute the one-loop self-energy for a space/time noncommutative ϕ^4 theory. Although in all intermediate steps only three-momenta play a role, the final result is manifestly Lorentz covariant and agrees with the naive calculation. Deriving the Feynman rules for general graphs, we show, however, that such a picture holds for tadpole lines only.