Infrared behavior and gauge artifacts in de Sitter spacetime: The photon field

Abstract: We study the infrared (long distance) behavior of the free photon field in de Sitter spacetime. Using a two-parameter family of gauge fixing terms, we show that the infrared (IR) behavior of the two-point function is highly gauge-dependent and ranges from vanishing to growing. This situation is in disagreement with its counterpart in flat spacetime, where the two-point function vanishes in the IR for any choice of the gauge fixing parameters. A criterion to isolate the "physical" part of the two-point function is given and is shown to lead to a well-behaved two-point function in the IR.