Wavepackets on de Sitter Spacetime

Abstract

We construct wavepackets on de Sitter spacetime, with masses consistently defined from the eigenvalues of an irreducible representation of a Casimir element in the universal enveloping algebra of the Lorentz algebra, and analyse their asymptotic behaviour. Furthermore, we show that, in the limit as the de Sitter radius tends to infinity, the wavepackets tend to the wavepackets of Minkowski spacetime, and the plane waves arising after contraction have support sharply located on the mass shell.