Field theories on a lattice

Lattice field theories are described as a way to regularize continuum quantum field theories. They are obtained by replacing ordinary space time by a lattice, space time derivatives by suitable differences and Minkowski by Euclidean space. The connection between a quantum field theory isd space dimension and classical statistical mechanics in (d+1) dimensions is brought outvia elementary examples. The problem of regaining the continuum limit and of handling nonabelian gauge theories are briefly discussed.     

Affine holomorphic quantization

We present a rigorous and functorial quantization scheme for affine field theories, i.e., field theories where local spaces of solutions are affine spaces. The target framework for the quantization is the general boundary formulation, allowing to implement manifest locality without the necessity for metric or causal background structures. The quantization combines the holomorphic version of geometric quantization for state spaces with the Feynman path integral quantization for amplitudes. We also develop an adapted notion of coherent states, discuss vacuum states, and consider observables and their Berezin–Toeplitz quantization. Moreover, we derive a factorization identity for the amplitude in the special case of a linear field theory modified by a source-like term and comment on its use as a generating functional for a generalized S$S$-matrix.     

Quantum Inequalities from Operator Product Expansions

Quantum inequalities are lower bounds for local averages of quantum observables that have positive classical counterparts, such as the energy density or the Wick square. We establish such inequalities in general (possibly interacting) quantum field theories on Minkowski space, using nonperturbative techniques. Our main tool is a rigorous version of the operator product expansion.     

Physical uniformities on the state space of nonrelativisitic quantum mechanics

Uniformities describing the distinguishability of states and of observables are discussed in the context of general statistical theories and are shown to be related to distinguished subspaces of continuous observables and states, respectively. The usual formalism of quantum mechanics contains no such physical uniformity for states. Using recently developed tools of quantum harmonic analysis, a natural one-to-one correspondence between continuous subspaces of nonrelativistic quantum and classical mechanics is established, thus exhibiting a close interrelation between physical uniformities for quantum states and compactifications of phase space. General properties of the completions of the quantum state space with respect to these uniformities are discussed.     

A generalization of the classical moment problem on *-algebras with applications to relativistic quantum theory. I.

A (non-commutative) generalization of the classical moment problem is formulated on arbitrary *-algebras with units. This is used to produce aC*-algebra associated with the space of test functions for quantum fields. ThisC*-algebra plays a role in theories of bounded localized observables in Hilbert space which is similar to that of the space of test functions in quantum field theories (namely it is represented in Hilbert space). The case of local quantum fields which satisfy a slight generalization of the growth condition is investigated. Laboratorie associé au Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.     

A Generalization of Entanglement to Convex Operational Theories: Entanglement Relative to a Subspace of Observables

We define what it means for a state in a convex cone of states on a space of observables to be generalized-entangled relative to a subspace of the observables, in a general ordered linear spaces framework for operational theories. This extends the notion of ordinary entanglement in quantum information theory to a much more general framework. Some important special cases are described, in which the distinguished observables are subspaces of the observables of a quantum system, leading to results like the identification of generalized unentangled states with Lie-group-theoretic coherent states when the special observables form an irreducibly represented Lie algebra. Some open problems, including that of generalizing the semigroup of local operations with classical communication to the convex cones case, are discussed. PACS: 03.65.Ud.     

The role of type III factors in quantum field theory

One of von Neumann's motivations for developing the theory of operator algebras and his and Murray's 1936 classification of factors was the question of possible decompositions of quantum systems into independent parts. For quantum systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom the simplest possibility, i.e. factors of type I in the terminology of Murray and von Neumann, are perfectly adequate. In relativistic quantum field theory (RQFT), on the other hand, factors of type III occur naturally. The same holds true in quantum statistical mechanics of infinite systems. In this brief review some physical consequences of the type III property of the von Neumann algebras corresponding to localized observables in RQFT and their difference from the type I case will be discussed. The cumulative effort of many people over more than 30 years has established a remarkable uniqueness result: The local algebras in RQFT are generically isomorphic to the unique, hyperfinite type III, factor in Connes' classification of 1973. Specific theories are characterized by the net structure of the collection of these isomorphic algebras for different space-time regions, i.e. the way they are embedded into each other     

The algebraic structure of cohomological field theory

The algebraic foundation of cohomological field theory is presented. It is shown that these theories are based upon realizations of an algebra which contains operators for both BRST and vector supersymmetry. Through a localization of this algebra, we construct a theory of cohomological gravity in arbitrary dimensions. The observables in the theory are polynomial, but generally non-local operators, and have a natural interpretation in terms of a universal bundle for gravity. As such, their correlation functions correspond to cohomology classes on moduli spaces of Riemannian connections. In this uniformization approach, different moduli spaces are obtained by introducing curvature singularities on codimension two submanifolds via a puncture operator. This puncture operator is constructed from a naturally occuring differential form of co-degree two in the theory, and we are led to speculate on connections between this continuum quantum field theory, and the discrete Regge calculus.     

Quantum Theory Without Hilbert Spaces

Quantum theory does not only predict probabilities, but also relative phases for any experiment, that involves measurements of an ensemble of systems at different moments of time. We argue, that any operational formulation of quantum theory needs an algebra of observables and an object that incorporates the information about relative phases and probabilities. The latter is the (de)coherence functional, introduced by the consistent histories approach to quantum theory. The acceptance of relative phases as a primitive ingredient of any quantum theory, liberates us from the need to use a Hilbert space and non-commutative observables. It is shown, that quantum phenomena are adequately described by a theory of relative phases and non-additive probabilities on the classical phase space. The only difference lies on the type of observables that correspond to sharp measurements. This class of theories does not suffer from the consequences of Bell's theorem (it is not a theory of Kolmogorov probabilities) and Kochen–Specker's theorem (it has distributive logic). We discuss its predictability properties, the meaning of the classical limit and attempt to see if it can be experimentally distinguished from standard quantum theory. Our construction is operational and statistical, in the spirit of Copenhagen, but makes plausible the existence of a realist, geometric theory for individual quantum systems.     

The gauging of BV algebras

A BV algebra is a formal framework within which the BV quantization algorithm is implemented. In addition to the gauge symmetry, encoded in the BV master equation, the master action often exhibits further global symmetries, which may be in turn gauged. We show how to carry this out in a BV algebraic set up. Depending on the nature of the global symmetry, the gauging involves coupling to a pure ghost system with a varying amount of ghostly supersymmetry. Coupling to an N=0$N=0$ ghost system yields an ordinary gauge theory whose observables are appropriately classified by the invariant BV cohomology. Coupling to an N=1$N=1$ ghost system leads to a topological gauge field theory whose observables are classified by the equivariant BV cohomology. Coupling to higher N$N$ ghost systems yields topological gauge field theories with higher topological symmetry. In the latter case, however, problems of a completely new kind emerge, which call for a revision of the standard BV algebraic framework.     

Loop Observables for BF Theories in Any Dimension and the Cohomology of Knots

A generalization of Wilson loop observables for BF theories in any dimension is introduced within the Batalin–Vilkovisky framework. The expectation values of these observables are cohomology classes of the space of imbeddings of a circle. One of the resulting theories discussed in the Letter has only trivalent interactions and, irrespective of the actual dimension, looks like a three-dimensional Chern–Simons theory.     

Entropic uncertainty relation in de Sitter space

The uncertainty principle restricts our ability to simultaneously predict the measurement outcomes of two incompatible observables of a quantum particle. However, this uncertainty could be reduced and quantified by a new Entropic Uncertainty Relation (EUR). By the open quantum system approach, we explore how the nature of de Sitter space affects the EUR. When the quantum memory A$A$ freely falls in the de Sitter space, we demonstrate that the entropic uncertainty acquires an increase resulting from a thermal bath with the Gibbons–Hawking temperature. And for the static case, we find that the temperature coming from both the intrinsic thermal nature of the de Sitter space and the Unruh effect associated with the proper acceleration of A$A$ also brings effect on entropic uncertainty, and the higher the temperature, the greater the uncertainty and the quicker the uncertainty reaches the maximal value. And finally the possible mechanism behind this phenomenon is also explored.     

Construction of Quantum Field Theories with Factorizing S-Matrices

A new approach to the construction of interacting quantum field theories on two-dimensional Minkowski space is discussed. In this program, models are obtained from a prescribed factorizing S-matrix in two steps. At first, quantum fields which are localized in infinitely extended, wedge-shaped regions of Minkowski space are constructed explicitly. In the second step, local observables are analyzed with operator-algebraic techniques, in particular by using the modular nuclearity condition of Buchholz, d’Antoni and Longo. Besides a model-independent result regarding the Reeh–Schlieder property of the vacuum in this framework, an infinite class of quantum field theoretic models with non-trivial interaction is constructed. This construction completes a program initiated by Schroer in a large family of theories, a particular example being the Sinh-Gordon model. The crucial problem of establishing the existence of local observables in these models is solved by verifying the modular nuclearity condition, which here amounts to a condition on analytic properties of form factors of observables localized in wedge regions. It is shown that the constructed models solve the inverse scattering problem for the considered class of S-matrices. Moreover, a proof of asymptotic completeness is obtained by explicitly computing total sets of scattering states. The structure of these collision states is found to be in agreement with the heuristic formulae underlying the Zamolodchikov-Faddeev algebra.     

Observables in 3d spinfoam quantum gravity with fermions

We study expectation values of observables in three-dimensional spinfoam quantum gravity coupled to Dirac fermions. We revisit the model introduced by one of the authors and extend it to the case of massless fermionic fields. We introduce observables, analyse their symmetries and the corresponding proper gauge fixing. The Berezin integral over the fermionic fields is performed and the fermionic observables are expanded in open paths and closed loops associated to pure quantum gravity observables. We obtain the vertex amplitudes for gauge-invariant observables, while the expectation values of gauge-variant observables, such as the fermion propagator, are given by the evaluation of particular spin networks.     

Quantum Set Theory

The complete orthomodular lattice of closed subspaces of a Hilbert space is considered as the logic describing a quantum physical system, and called a quantum logic. G. Takeuti developed a quantum set theory based on the quantum logic. He showed that the real numbers defined in the quantum set theory represent observables in quantum physics. We formulate the quantum set theory by introducing a strong implication corresponding to the lattice order, and represent the basic concepts of quantum physics such as propositions, symmetries, and states in the quantum set theory.     

Lie algebroids,Lie groupoids and TFT

We construct the moduli spaces associated to the solutions of equations of motion (modulo gauge transformations) of the Poisson sigma model with target being an integrable Poisson manifold. The construction can be easily extended to a case of a generic integrable Lie algebroid. Indeed for any Lie algebroid one can associate a BF-like topological field theory which localizes on the space of algebroid morphisms, that can be seen as a generalization of flat connections to the groupoid case. We discuss the finite gauge transformations and discuss the corresponding moduli spaces. We consider the theories both without and with boundaries.     

Nonstatistical quantum-classical correspondence in phase space

We study the properties of a causal quantum theory in phase space for which phase space classical mechanics is obtained as a limit. The causal quantum theory is obtained from a generalized coherent state representation. The behavior for the one particle case and the manyparticle case are illustrated for the harmonic oscillator. We also answer to the arguments against the possibility of constructing causal theories in phase space.