Functional integrals in field theory

Chronological vacuum mean quantum fields are constructed as states in appropriate commutative tensor algebras, which permits representing their generating functionals as Fourier transforms of measures in spaces of classical fields. These measures belong to a broader class than the functional integrals ordinarily applied in quantum field theory. This permits describing such nonperturbative processes as the Higgs vacuum. In particular, the phonon nature of the Higgs fields is predicted.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 9, pp. 53–58, September, 1990.     

GENERATING FUNCTIONAL AND STRUCTURE OF VACUUM

In this paper we discuss the base state of initial and final states in the transition from the generating functional of quantum mechanics to that of field theory, i.e. the problem of vacuum state. This problem becomes more necessary, when we are interested in the structure of vacuum in gauge theory.     

Functional methods in thermofield dynamics: A real-time perturbation theory for quantum statistical mechanics

A generating functional is constructed for real-time Green functions in quantum statistical mechanics in the context of thermofield dynamics. The KMS condition is taken as an axiom which together with field equations fixes the generating functional for causal Green functions in an interacting quantum field theory. This leads to Feynman rules for diagrammatic real-time perturbation theory.     

A Scheme for Generating Entangled Squeezed States Based on Cavity QED

We propose a scheme for generating entangled squeezed vacuum states of electromagnetical fields. The scheme is based on cavity QED. In this scheme, an atom interacts, successively, with a classical field, two quantum cavity fields, and another classical field. By detecting the final states of the atom, the two quantum cavity fields will be projected to an entangled state.     

Probability distributions for the stress tensor in conformal field theories

The vacuum state—or any other state of finite energy—is not an eigenstate of any smeared (averaged) local quantum field. The outcomes (spectral values) of repeated measurements of that averaged local quantum field are therefore distributed according to a non-trivial probability distribution. In this paper, we study probability distributions for the smeared stress tensor in two-dimensional conformal quantum field theory. We first provide a new general method for this task based on the famous conformal welding problem in complex analysis. Secondly, we extend the known moment generating function method of Fewster, Ford and Roman. Our analysis provides new explicit probability distributions for the smeared stress tensor in the vacuum for various infinite classes of smearing functions. All of these turn out to be given in the end by a shifted Gamma distribution, pointing, perhaps, at a distinguished role of this distribution in the problem at hand.

     

Von Neumann’s quantization of general relativity

Von Neumann’s procedure is applied to quantizing general relativity. Initial data for dynamical variables in the Planck epoch, where the Hubble parameter value coincided with the Planck mass are quantized. These initial data are defined in terms of the Fock orthogonal simplex in the tangent Minkowski spacetime and the Dirac conformal interval. The Einstein cosmological principle is used to average the logarithm of the determinant of the spatial metric over the spatial volume of the visible Universe. The splitting of general coordinate transformations into diffeomorphisms and transformations of the initial data is introduced. In accordance with von Neumann’s procedure, the vacuum state is treated is a quantum ensemble that is degenerate in quantum numbers of nonvacuum states. The distribution of the vacuum state leads to the Casimir effect in gravidynamics in just the same way as in electrodynamics. The generating functional for perturbation theory in gravidynamics is found by solving the quantum energy constraint. The applicability range of gravidynamics is discussed along with the possibility of employing this theory to interpret modern observational data.     

Ramsey fringes and time-domain multiple-slit interference from vacuum

Sequences of alternating-sign time-dependent electric field pulses lead to coherent interference effects in Schwinger vacuum pair production, producing a Ramsey interferometer, an all-optical time-domain realization of the multiple-slit interference effect, directly from the quantum vacuum. The interference, obeying fermionic quantum statistics, is manifest in the momentum dependence of the number of produced electrons and positrons along the linearly polarized electric field. The central value grows like N(2) for N pulses [i.e., N "slits"], and the functional form is well described by a coherent multiple-slit expression. This behavior is generic for many driven quantum systems.     

Optical Theorem in Quantum electrodynamics with Unstable Vacuum

All the results reffering to the relations of the optical theorem in QED with an external electromagnetic field with unstable vacuum are consistently given in this paper. The results obtained are true in all orders of perturbation theory. A generating functional is introduced for calculating total probabilities of any processes in QED with unstable vacuum.     

Monopole vacuum in non-Abelian theories

It is shown that, in the theory of interacting Yang-Mills fields and a Higgs field, there is a topological degeneracy of Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) monopoles and that there arises, in this case, a chromoelectric monopole characterized by a new topological variable that describes transitions between topological states of the monopole in Minkowski space (in just the same way as an instanton describes such transitions in Euclidean space). The limit of an infinitely large mass of the Higgs field at a finite density of the Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield monopole is considered as a model of the stable vacuum in pure Yang-Mills theory. It is shown that, in QCD, such a monopole vacuum may lead to a growing potential, a topological confinement, and an additional mass of the η₀ meson. The relationship between the result obtained here for the generating functional of perturbation theory and the Faddeev-Popov integral is discussed.     

Bimetric renormalization group flows in quantum Einstein gravity

The formulation of an exact functional renormalization group equation for quantum Einstein gravity necessitates that the underlying effective average action depends on two metrics, a dynamical metric giving the vacuum expectation value of the quantum field, and a background metric supplying the coarse graining scale. The central requirement of “background independence” is met by leaving the background metric completely arbitrary. This bimetric structure entails that the effective average action may contain three classes of interactions: those built from the dynamical metric only, terms which are purely background, and those involving a mixture of both metrics. This work initiates the first study of the full-fledged gravitational RG flow, which explicitly accounts for this bimetric structure, by considering an ansatz for the effective average action which includes all three classes of interactions. It is shown that the non-trivial gravitational RG fixed point central to the asymptotic safety program persists upon disentangling the dynamical and background terms. Moreover, upon including the mixed terms, a second non-trivial fixed point emerges, which may control the theory’s IR behavior.     

Investigating the QED vacuum with ultra-intense laser fields

In view of the increasingly stronger available laser fields it is becoming feasible to employ them to probe the nonlinear dielectric properties of the vacuum as predicted by quantum electrodynamics (QED) and to test QED in the presence of intense laser beams. First, we discuss vacuum-polarization effects that arise in the collision of a high-energy proton beam with a strong laser field. In addition, we investigate the process of light-by-light diffraction mediated by the virtual electron-positrons of the vacuum. A strong laser beam “diffracts” a probe laser field due to vacuum polarization effects, and changes its polarization. This change of the polarization is shown to be in principle measurable. Also, the possibility of generating harmonics by exploiting vacuum-polarization effects in the collision in vacuum of two ultra-strong laser beams is discussed. Moreover, when two strong parallel laser beams collide with a probe electromagnetic field, each photon of the probe may interact through the “polarized” quantum vacuum with the photons of the other two fields. Analogously to “ordinary” double-slit set-ups involving matter, the vacuum-scattered probe photons produce a diffraction pattern, which is the envisaged observable to measure the quantum interaction between the probe and strong field photons. We have shown that the diffraction pattern becomes visible in a few operating hours, if the strong fields have an intensity exceeding 10²⁴W/cm².     

强场下真空中粒子对产生的研究进展

随着激光技术的飞快发展,激光强度不断提高,超强外场下真空中正负电子对产生的过程,即能量向质量转化过程,已经成为一个研究热点。主要综述了近几年量子Vlasov方程方法和计算量子场论(数值求解Dirac方程)方法在研究强场下真空中正负电子对产生方面的进展,分别介绍了空间均匀场和空间不均匀场下的粒子对产生的情况。第一种情况主要介绍双脉冲结构振荡电场中电子-正电子对的产生、强双频振荡电场中非微扰电子-正电子对的产生、频率调制的激光场中电子-正电子对的产生和Dirac真空对啁啾外场的快速分辨。第二种情况主要介绍优化空间局域电场提高粒子对的产生率、多个势阱-垒结构的振荡场对粒子对产生的增强、振荡 Sauter 电势中正负电子对产生的问题、操纵Dirac真空以控制其在场诱导下的衰变、作为信息传输介质的Dirac真空还有正负电子对产生中的相干和非相干啁啾机制的转变。     

Will Small Particles Exhibit Brownian Motion in the Quantum Vacuum?

The Brownian motion of small particles interacting with a field at a finite temperature is a well-known and well-understood phenomenon. At zero temperature, even though the thermal fluctuations are absent, quantum fields still possess vacuum fluctuations. It is then interesting to ask whether a small particle that is interacting with a quantum field will exhibit Brownian motion when the quantum field is assumed to be in the vacuum state. In this paper, we study the cases of a small charge and an imperfect mirror interacting with a quantum scalar field in (1 + 1) dimensions. Treating the quantum field as a classical stochastic variable, we write down a Langevin equation for the particles. We show that the results we obtain from such an approach agree with the results obtained from the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Unlike the finite temperature case, there exists no special frame of reference at zero temperature and hence it is essential that the particles do not break Lorentz invariance. We find that that the scalar charge breaks Lorentz invariance, whereas the imperfect mirror does not. We conclude that small particles such as the imperfect mirror will exhibit Brownian motion even in the quantum vacuum, but this effect can be so small that it may prove to be difficult to observe it experimentally.     

Composite field condensation and the renormalization group

The renormalization group is applied to the generating functional of connected Green functions of composite fields. Conditions for composite field condensation are formulated for the β and γ functions in a new renormalization scheme. The vacuum expectation value of a composite field is given completely in terms of the renormalization group parameters. As an example the formalism is applied to the Gross-Neveu model.     

原子—场耦合系统中非局域性和纯度

本文讨论了光场初态和热库对原子——场耦合系统中量子非局域性和线性熵的影响。我们发现如果腔场无损耗且处于真空库，原子——场态会周期性的展现量子非局域性，原子和场的线性熵也会周期性地振荡，其周期和量子非局域性变化的周期相同。如果腔场损耗很弱而且热库的平均光子数很小，量子非局域性会消失，原子和场振荡的振幅逐渐减小。量子非局域性消失的速度取决于初始压缩相干态的幅度、腔的衰减系数和热库的平均光子数N。场越强、平均光子数和衰减系数越大，非局域性减弱的越快。     

Supersymmetrization of scalar field theories

We develop a formalism for constructing the vacuum functional and supersymmetrizing a scalar field theory with the help of its ground state representation. The field theory problem is first transformed into a quantum mechanical one for which the ground state representation is well defined. The theory is then supersymmetrized by “taking the square root” of the hamiltonian. Standard approximation techniques are used to construct the vacuum functional with which spontaneous supersymmetry breaking can be analyzed.     

Particle Creation in the Effective Action Method

The effect of particle creation by nonstationary external fields is considered as a radiation effect in the expectation-value spacetime. The energy of created massless particles is calculated as the vacuum contribution in the energy-momentum tensor of the expectation value of the metric. The calculation is carried out for an arbitrary quantum field coupled to all external fields entering the general second-order equation. The result is obtained as a functional of the external fields. The paper gives a systematic derivation of this result on the basis of the nonlocal effective action. Although the derivation is quite involved and touches on many aspects of the theory, the result itself is remarkably simple. It brings the quantum problem of particle creation to the level of complexity of the classical radiation problem. For external fields like the electromagnetic or gravitational field there appears a quantity, the radiation moment, that governs both the classical radiation of waves and the quantum particle production. The vacuum radiation of an electrically charged source is considered as an example. The research is aimed at the problem of backreaction of the vacuum radiation.     

Radiative Energy Shifts of an Accelerated Multilevel Atom Coupled to the Derivative of a Scalar Field

We study the energy level shifts of an accelerated multilevel atom in dipole coupling to the derivative of a quantum massless scalar field and separately calculate the contributions of vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction to the shifts. It is found that, in contrast to the case of a monopole-like interaction, both the vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction contributions are changed by acceleration, and they all contain non-thermal correction terms. Our results suggest that the effect of acceleration on the energy shifts is dependent on the type of the interaction between the atom and the quantum field.     

Quantum difference nonlinear Schrödinger equation

The quantum inverse problem method is applied to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation on a one-dimensional chain. The commutation relations of field operators are noncanonical. The generating functional of quantum integrals of the motion, creation and annihilation operators of the eigenstates are constructed.     

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.