The classical limit for quantum mechanical correlation functions

For quantum systems of finitely many particles as well as for boson quantum field theories, the classical limit of the expectation values of products of Weyl operators, translated in time by the quantum mechanical Hamiltonian and taken in coherent states centered inx- andp-space around? ^?1/2 (coordinates of a point in classical phase space) are shown to become the exponentials of coordinate functions of the classical orbit in phase space. In the same sense,? ^?1/2 [(quantum operator) (t) — (classical function) (t)] converges to the solution of the linear quantum mechanical system, which is obtained by linearizing the non-linear Heisenberg equations of motion around the classical orbit.     

Non-abelian traveling wave solutions for massless QCD2

The field equations for quantum chromodynamics in 1 + 1 dimensions (QCD₂) with massless fermions are shown to admit classical non-abelian traveling wave solutions. In this case, the field equations reduce to the linear Frenet-Serret equations for a curve in the three-space corresponding to an SU(2) subalgebra of the SU(N) gauge group.     

Induced superradiation for a collection of three-level atoms

N three-level atoms interact simultaneously with classical and quantum fields, which are in quasiresonance with various atomic transitions. The classical and quantum fields exchange photons by means of the atoms. It is shown that under certain conditions this process is collective. The number of photons in a quantized mode oscillates, and the amplitude of these oscillations is proportional to N ². The frequency of the oscillations is determined by the frequencies of the classical and external fields.     

QCD2 and the classical correspondence in the large-N limit

It is shown that the large-N limit of quantum chromodynamics in twodimensions is determined by classical equations with boundary conditions. The nonperturbative quantum spectrum of mesonic bound states is obtained from a classical equation with a simple N-dependent boundary condition on the local charge density. The simplicity of the classical correspondence is shown to be directly tied to the simplicity of the space of gauge invariant operators of the theory. Implications for other large-N models are discussed.     

Spectral duality in integrable systems from AGT conjecture

We describe relationships between integrable systems with N degrees of freedom arising from the Alday-Gaiotto-Tachikawa conjecture. Namely, we prove the equivalence (spectral duality) between the N-cite Heisenberg spin chain and a reduced gl _N Gaudin model both at classical and quantum level. The former one appears on the gauge theory side of the Alday-Gaiotto-Tachikawa relation in the Nekrasov-Shatashvili (and further the Seiberg-Witten) limit while the latter one is natural on the CFT side. At the classical level, the duality transformation relates the Seiberg-Witten differentials and spectral curves via a bispectral involution. The quantum duality extends this to the equivalence of the corresponding Baxter-Schrödinger equations (quantum spectral curves). This equivalence generalizes both the spectral self-duality between the 2 × 2 and N × N representations of the Toda chain and the famous Adams-Harnad-Hurtubise duality.     

On a2(1) reflection matrices and affine Toda theories

We construct new non-diagonal solutions to the boundary Yang-Baxter equation corresponding to a two-dimensional field theory with U_q(a₂⁽¹⁾) quantum affine symmetry on a half-line. The requirements of boundary unitarity and boundary crossing symmetry are then used to find overall scalar factors which lead to consistent reflection matrices. Using the boundary bootstrap equations we also compute the reflection factors for scalar bound states (breathers). These breathers are expected to be identified with the fundamental quantum particles in a₂⁽¹⁾ affine Toda field theory and we therefore obtain a conjecture for the affine Toda reflection factors. We compare these factors with known classical results and discuss their duality properties and their connections with particular boundary conditions.     

On the Mean Field and Classical Limits of Quantum Mechanics

The main result in this paper is a new inequality bearing on solutions of the N-body linear Schrödinger equation and of the mean field Hartree equation. This inequality implies that the mean field limit of the quantum mechanics of N identical particles is uniform in the classical limit and provides a quantitative estimate of the quality of the approximation. This result applies to the case of C^1,1 interaction potentials. The quantity measuring the approximation of the N-body quantum dynamics by its mean field limit is analogous to the Monge–Kantorovich (or Wasserstein) distance with exponent 2. The inequality satisfied by this quantity is reminiscent of the work of Dobrushin on the mean field limit in classical mechanics [Func. Anal. Appl. 13, 115–123, (1979)]. Our approach to this problem is based on a direct analysis of the N-particle Liouville equation, and avoids using techniques based on the BBGKY hierarchy or on second quantization.     

Supersymmetric renormalization group flows

The functional renormalization group equation for the quantum effective action is a powerful tool to investigate non-perturbative phenomena in quantum field theories. We discuss the application of manifest supersymmetric flow equations to the N = 1 Wess-Zumino model in two and three dimensions and the linear O(N) sigma model in three dimensions in the large-N limit. The former is a toy model for dynamical supersymmetry breaking, the latter for an exactly solvable field theory.     

Supersymmetric mini-superspace

A mini-superspace model for quantum cosmology which possesses local supersymmetry is found by reducing N = 1 supergravity in a k = + 1 Friedmann model, and its classical and quantum solutions are discussed. In a more general class of supersymmetric models containing a scalar field, it may still be possible to compute the Hartle-Hawking state.     

Reentrant violation of special relativity in the low-energy corner

In the effective relativistic quantum field theories, the energy region in which special relativity holds can be sandwiched from both the high-and low-energy sides by domains where special relativity is violated. An example is provided by ³He-A, where the relativistic quantum field theory emerges as the effective theory. The reentrant violation of special relativity in the ultralow-energy corner is accompanied by the redistribution of the momentum-space topological charges among the fermionic flavors. At this ultralow energy, an exotic massless fermion with topological charge N ₃=2 arises whose energy spectrum mixes classical and relativistic behaviors. This effect can lead to neutrino oscillations, if neutrino flavors are still massless on this energy scale.     

The quantum dual string wave functional in Yang-Mills theories

From any solution of the classical Yang-Mills equations, we define a string wave functional based on the Wilson loop integral. Its precise definition is given by replacing the string by a finite set of N points, and taking the limit N → ∞. We show that this functional satisfies the Schrödinger equation of the relativistic dual string to leading order in N. We speculate about the relevance of this object to the quantum problem.     

Chiral rings,singularity theory and electric-magnetic duality

We study in detail the space of perturbations of a pair of dual N = 1 supersymmetric theories based on an SU(N_c) gauge theory with an adjoint X and fundamentals with a superpotential which is polynomial in X. The equivalence between them depends on non-trivial facts about polynomial equations, i.e. singularity theory. The classical chiral rings of the two theories are different. Quantum mechanically there are new relations in the chiral rings which ensure their equivalence. Duality interchanges “trivial” classical relations in one theory with quantum relations in the other and vice versa. We also speculate about the behavior of the theory without the superpotential.     

Are scattering amplitudes dual to super Wilson loops?

The MHV scattering amplitudes in planar N=4 SYM are dual to bosonic light-like Wilson loops. We explore various proposals for extending this duality to generic non-MHV amplitudes. The corresponding dual object should have the same symmetries as the scattering amplitudes and be invariant to all loops under the chiral half of the N=4 superconformal symmetry. We analyze the recently introduced supersymmetric extensions of the light-like Wilson loop (formulated in Minkowski space-time) and demonstrate that they have the required symmetry properties at the classical level only, up to terms proportional to field equations of motion. At the quantum level, due to the specific light-cone singularities of the Wilson loop, the equations of motion produce a nontrivial finite contribution which breaks some of the classical symmetries. As a result, the quantum corrections violate the chiral supersymmetry already at one loop, thus invalidating the conjectured duality between Wilson loops and non-MHV scattering amplitudes. We compute the corresponding anomaly to one loop and solve the supersymmetric Ward identity to find the complete expression for the rectangular Wilson loop at leading order in the coupling constant. We also demonstrate that this result is consistent with conformal Ward identities by independently evaluating corresponding one-loop conformal anomaly.     

N-body saddle-point approximation

By applying the saddle-point approximation to the N-body Feynman path integral formulation, the classical Hartree-Fock Molecular Orbital (M.O.) equations of quantum chemistry are obtained.     

Phenomenology and conformal field theory or can string theory predict the weak mixing angle?

We show that the weak mixing angle θ_w is the same for continuously connected classical vacua of the heterotic string which have chiral fermions in their massless spectra. We also show that the world-sheet quantum field theory for any classical vacuum with spacetime supersymmetry possesses an N = 2 superconformal invariance.     

Planar limit of the singlet spectrum for SU(N)-invariant quantum hamiltonians by the quantum collective field method

We calculate the quantum fluctuations around the classical vacuum of the quantum collective field in the case of SU(N)-invariant quantum mechanical systems. We obtain in this way the singlet spectrum up to corrections of order $\text{1}\text{N}$. Difficulties in the calculation of higher order terms in $\text{1}\text{N}$ are pointed out.     

Yang-Baxter algebras of monodromy matrices in integrable quantum field theories

We consider a large class of two-dimensional integrable quantum field theories with non-abelian internal symmetry and classical scale invariance. We present a general procedure to determine explicitly the conserved quantum monodromy operator generating infinitely many non-local charges. The main features of our method are a factorization principle and the use of $\text{P}$, $\text{T}$, and internal symmetries. The monodromy operator is shown to satisfy a Yang-Baxter algebra, the structure constants (i.e. the quantum R-matrix) of which are determined by two-particle S-matrix of the theory. We apply the method to the chiral SU(N) and the O(2N) Gross-Neveu models.     

Light-cone quantisation of the Liouville and Toda field theories

The Toda field is a multicomponent field in two space-time dimensions satisfying a generalisation of the Liouville equation ?²? + exp ? = 0. We define the quantum field theory, and solve for the fields in terms of their initial values on a forward light-cone, demonstrating that our solution is regular. We give an explicit result for the Liouville equation which is the quantum version of the well-known classical solution. We also discuss the energy-momentum spectrum, and the conformal properties of the theory.     

The initiation of superfluorescence

The early stages of a superfluorescent pulse are described with full account of both quantum and propagation effects. The pulse is triggered by zero point fluctuations of the atomic polarization field. If the number of atoms N is large these zero point fluctuations, and the electric field radiated at early times as well, have a gaussian distribution with width 4/N. An equivalent classical stochastic process is found in terms of which the later, intrinsically nonlinear part of the radiation problem can be analyzed.