We prove that the self-interacting scalar field on the four-dimensional degenerate Moyal plane is renormalisable to all orders when adding a suitable counterterm to the Lagrangean. Despite the apparent simplicity of the model, it raises several non trivial questions. Our result is a first step towards the definition of renormalisable quantum field theories on a non-commutative Minkowski space.
In this paper the connection between quantum field theories on flat noncommutative space(-times) in Euclidean and Lorentzian signature is studied for the case that time is still commutative. By making use of the algebraic framework of quantum field theory and an analytic continuation of the symmetry groups which are compatible with the structure of Moyal space, a general correspondence between field theories on Euclidean space satisfying a time zero condition and quantum field theories on Moyal Minkowski space is presented ("Wick rotation"). It is then shown that field theories transferred to …
This work prolongs, using an operator method, the investigations started in our recent paper J. Math. Phys. 51., 102108 on the spectrum and states of the harmonic oscillator on twisted Moyal plane, where rather a Moyal-star-algebraic approach was used. The physical spectrum and states of the harmonic oscillator on twisted Moyal space, obtained here by solving the corresponding differential equation, are similar to those of the ordinary Moyal space, with different parameters. This fortunately contrasts with the previous study which produced unexpected results, i.e. infinitely degenerate states …
The noncommutative scalar theory with harmonic term (on the Moyal space) has a vanishing beta function. In this paper, we prove the renormalizability of the commutative scalar field theory with harmonic term to all orders by using multiscale analysis in the momentum space. Then, we consider and compute its one-loop beta function, as well as the one on the degenerate Moyal space. We can finally compare both to the vanishing beta function of the theory with harmonic term on the Moyal space.
A sketch of an approach towards Lorentzian spectral geometry (based on joint work with Mario Paschke) is described, together with a general way to define abstractly the quantized Dirac field on such Lorentzian spectral geometries. Moyal-Minkowski spacetime serves as an example. The scattering of the quantized Dirac field by a non-commutative (Moyal-deformed) action of an external scalar potential is investigated. It is shown that differentiating the S-matrix with respect to the strength of the scattering potential gives rise to quantum field operators depending on elements of the non-commutati…
The theory of alpha_star-cohomology is studied thoroughly and it is shown that in each cohomology class there exists a unique 2-cocycle, the harmonic form, which generates a particular Groenewold-Moyal star product. This leads to an algebraic classification of translation-invariant non-commutative structures and shows that any general translationinvariant non-commutative quantum field theory is physically equivalent to a Groenewold- Moyal non-commutative quantum field theory.
Metrics structures stemming from the Connes distance promote Moyal planes to the status of quantum metric spaces. We discuss this aspect in the light of recent developments, emphasizing the role of Moyal planes as representative examples of a recently introduced notion of quantum (noncommutative) locally compact space. We move then to the framework of Lorentzian noncommutative geometry and we examine the possibility of defining a notion of causality on Moyal plane, which is somewhat controversial in the area of mathematical physics. We show the actual existence of causal relations between the …
A Lie algebraic approach to the unitary transformations in Weyl quantization is discussed. This approach, being formally equivalent to the $\star$-quantization, is an extension of the classical Poisson-Lie formalism which can be used as an efficient tool in the quantum phase space transformation theory.
It is shown that the mixing of ultraviolet and infrared divergences in quantum field theory on Moyal space is not an artefact of the Euclidean framework, but occurs also in the Hamiltonian setting when the interaction is given in terms of the Moyal twisted convolution product. The mixing mechanism in both settings is examined from the point of view of microlocal analysis and it is shown that they are different from one another.
In this work several techniques to treat the partition function of the real scalar quartic quantum field theory on the Moyal plane is discussed. A factorisation approach requires the polytope volume for the diagonal subpolytope of symmetric stochastic matrices. This is determined asymptotically. The applicability of this method is tested for regime of weak coupling. Here the asymptotic character of the polytope volume alters the matrix structure of the original model leading to fictitious divergences.
We review our recent construction of the $ϕ^4$-model on four-dimensional Moyal space. A milestone is the exact solution of the quartic matrix model $Z[E,J]=\int dΦ\exp(tr(JΦ- EΦ^2 -(λ/4) Φ^4))$ in terms of the solution of a non-linear equation for the 2-point function and the eigenvalues of $E$. The $β$-function vanishes identically. For the Moyal model, the theory of Carleman type singular integral equations reduces the construction to a fixed point problem. Its numerical solution reveals a second-order phase transition at $λ_c\approx-0.396$ and a phase transition of infinite order at $λ=0$. …
Quantization of constraint systems within the Weyl-Wigner-Groenewold-Moyal framework is discussed. Constraint dynamics of classical and quantum systems is reformulated using the skew-gradient projection formalism. The quantum deformation of the Dirac bracket is generalized to match smoothly the classical Dirac bracket in and outside of the constraint submanifold in the limit $\hbar \to 0$.
In this paper we consider a connection between the Moyal formuration of quantum mechanics and noncommutative lattices on nonlocal spaces. The Moyal bracket generates SU(N) Lie algebras,and representations of these algebras correspond to Bratteli diagrams on Hilbert spaces of C*-algebras, and also representations of noncommutative lattices on nonlocal spaces correspond to the same diagrams. We will show that the quantization thus generates nonlocal spaces by the intermediation of Bratteli diagrams.The above connection are investigated in details in two definite cases, one is one-dimensional lat…
We consider bosons on Euclidean R^4 that are minimally coupled to an external Yang-Mills field. We compute the logarithmically divergent part of the cut-off regularized quantum effective action of this system. We confirm the known result that this term is proportional to the Yang-Mills action. We use pseudodifferential operator methods throughout to prepare the ground for a generalization of our calculation to the noncommutative four-dimensional Moyal plane (also known as noncommutative flat space). We also include a detailed comparison of our cut-off regularization to heat kernel techniques. …
Discussed are some geometric aspects of the phase space formalism in quantum mechanics in the sense of Weyl, Wigner, Moyal and Ville. We analyze the relationship between this formalism and geometry of the Galilei group, classical momentum mapping, theory of unitary projective representations of groups, and theory of groups algebras. Later on we present some generalization to quantum mechanics on locally compact Abelian groups. It is based on Pontryagin duality. Indicated are certain physical aspects in quantum dynamics of crystal lattices, including the phenomenon of "Umklapp-Prozessen"
The Moyal and Wick-Voros planes A^{M,V}_θ are *-isomorphic. On each of these planes the Poincaré group acts as a Hopf algebra symmetry if its coproducts are deformed by twist factors. We show that the *-isomorphism T: A^M_θ to A^V_θ does not also map the corresponding twists of the Poincaré group algebra. The quantum field theories on these planes with twisted Poincaré-Hopf symmetries are thus inequivalent. We explicitly verify this result by showing that a non-trivial dependence on the non-commutative parameter is present for the Wick-Voros plane in a self-energy diagram whereas it is known t…
The quantized free Dirac field is considered on Minkowski spacetime (of general dimension). The Dirac field is coupled to an external scalar potential whose support is finite in time and which acts by a Moyal-deformed multiplication with respect to the spatial variables. The Moyal-deformed multiplication corresponds to the product of the algebra of a Moyal plane described in the setting of spectral geometry. It will be explained how this leads to an interpretation of the Dirac field as a quantum field theory on Moyal-deformed Minkowski spacetime (with commutative time) in a setting of Lorentzi…
The paper is a survey of some author's results related with the Maslov--Shvedov method of complex germ and with quantum field theory. The main idea is that many results of the method of complex germ and of perturbative quantum field theory can be made more simple and natural if instead of the algebra of (pseudo)differential operators one uses the Weyl algebra (operators with Weyl symbols) with the Moyal *-product. Section 1, devoted to quantum mechanics, contains a closed mathematical description of the Maslov--Shvedov method in the theory of Schrodinger equation, including the method of canon…
We study the oscillations of a scalar field on a noncommutative disc implementing the boundary as the limit case of an interaction with an appropriately chosen confining background. The space of quantum fluctuations of the field is finite dimensional and displays the rotational and parity symmetry of the disc. We perform a numerical evaluation of the (finite) Casimir energy and obtain similar results as for the fuzzy sphere and torus.
A full consideration of classical and quantum systems with radiation (electromagnetic/gravitational) requires the involvement of a mathematical description in the generalized phase space of high kinematical values. Based on the dispersion chain of equations of quantum mechanics, we construct a generalization of the von Neumann equation for the density matrix in the phase space of fourth-order kinematical values. The paper introduces a new extended definition of the fourth rank Wigner function, which is constructed from the wave functions of the second rank. A new extended Moyal equation (PSI-M…
In this paper, we further develop the analysis started in an earlier paper on the inequivalence of certain quantum field theories on noncommutative spacetimes constructed using twisted fields. The issue is of physical importance. Thus it is well known that the commutation relations among spacetime coordinates, which define a noncommutative spacetime, do not constrain the deformation induced on the algebra of functions uniquely. Such deformations are all mathematically equivalent in a very precise sense. Here we show how this freedom at the level of deformations of the algebra of functions can …
A normal form transformation is carried out on the operators of a complete set of commuting observables in a multidimensional, integrable quantum system, mapping them by unitary conjugation into functions of the harmonic oscillators in the various degrees of freedom. The transformation works at the level of the Weyl symbols of the operators, which are manipulated as formal power series in hbar by use of the Moyal star product. It is assumed that the Weyl symbol of one of the operators (the Hamiltonian) has a generic, stable fixed point in phase space. The normal form transformation takes place…
We study the metric aspect of the Moyal plane from Connes' noncommutative geometry point of view. First, we compute Connes' spectral distance associated with the natural isometric action of R^2 on the algebra of the Moyal plane A. We show that the distance between any state of A and any of its translated is precisely the amplitude of the translation. As a consequence, we obtain the spectral distance between coherent states of the quantum harmonic oscillator as the Euclidean distance on the plane. We investigate the classical limit, showing that the set of coherent states equipped with Connes' …
A conjecture in quantum mechanics states that any quantum canonical transformation can decompose into a sequence of three basic canonical transformations; gauge, point and interchange of coordinates and momenta. It is shown that if one attempts to construct the three basic transformations in star-product form, while gauge and point transformations are immediate in star-exponential form, interchange has no correspondent, but it is possible in an ordinary exponential form. As an alternative approach, it is shown that all three basic transformations can be constructed in the ordinary exponential …
We present a phase space formulation of quantum mechanics in the Schrödinger representation and derive the associated Weyl pseudo-differential calculus. We prove that the resulting theory is unitarily equivalent to the standard "configuration space" formulation and show that it allows for a uniform treatment of both pure and mixed quantum states. In the second part of the paper we determine the unitary transformation (and its infinitesimal generator) that maps the phase space Schrödinger representation into another (called Moyal) representation, where the wave function is the cross-Wigner func…
Twisted quantum field theories on the Groenewold-Moyal plane are known to be non-local. Despite this non-locality, it is possible to define a generalized notion of causality. We show that interacting quantum field theories that involve only couplings between matter fields, or between matter fields and minimally coupled U(1) gauge fields are causal in this sense. On the other hand, interactions between matter fields and non-abelian gauge fields violate this generalized causality. We derive the modified Feynman rules emergent from these features. They imply that interactions of matter with non-a…
The remarkable properties of the real scalar quartic quantum field theory on the Moyal plane in combination with its similarity to the Kontsevich model make the model's partition function an interesting object to study. However, direct evalua- tions is obstructed by the intertwining of the field's various modes. A factorization procedure to circumvent this problem is proposed and discussed here in the context of the real scalar quartic qft on the Moyal plane. This factorization consists of integrating against the asymptotic volume of the diagonal subpolytope of symmet- ric stochastic matrices.…
The Gel'fand-Shilov spaces of type S are considered as topological algebras with respect to the Moyal star product and their corresponding algebras of multipliers are defined and investigated. In contrast to the well-studied case of Schwartz's space S, these multipliers are allowed to have nonpolynomial growth or infinite order singularities. The Moyal multiplication is thereby extended to certain classes of ultradistributions, hyperfunctions, and analytic functionals. The main theorem of the paper characterizes those elements of the dual of a given test function space that are the Moyal multi…
Fully Poincaré covariant quantum field theories on non-commutative Moyal Minkowski spacetime so far have been considered in their vacuum representations, i.e. at zero temperature. Here we report on work in progress regarding their thermal representations, corresponding to physical states at non-zero temperature, which turn out to be markedly different from both, thermal representations of quantum field theory on commutative Minkowski spacetime, and such representations of non-covariant quantum field theory on Moyal Minkowski space with a fixed deformation matrix.
It is by now well known that the Poincaré group acts on the Moyal plane with a twisted coproduct. Poincaré invariant classical field theories can be formulated for this twisted coproduct. In this paper we systematically study such a twisted Poincaré action in quantum theories on the Moyal plane. We develop quantum field theories invariant under the twisted action from the representations of the Poincaré group, ensuring also the invariance of the S-matrix under the twisted action of the group . A significant new contribution here is the construction of the Poincaré generators using quantum fiel…
A relativistic phase-space representation for a class of observables with matrix-valued Weyl symbols proportional to the identity matrix (charge-invariant observables)is proposed. We take into account the nontrivial charge structure of the position and momentum operators. The evolution equation coincides with its analog in relativistic quantum mechanics with nonlocal Hamiltonian under conditions where particle-pair creation does not take place (free particle and constant magnetic field). The differences in the equations are connected with peculiarities of the constraints on the initial conditi…
In this paper, we study the classical limit and unitary evolution of quantum cosmology by applying the Weyl--Wigner--Groenewold--Moyal formalism of deformation quantization to quantum cosmology of a homogeneous and isotropic universe with positive spatial curvature and conformally coupled scalar field. The corresponding quantum cosmology (similar to the Schrödinger interpretation in canonical quantization scheme of quantum cosmology) is described by the Moyal--Wheeler--DeWitt equation which has an exact solution in Moyal phase space, resulting in Wigner quasiprobability distribution function, …
The quantum deformation of the Poisson bracket is the Moyal bracket. We construct quantum deformation of the Dirac bracket for systems which admit global symplectic basis for constraint functions. Equivalently, it can be considered as an extension of the Moyal bracket to second-class constraints systems and to gauge-invariant systems which become second class when gauge-fixing conditions are imposed.
The Hilbert-Schmidt operator formulation of non-commutative quantum mechanics in 2D Moyal plane is shown to allow one to construct Schwinger's SU(2) generators. Using this the SU(2) symmetry aspect of both commutative and non-commutative harmonic oscillator are studied and compared. Particularly, in the non-commutative case we demonstrate the existence of a critical point in the parameter space of mass and angular frequency where there is a manifest SU(2) symmetry for a unphysical harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian built out of commuting (unphysical yet covariantly transforming under SU(2)) posit…
The orbit method of Kirillov is used to derive the p-mechanical brackets [math-ph/0007030, quant-ph/0212101]. They generate the quantum (Moyal) and classic (Poisson) brackets on respective orbits corresponding to representations of the Heisenberg group. The extension of p-mechanics to field theory is made through the De Donder--Weyl Hamiltonian formulation. The principal step is the substitution of the Heisenberg group with Galilean. Keywords: Classic and quantum mechanics, Moyal brackets, Poisson brackets, commutator, Heisenberg group, orbit method, deformation quantisation, representation th…
This contribution is an introduction to the metric aspect of noncommutative geometry, with emphasize on the Moyal plane. Starting by questioning "how to define a standard meter in a space whose coordinates no longer commute?", we list several recent results regarding Connes's spectral distance calculated between eigenstates of the quantum harmonic oscillator arXiv:0912.0906, as well as between coherent states arXiv:1110.6164. We also question the difference (which remains hidden in the commutative case) between the spectral distance and the notion of quantum length inherited from the length op…
The harmonic term in the scalar field theory on the Moyal space removes the UV-IR mixing, so that the theory is renormalizable to all orders. In this paper, we review the three principal interpretations of this harmonic term: the Langmann-Szabo duality, the superalgebraic approach and the noncommutative scalar curvature interpretation. Then, we show some deep relationship between these interpretations.
By twisting the commutation relations between creation and annihilation operators, we show that quantum conformal invariance can be implemented in the 2-d Moyal plane. This is an explicit realization of an infinite dimensional symmetry as a quantum algebra.
Recent work [hep-th/0504183,hep-th/0508002] indicates an approach to the formulation of diffeomorphism invariant quantum field theories (qft's) on the Groenewold-Moyal (GM) plane. In this approach to the qft's, statistics gets twisted and the S-matrix in the non-gauge qft's becomes independent of the noncommutativity parameter theta^{μν}. Here we show that the noncommutative algebra has a commutative spacetime algebra as a substructure: the Poincare, diffeomorphism and gauge groups are based on this algebra in the twisted approach as is known already from the earlier work of [hep-th/0510059]. …
Using the recently introduced parametric representation of non-commutative quantum field theory, we implement here the dimensional regularization and renormalization of the vulcanized $Φ^{\star 4}_4$ model on the Moyal space.
The space, on which quantum field operators are given, is constructed in any theory, in which the usual product between test functions is substituted by the $\star$-product (the Moyal-type product). The important example of such a theory is noncommutative quantum field theory (NC QFT). This construction is the key point in the derivation of the Wightman reconstruction theorem.
In order to realize supersymmetric quantum mechanics methods on a four dimensional classical phase-space, the complexified Clifford algebra of this space is extended by deforming it with the Moyal star-product in composing the components of Clifford forms. Two isospectral matrix Hamiltonians having a common bosonic part but different fermionic parts depending on four real-valued phase space functions are obtained. The Hamiltonians are doubly intertwined via matrix-valued functions which are divisors of zero in the resulting Moyal-Clifford algebra. Two illustrative examples corresponding to Jay…
We prove that the Gelfand-Shilov spaces $S^β_α$ are topological algebras under the Moyal star product if and only if $α\geβ$. These spaces of test functions can be used in quantum field theory on noncommutative spacetime. The star product depends on the noncommutativity parameter continuously in their topology. We also prove that the series expansion of the Moyal product converges absolutely in $S^β_α$ if and only if $β<1/2$.
A non-associative Groenewold-Moyal plane is constructed using quaternion-valued function algebras. The symmetrized multi-particle states, the scalar product, the annihilation/creation algebra and d the formulation in terms of a Hopf algebra are also developed. Non-associative quantum algebras in terms of position and momentum operators are given as the simplest examples of a framework whose applications may involve string theory and non-linear quantum field theory
Four formulations of quantum mechanics on noncommutative Moyal phase spaces are reviewed. These are the canonical, path-integral, Weyl-Wigner and systematic formulations. Although all these formulations represent quantum mechanics on a phase space with the same deformed Heisenberg algebra, there are mathematical and conceptual differences which we discuss.
We question the emergence of a minimal length in quantum spacetime, comparing two notions that appeared at various points in the literature: on the one side, the quantum length as the spectrum of an operator L in the Doplicher Fredenhagen Roberts (DFR) quantum spacetime, as well as in the canonical noncommutative spacetime; on the other side, Connes' spectral distance in noncommutative geometry. Although on the Euclidean space the two notions merge into the one of geodesic distance, they yield distinct results in the noncommutative framework. In particular on the Moyal plane, the quantum lengt…
We review the present status of gauge theories built on various quantum space-times described by noncommutative space-times. The mathematical tools and notions underlying their construction are given. Different formulations of gauge theory models on Moyal spaces as well as on quantum spaces whose coordinates form a Lie algebra are covered, with particular emphasis on some explored quantum properties. Recent attempts aiming to include gravity dynamics within a noncommutative framework are also considered.
The aim of this thesis is to study the isopectral deformations from the point of view of Alain Connes' noncommutative geometry. This class of quantum spaces constituts a curved space generalisation of Moyal planes and noncommutative tori. First of all, we look at the construction of non-unital spectral triples, for which we propose modified axioms. We then check that Moyal planes fit into this axiomatic framework, and give the keypoints for the construction of non-unital spectral triples from generic non-compact isospectral deformations. To this end, numerous analytical tools on non-compact Ri…
We construct a family of fermionic star products generalising the fermionic Moyal product. The parameter space contains the polarisations necessary to define a quantum Hilbert space. We find a star product of fermionic functions on sections of the pre-quantum line bundle and show that the star product of any function on a quantum state remain a quantum state. Associativity implies a representation of the fermionic star product algebra on the quantum Hilbert space. The star product is compatible with both the flat connection on the bundle of fermionic functions and the projectively flat connect…
These are lecture notes for the course "Poisson geometry and deformation quantization" given by the author during the fall semester 2020 at the University of Zurich. The first chapter is an introduction to differential geometry, where we cover manifolds, tensor fields, integration on manifolds, Stokes' theorem, de Rham's theorem and Frobenius' theorem. The second chapter covers the most important notions of symplectic geometry such as Lagrangian submanifolds, Weinstein's tubular neighborhood theorem, Hamiltonian mechanics, moment maps and symplectic reduction. The third chapter gives an introd…
Time-symmetric quantum mechanics can be described in the usual Weyl--Wigner--Moyal formalism (WWM) by using the properties of the Wigner distribution, and its generalization, the cross-Wigner distribution. The use of the latter makes clear a strongly oscillating interference between the pre- and post-selected states. This approach allows us to give explicit formulas for the state reconstruction problem, thus generalizing known results to the case of arbitrary observables. In a forthcoming paper we will extend these results to other quantization schemes.
In the present work we review the twisted field construction of quantum field theory on noncommutative spacetimes based on twisted Poincaré invariance. We present the latest development in the field, in particular the notion of equivalence of such quantum field theories on a noncommutative spacetime, in this regard we work out explicitly the inequivalence between twisted quantum field theories on Moyal and Wick-Voros planes; the duality between deformations of the multiplication map on the algebra of functions on spacetime $\mathscr{F}(\mathbb{R}^4)$ and coproduct deformations of the Poincaré-…
This paper presents a new approach to phase space trajectories in quantum mechanics. A Moyal description of quantum theory is used, where observables and states are treated as classical functions on a classical phase space. A quantum trajectory being an appropriate solution to quantum Hamiltonian equations is also a function defined on a classical phase space. The difference, when compare with classical theory, is in a deformation of a classical action of a flow on observables and states to an appropriate quantum action. This leads also to deformation of a multiplication rule for any quantum t…
In this work we have obtained the exact quantum expressions for the compenents of the Levi Cevita connection, the Ricci tensor and the scalar curvature, generalizing those of \cite{CTZX08} for a spherical surface via the noncommutative Moyal star product, and we have established equations describing quantum effect on the geodesic flow equation or auto parallel fields equations. These later are solved for the zero and the first orders of the quantum parameter $α$ when $y$-symmetry is assumed. We expressed the general system of equations in terms of Fourier modes indexed by the integer $p=1,2,..…