In the framework of perturbative Algebraic Quantum Field Theory (pAQFT), recently introduced by Brunetti, Duetsch and Fredenhagen, I give a general construction of so-called "Euclidean time-ordered products", i.e. algebraic versions of the Schwinger functions, for scalar quantum field theories on spaces of Euclidean signature. This is done by generalizing the recursive construction of time-ordered products by Epstein and Glaser, originally formulated for quantum field theories on Minkowski space (MQFT). An essential input of Epstein-Glaser renormalization is the causal structure of Minkowski space. The absence of this causal structure in the Euclidean framework makes it necessary to modify the original construction of Epstein and Glaser at two points. First, the whole construction has to be performed with an only partially defined product on (interaction-) functionals. This is due to the fact that the fundamental solutions of the Helmholtz operator of EQFT have a unique singularity structure, i.e. they are unique up to a smooth part. Second, one needs to (re-)introduce a (rather natural) "Euclidean causality" condition for the recursion of Epstein and Glaser to be applicable.
We generalise a result of Aste and Scharf saying that, under some reasonable assumptions, consistent with renormalisation theory, the non-Abelian gauge theories describes the only possibility of coupling the gluons. The proof is done using Epstein-Glaser approach to renormalisation theory.
We show how the Hopf algebra of rooted trees encodes the combinatorics of Epstein-Glaser renormalization and coordinate space renormalization in general. In particular we prove that the Epstein-Glaser time-ordered products can be obtained from the Hopf algebra by suitable Feynman rules, mapping trees to operator-valued distributions. Twisting the antipode with a renormalization map formally solves the Epstein-Glaser recursion and provides local counterterms due to the Hochschild 1-closedness of the grafting operator $B_+$.
The present work contains a consistent formulation of the methods of dimensional regularization (DimReg) and minimal subtraction (MS) in Minkowski position space. The methods are implemented into the framework of perturbative Algebraic Quantum Field Theory (pAQFT). The developed methods are used to solve the Epstein-Glaser recursion for the construction of time-ordered products in all orders of causal perturbation theory. A solution is given in terms of a forest formula in the sense of Zimmermann. A relation to the alternative approach to renormalization theory using Hopf algebras is establish…
We reformulate dimensional regularization as a regularization method in position space and show that it can be used to give a closed expression for the renormalized time-ordered products as solutions to the induction scheme of Epstein-Glaser. For scalar fields the resulting renormalization method is always applicable, we compute several examples. We also analyze the Hopf algebraic aspects of the combinatorics. Our starting point is the Main Theorem of Renormalization of Stora and Popineau and the arising renormalization group as originally defined by Stueckelberg and Petermann.
A cohomological analysis of the renormalization freedom is performed in the Epstein-Glaser scheme on a flat Euclidean space. We study the deviation from commutativity between the renormalization and the action of all linear partial differential operators. It defines a Hochschild 1-cocycle and the renormalization ambiguity corresponds to a nonlinear subset in the cohomology class of this renormalization cocycle. We have shown that the related cohomology spaces can be reduced to de Rham cohomologies of the so called "(ordered) configuration spaces". We have also found cohomological differential …
This short note aims to describe the deformations of QFTs and give an action of the same pro-algebraic group $U^*$ which appears in Connes-Marcolli's setting, on the finite QFTs constructed by Epstein-Glaser renormalization scheme.
We revisit a nearly ten-year old controversy on the diphoton decay of the Higgs particle. To a large extent, the controversy turned around the respective merits of the regularization techniques employed. The novel aspect of our approach is that no regularization techniques are brought to bear: we work within the Bogoliubov--Epstein--Glaser scheme of renormalization by extension of distributions. Solving the problem actually required an expansion of this method's toolkit, furnished in the paper.
The problem of renormalization in perturbative quantum field theory (pQFT) can be described in a rigorous way through the theory of extension of distributions. In the framework of pQFT a certain type of distribution appears, given by products of Green functions which act by integration with a test function. They present ultraviolet divergences, whenever any pair of arguments coincide on one point of spacetime, and therefore, they are not defined everywhere. In this work we have studied the necessary and sufficient conditions for the extension (or regularization) of this type of distribution. M…
The paper aims at investigating perturbative quantum field theory (pQFT) in the approach of Epstein and Glaser (EG) and, in particular, its formulation in the language of graphs and Hopf algebras (HAs). Various HAs are encountered, each one associated with a special combination of physical concepts such as normalization, localization, pseudo-unitarity, causality and an associated regularization, and renormalization. The algebraic structures, representing the perturbative expansion of the S-matrix, are imposed on the operator-valued distributions which are equipped with appropriate graph indice…
Following Epstein-Glaser's work we show how a QFT formulation based on operator valued distributions (OPVD) with adequate test functions treats original singularities of propagators on the diagonal in a mathematically rigourous way.Thereby UV and/or IR divergences are avoided at any stage, only a finite renormalization finally occurs at a point related to the arbitrary scale present in the test functions.Some well known UV cases are examplified.The power of the IR treatment is shown for the free massive scalar field theory developed in the (conventionally hopeless) mass perturbation expansion.…
The perturbative construction of the S-matrix in the causal spacetime approach of Epstein and Glaser may be interpreted as a method of regularization for divergent Feynman diagrams. The results of any method of regularization must be equivalent to those obtained from the Epstein-Glaser (EG) construction, within the freedom left by the latter. In particular, the conceptually well-defined approach of Bogoliubov, Parasuk, Hepp, and Zimmermann (BPHZ), though conceptually different from EG, meets this requirement. Based on this equivalence we propose a modified BPHZ procedure which provides a signi…
Quantum Field Theory with fields as Operator Valued Distributions with adequate test functions, -the basis of Epstein-Glaser approach known now as Causal Perturbation Theory-, is recalled. Its recent revival is due to new developments in understanding its renormalization structure, which was a major and somehow fatal disease to its widespread use in the seventies. In keeping with the usual way of definition of integrals of differential forms, fields are defined through integrals over the whole manifold, which are given an atlas-independent meaning with the help of the partition of unity. Using…
Since the seminal work of Epstein and Glaser it is well established that perturbative renormalization of ultraviolet divergences in position space amounts to extension of distributions onto diagonals. For a general Feynman graph the relevant diagonals form a nontrivial arrangement of linear subspaces. One may therefore ask if renormalization becomes simpler if one resolves this arrangement to a normal crossing divisor. In this paper we study the extension problem of distributions onto the wonderful models of de Concini and Procesi, which generalize the Fulton-MacPherson compactification of con…
We study the Sine-Gordon model with Minkowski signature in the framework of perturbative algebraic quantum field theory. We calculate the vertex operator algebra braiding property. We prove that in the finite regime of the model, the expectation value - with respect to the vacuum or a Hadamard state - of the Epstein Glaser S-matrix and the interacting current or the field respectively, both given as formal power series, converge.
The subject of the thesis is the construction of a perturbative quantum theory of interacting fields on a curved space-time, following a point of view pioneered by Stueckelberg and Bogoliubov and developed by Epstein-Glaser on the flat Minkowski space-time. In 2000, a breakthrough was done by Brunetti and Fredenhagen who were able to extend the Epstein-Glaser theory by exploiting the point of view developed by Radzikowski to define quantum states on a curved space-time in terms of wave-front sets. These results were further extended by Fredenhagen, Brunetti, Hollands, Wald, Rejzner, etc. to Ya…
We present a perturbative construction of interacting quantum field theories on any smooth globally hyperbolic manifold. We develop a purely local version of the Stueckelberg-Bogoliubov-Epstein-Glaser method of renormalization using techniques from microlocal analysis. As byproducts, we describe a perturbative construction of local algebras of observables, present a new definition of Wick polynomials as operator-valued distributions on a natural domain, and we find a general method for the extension of distributions which were defined on the complement of some surfaces.
The thesis is devoted to a rigorous construction of the Wightman and Green functions in models of the perturbative quantum field theory in the four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime in the framework of the causal perturbation theory developed by Epstein and Glaser. In the first part of the thesis we give an overview of the Epstein-Glaser approach to the perturbative quantum field theory. In the second part we construct the Wightman and Green functions in a large class of models, generalizing the result due to Blanchard and Seneor. To this end, we show the existence of the so-called weak adiabati…
For a renormalizability proof of perturbative models in the Epstein--Glaser scheme with string-localized quantum fields, one needs to know what freedom one has in the definition of time-ordered products of the interaction Lagrangian. This paper provides a first step in that direction. The basic issue is the presence of an open set of $n$-tuples of strings which cannot be chronologically ordered. We resolve it by showing that almost all such string configurations can be dissected into finitely many pieces which can indeed be chronologically ordered. This fixes the time-ordered products of linea…
The paper puts together some loosely connected observations, old and new, on the concept of a quantum field and on the properties of Feynman amplitudes. We recall, in particular, the role of (exceptional) elementary induced representations of the quantum mechanical conformal group SU(2,2) in the study of gauge fields and their higher spin generalization. A recent revival of the (Bogolubov-)Epstein-Glaser approach to position space renormalization is reviewed including an application to the calculation of residues of primitively divergent graphs. We end up with an optimistic outlook of current …
We construct the Wightman and Green functions in a large class of models of perturbative QFT in the four-dimensional Minkowski space in the Epstein-Glaser framework. To this end we prove the existence of the weak adiabatic limit, generalizing the results due to Blanchard and Seneor. Our proof is valid under the assumption that the time-ordered products satisfy certain normalization condition. We show that this normalization condition may be imposed in all models with interaction vertices of canonical dimension 4 as well as in all models with interaction vertices of canonical dimension 3 provid…
Model-theoretic aspects of exotic smoothness were studied long ago uncovering unexpected relations to noncommutative spaces and quantum theory. Some of these relations were worked out in detail in later work. An important point in the argumentation was the forcing construction of Cohen but without a direct application to exotic smoothness. In this article we assign the set-theoretic forcing on trees to Casson handles and characterize small exotic smooth $R^4$ from this point of view. Moreover, we show how models in some Grothendieck toposes can help describing such differential structures in d…
A new formalism for the perturbative construction of algebraic quantum field theory is developed. The formalism allows the treatment of low dimensional theories and of non-polynomial interactions. We discuss the connection between the Stueckelberg-Petermann renormalization group which describes the freedom in the perturbative construction with the Wilsonian idea of theories at different scales . In particular we relate the approach to renormalization in terms of Polchinski's Flow Equation to the Epstein-Glaser method. We also show that the renormalization group in the sense of Gell-Mann-Low (w…
On a compact manifold $M$, we consider the affine space $A$ of non self-adjoint perturbations of some invertible elliptic operator acting on sections of some Hermitian bundle, by some differential operator of lower order. We construct and classify all complex analytic functions on the Fréchet space $A$ vanishing exactly over non invertible elements, having minimal order and which are obtained by local renormalizations, a concept coming from quantum field theory, called renormalized determinants. The additive group of local polynomial functionals of finite degrees acts freely and transitively o…
We develop an algebraic formalism for perturbative quantum field theory (pQFT) which is based on Joyal's combinatorial species. We show that certain basic structures of pQFT are correctly viewed as algebraic structures internal to species, constructed with respect to the Cauchy monoidal product. Aspects of this formalism have appeared in the physics literature, particularly in the work of Bogoliubov-Shirkov, Steinmann, Ruelle, and Epstein-Glaser-Stora. In this paper, we give a fully explicit account in terms of modern theory developed by Aguiar-Mahajan. We describe the central construction of …
We develop an algebraic formalism for perturbative quantum field theory (pQFT) which is based on Joyal's combinatorial species. We show that certain basic structures of pQFT are correctly viewed as algebraic structures internal to species, constructed with respect to the Cauchy monoidal product. Aspects of this formalism have appeared in the physics literature, particularly in the work of Bogoliubov-Shirkov, Steinmann, Ruelle, and Epstein-Glaser-Stora. In this paper, we give a fully explicit account in terms of modern theory developed by Aguiar-Mahajan. We describe the central construction of …
For Euclidean quantum field theories, Holland and Hollands have shown operator product expansion (OPE) coefficients satisfy "flow equations": For interaction parameter $λ$, the partial derivative of any OPE coefficient with respect to $λ$ is given by an integral over Euclidean space of a sum of products of other OPE coefficients. In this paper, we generalize these results for flat Euclidean space to curved Lorentzian spacetimes in the context of the solvable "toy model" of massive Klein-Gordon scalar field theory, with $m^2$ viewed as the "self-interaction parameter". Even in Minkowski spaceti…
