It was shown recently that stochastic quantization can be made into a well defined quantization scheme on (pseudo-)Riemannian manifolds using second order differential geometry, which is an extension of the commonly used first order differential geometry. In this letter, we show that restrictions to relativistic theories can be obtained from this theory by imposing a stochastic energy-momentum relation. In the process, we derive non-perturbative quantum corrections to the line element as measured by scalar particles. Furthermore, we extend the framework of stochastic quantization to massless scalar particles.
A relativistic Hamiltonian mechanical system is seen as a conservative Dirac constraint system on the cotangent bundle of a pseudo-Riemannian manifold. We provide geometric quantization of this cotangent bundle where the quantum constraint serves as a relativistic quantum equation.
In the comment to the article by J.Baez and K.Krasnov (hep-th/9703112) are discussed some topics related with application of certain constructions to non-trivial principal bundles.
We study the reparametrization invariant system of a classical relativistic particle moving in (5+1) dimensions, of which two internal ones are compactified to form a torus. A discrete physical time is constructed based on a quasi-local invariant observable. Due to ergodicity, it is simply related to the proper time on average. The external motion in Minkowski space can then be described as a unitary quantum mechanical evolution.
The connection between four different approaches to quantization of the relativistic particle is studied: reduced phase space quantization, Dirac quantization, BRST quantization, and (BRST)-Fock quantization are each carried out. The connection to the BFV path integral in phase space is provided. In particular, it is concluded that that the full range of the lapse should be used in such path integrals. The relationship between all these approaches is established.
The Hamiltonian formulation of scalar-tensor theories of gravity is derived from their Lagrangian formulation by Hamiltonian analysis. The Hamiltonian formalism marks off two sectors of the theories by the coupling parameter $ω(ϕ)$. In the sector of $ω(ϕ)=-3/2$, the feasible theories are restricted and a new primary constraint generating conformal transformations of spacetime is obtained, while in the other sector of $ω(ϕ)\neq-3/2$, the canonical structure and constraint algebra of the theories are similar to those of general relativity coupled with a scalar field. By canonical transformations…
Studies of geometrical theories suggest that fundmental problems of quantization arise from the disparate usage of displacement operators. These may be the source of a concealed inconsistency in the accepted formalism of quantum physics. General relativity and related theories cannot be quantized by the classical procedure. It is necessary to avoid the construction of differential equations by operators applied algebraically. For such theories, Von Neumann's theorem concerning hidden variables is avoided. A specified alternative class of gravitational-quantum-electrodynamic theories is possibl…
It is well-known that there exist infinitely-many inequivalent representations of the canonical (anti)-commutation relations of Quantum Field Theory (QFT). A way out, suggested by Algebraic QFT, is to instead define the quantum theory as encompassing all possible (abstract) states. In the present paper, we describe a quantization scheme for general linear (aka. free) field theories that can be seen as intermediate between traditional Fock quantization and full Algebraic QFT, in the sense that: * it provides a constructive, explicit description of the resulting space of quantum states; * it doe…
We propose here a new symplectic quantization scheme, where quantum fluctuations of a scalar field theory stem from two main assumptions: relativistic invariance and equiprobability of the field configurations with identical value of the action. In this approach the fictitious time of stochastic quantization becomes a genuine additional time variable, with respect to the coordinate time of relativity. This proper time is associated to a symplectic evolution in the action space, which allows one to investigate not only asymptotic, i.e. equilibrium, properties of the theory, but also its non-equ…
We perform the canonical quantization of a relativistic spinless particle moving in a curved and static spacetime. We show that the classical theory already describes at the same time both particle and antiparticle. The analyses involves time-depending constraints and we are able to construct the two-particle Hilbert space. The requirement of a static spacetime is necessary in order to have a well defined Schrödinger equation and to avoid problems with vacuum instabilities. The severe ordering ambiguities we found are in essence the same ones of the well known non-relativistic case.
The successful background-independent quantization of Loop Quantum Gravity relies on the key observation that classical General Relativity can be cast into the connection-dynamical formalism with the structure group of SU(2). Due to this particular formalism, Loop Quantum Gravity was generally considered as a quantization scheme that applies only to General Relativity. However, we will show that the nonperturbative quantization procedure of Loop Quantum Gravity can be extended to a rather general class of metric theories of gravity, which have received increased attention recently due to motiv…
An anomaly-free quantum theory of a relativistic string is constructed in two-dimensional space-time. The states of the string are found to be similar to the states of a massless chiral quantum particle. This result is obtained by generalizing the concept of an ``operator'' in quantum field theory.
We present the construction of a new family of coherent states for quantum theories of connections obtained following the polymer quantization. The realization of these coherent states is based on the notion of graph change, in particular the one induced by the quantum dynamics in Yang-Mills and gravity quantum theories. Using a Fock-like canonical structure that we introduce, we derive the new coherent states that we call the graph coherent states. These states take the form of an infinite superposition of basis network states with different graphs. We further discuss the properties of such s…
We analyze the quantum dynamics of the non-relativistic two-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator in Heisenberg's picture. Such a system is taken as toy model to analyze some of the various quantum theories that can be built from the application of Dirac's quantization rule to the various symplectic structures recently reported for this classical system. It is pointed out that that these quantum theories are inequivalent in the sense that the mean values for the operators (observables) associated with the same physical classical observable do not agree with each other. The inequivalence do…
Quantization of diffeomorphism invariant theories of connections is studied. A solutions of the diffeomorphism constraints is found. The space of solutions is equipped with an inner product that is shown to satisfy the physical reality conditions. This provides, in particular, a quantization of the Husain-Kuchař model. The main results also pave way to quantization of other diffeomorphism invariant theories such as general relativity. In the Riemannian case (i.e., signature ++++), the approach appears to contain all the necessary ingredients already. In the Lorentzian case, it will have to com…
We discuss string theory relations between gravity and gauge theory tree amplitudes. Together with $D$-dimensional unitarity, these relations can be used to perturbatively quantize gravity theories, i.e. they contain the necessary information for calculating complete gravity $S$-matrices to any loop orders. This leads to a practical method for computing non-trivial gravity $S$-matrix elements by relating them to much simpler gauge theory ones. We also describe arguments that N=8 D=4 supergravity is less divergent in the ultraviolet than previously thought.
We present the quantum field description of Galilean electrodynamics minimally coupled to massless Galilean fermion in (3 + 1) dimensions. At the classical level, the Lagrangian is obtained as a null reduction of a relativistic theory in one higher dimension. We use functional techniques to develop the quantum field description of the theory. Quantum corrections to the propagators and vertex are obtained upto first order and the theory is found to be renormalizable to this order. The beta function of the theory is found to grow linearly; the theory is not asymptotically free.
The most general dilaton gravity theory in 2 spacetime dimensions is considered. A Hamiltonian analysis is performed and the reduced phase space, which is two dimensional, is explicitly constructed in a suitable parametrization of the fields. The theory is then quantized via the Dirac method in a functional Schrodinger representation. The quantum constraints are solved exactly to yield the (spatial) diffeomorphism invariant quantum wave functional for all theories considered. This wave function depends explicitly on the (single) configuration space coordinate as well as on the imbedding of spa…
We discuss the canonical quantization of systems formulated on discrete space-times. We start by analyzing the quantization of simple mechanical systems with discrete time. The quantization becomes challenging when the systems have anholonomic constraints. We propose a new canonical formulation and quantization for such systems in terms of discrete canonical transformations. This allows to construct, for the first time, a canonical formulation for general constrained mechanical systems with discrete time. We extend the analysis to gauge field theories on the lattice. We consider a complete can…
The quantization of classical theories that admit more than one Hamiltonian description is considered. This is done from a geometrical viewpoint, both at the quantization level (geometric quantization) and at the level of the dynamics of the quantum theory. A spin-1/2 system is taken as an example in which all the steps can be completed. It is shown that the geometry of the quantum theory imposes restrictions on the physically allowed nonstandard quantum theories.
Based on the algebraico-categorical (:sheaf-theoretic and sheaf cohomological) conceptual and technical machinery of Abstract Differential Geometry, a new, genuinely background spacetime manifold independent, field quantization scenario for vacuum Einstein gravity and free Yang-Mills theories is introduced. The scheme is coined `third quantization' and, although it formally appears to follow a canonical route, it is fully covariant, because it is an expressly functorial `procedure'. Various current and future Quantum Gravity research issues are discussed under the light of 3rd-quantization. A …
A simple diffeomorphism invariant theory of connections with the non-compact structure group R of real numbers is quantized. The theory is defined on a four-dimensional 'space-time' by an action resembling closely the self-dual Plebanski action for general relativity. The space of quantum states is constructed by means of projective techniques by Kijowski. Except this point the applied quantization procedure is based on Loop Quantum Gravity methods.
I study the canonical formulation and quantization of some simple parametrized systems, including the non-relativistic parametrized particle and the relativistic parametrized particle. Using Dirac's formalism I construct for each case the classical reduced phase space and study the dependence on the gauge fixing used. Two separate features of these systems can make this construction difficult: the actions are not invariant at the boundaries, and the constraints may have disconnected solution spaces. The relativistic particle is affected by both, while the non-relativistic particle displays onl…
Sum-over-histories quantization of particle-like theory in curved space is discussed. It is reviewed that the propagator satisfies the Schrodinger equation respective wave equation with a Laplace-like operator. The exact dependence of the operator on the choice of measure is shown. Next, modifications needed for a manifold with a boundary are introduced, and the exact form of the equation for the propagator is derived. It is shown that the Laplace-like operator contains some distributional terms localized on the boundary. These terms induce proper boundary conditions for the propagator. This c…
We discuss the quantization of a class of relativistic fluid models defined in terms of one real and two complex conjugate potentials with values on a Kähler manifold, and parametrized by the Kähler potential $K(z,\bar{z})$ and a real number $λ$. In the hamiltonian formulation, the canonical conjugate momenta of the potentials are subjected to second class constraints which allow us to apply the symplectic projector method in order to find the physical degrees of freedom and the physical hamiltonian. We construct the quantum theory for that class of models by employing the canonical quantizati…
We argue that generic non-relativistic quantum field theories have a holographic description in terms of Horava gravity. We construct explicit examples of this duality embedded in string theory by starting with relativistic dual pairs and taking a non-relativistic scaling limit.
Pure gravity and gauge theories in two dimensions are shown to be special cases of a much more general class of field theories each of which is characterized by a Poisson structure on a finite dimensional target space. A general scheme for the quantization of these theories is formulated. Explicit examples are studied in some detail. In particular gravity and gauge theories with equivalent actions are compared. Big gauge transformations as well as the condition of metric nondegeneracy in gravity turn out to cause significant differences in the structure of the corresponding reduced phase space…
By parametrizing the action integral for the standard Schrodinger equation we present a derivation of the recently proposed method for quantizing a parametrized theory. The reformulation suggests a natural extension from conventional to nonlinear quantum mechanics. This generalization enables a unitary description of the quantum evolution for a broad class of constrained Hamiltonian systems with a nonlinear kinematic structure. In particular, the new theory is applicable to the quantization of cosmological models where a chosen gravitational degree of freedom acts as geometric time. This is de…
After commenting on the early search for a mechanism explaining the Newtonian action-at-a-distance gravitational law we review non-Newtonian effects occurring in certain ansatzes for shielding, screening and absorption effects in pre-relativistic theories of gravity. Mainly under the aspect of absorption and suppression (or amplification), we then consider some implications of these ansatzes for relativistic theories of gravity and discuss successes and problems in establishing a general framework for a comparison of alternative relativistic theories of gravity. We examine relativistic represe…
Post-relativistic gravity is a hidden variable theory for general relativity. It introduces the pre-relativistic notions absolute space, absolute time, and ether as hidden variables into general relativity. Evolution is defined by the equations of general relativity and the harmonic coordinate condition interpreted as a physical equation. There are minor differences in predictions compared with general relativity (i.e. trivial topology of the universe is predicted). The unobservable absolute time is designed to solve the problem of time in quantization of general relativity. Background space a…
