Gandalf Lechner

abstract: This note outlines a novel approach to the construction of quantum field theories on four-dimensional Minkowski space, which is based on operator-algebraic techniques. It is explained how Rieffel deformations can be used to deform quantum field theories in a manner which is compatible with Poincare covariance and locality.

abstract: Quantum field theories on noncommutative Minkowski space are studied in a model-independent setting by treating the noncommutativity as a deformation of quantum field theories on commutative space. Starting from an arbitrary Wightman theory, we consider special vacuum representations of its Weyl-Wigner deformed counterpart. In such representations, the effect of the noncommutativity on the basic structures of Wightman theory, in particular the covariance, locality and regularity properties of the fields, the structure of the Wightman functions, and the commutative limit, is analyzed. Despite the nonlocal structure introduced by the noncommutativity, the deformed quantum fields can still be localized in certain wedge-shaped regions, and may therefore be used to compute noncommutative corrections to two-particle S-matrix elements.

abstract: Within the setting of a recently proposed model of quantum fields on noncommutative Minkowski spacetime, the consequences of the consistent application of the proper, untwisted Poincare group as the symmetry group are investigated. The emergent model contains an infinite family of fields which are labelled by different noncommutativity parameters, and related to each other by Lorentz transformations. The relative localization properties of these fields are investigated, and it is shown that to each field one can assign a wedge-shaped localization region of Minkowski space. This assignment is consistent with the principles of covariance and locality, i.e. fields localized in spacelike separated wedges commute. Regarding the model as a non-local, but wedge-local, quantum field theory on ordinary (commutative) Minkowski spacetime, it is possible to determine two-particle S-matrix elements, which turn out to be non-trivial. Some partial negative results concerning the existence of observables with sharper localization properties are also obtained.

abstract: The subject of this thesis is a novel construction method for interacting relativistic quantum field theories on two-dimensional Minkowski space. Employing the algebraic framework of quantum field theory, it is shown under which conditions an algebra of observables localized in a wedge-shaped region of spacetime can be used to construct model theories. A crucial input in this context is the modular nuclearity condition for wedge algebras, which implies the existence of local observables.

As an application of the new method, a rigorous construction of a large family of models with factorizing S-matrices is obtained. In an inverse scattering approach, a given factorizing scattering operator is used to define certain wedge-localized Wightman fields associated to it. The construction of these fields is due to Schroer and uses ideas of the form factor program (Zamolodchikov's algebra). With the help of these fields, a wedge algebra can be defined, which determines the local observable content of a well-defined quantum field theory. In this approach, the modular nuclearity condition translates to certain analyticity and boundedness conditions on the formfactors of wedge-local observables. These conditions are shown to hold for a large class of underlying S-matrices, including the scattering operators of the Sinh-Gordon model and the scaling Ising model as special examples.

The so constructed models are investigated with respect to their scattering properties. They are shown to solve the inverse scattering problem for the underlying S-matrices, and a proof of asymptotic completeness for these models is given.

abstract: A new approach to the construction of interacting quantum field theories on two-dimensional Minkowski space is discussed. In this program, models are obtained from a prescribed factorizing S-matrix in two steps. At first, quantum fields which are localized in infinitely extended, wedge-shaped regions of Minkowski space are constructed explicitly. In the second step, local observables are analyzed with operator-algebraic techniques, in particular by using the modular nuclearity condition of Buchholz, d'Antoni and Longo.
Besides a model-independent result regarding the Reeh-Schlieder property of the vacuum in this framework, an infinite class of quantum field theoretic models with non-trivial interaction is constructed. This construction completes a program initiated by Schroer in a large family of theories, a particular example being the Sinh-Gordon model. The crucial problem of establishing the existence of local observables in these models is solved by verifying the modular nuclearity condition, which here amounts to a condition on analytic properties of form factors of observables localized in wedge regions.
It is shown that the constructed models solve the inverse scattering problem for the considered class of S-matrices. Moreover, a proof of asymptotic completeness is obtained by explicitly computing total sets of scattering states. The structure of these collision states is found to be in agreement with the heuristic formulae underlying the Zamolodchikov-Faddeev algebra.

abstract : Starting from a given factorizing S-matrix S in two space-time dimensions, we review a novel strategy to rigorously construct quantum field theories describing particles whose interaction is governed by S. The construction procedure is divided into two main steps: Firstly certain semi-local Wightman fields are introduced by means of Zamolodchikov's algebra. The second step consists in proving the existence of local observables in these models. As a new result, an intermediate step in the existence problem is taken by proving the modular compactness condition for wedge algebras.

abstract: The scaling limit of the two-dimensional Ising model above the critical temperature is considered as an example for relativistic quantum theories on two-dimensional Minkowski space exhibiting a factorizing S-matrix. In this model, a recently proposed criterion for the existence of local quantum field theories with a prescribed factorizing scattering matrix is verified, thereby establishing a new constructive approach to two-dimensional quantum field theory in a particular example. The existence proof is accomplished by analyzing nuclearity properties of certain specific subsets of Fermionic Fock spaces, and yields as a byproduct also a verification of the energy nuclearity condition of Buchholz and Wichmann in models of free Fermions in four space-time dimensions.

abstract : Within the algebraic setting of quantum field theory, a condition is given which implies that the intersection of algebras generated by field operators localized in wedge--shaped regions of two--dimensional Minkowski space is non--trivial; in particular, there exist compactly localized operators in such theories which can be interpreted as local observables. The condition is based on spectral (nuclearity) properties of the modular operators affiliated with wedge algebras and the vacuum state and is of interest in the algebraic approach to the formfactor program, initiated by Schroer. It is illustrated here in a simple class of examples.

abstract: A new approach to the inverse scattering problem proposed by Schroer, is applied to two-dimensional integrable quantum field theories. For any two-particle S-matrix S_2 which is analytic in the physical sheet, quantum fields are constructed which are localizable in wedge-shaped regions of Minkowski space and whose two-particle scattering is described by the given S_2. These fields are polarization-free in the sense that they create one-particle states from the vacuum without polarization clouds. Thus they provide examples of temperate polarization-free generators in the presence of non-trivial interaction.