Downloads & Free Reading Options - Results

Non-equilibrium quantum field theory studies time dependence of processes which are not available for the S-matrix description. One of the new methods of investigation in non-equilibrium quantum theory is the stochastic limit method. This method is an extension of the works by Bogoliubov, van Hove and Prigogine and it permits to study not only the system but also the reservoir degrees of freedom. We consider the stochastic limit of translation invariant Hamiltonians in quantum field theory and show that the master field satisfies a new type of commutation relations, the so called entangled (or interacting) commutation relations. These relations extend the interacting Fock relations established earlier in non-relativistic QED and the free (or Boltzmann) commutation relations which have been found in the large N limit of QCD. As an application of the stochastic limit method we consider the photon splitting cascades in magnetic field and show that photons in cascades form entangled states ("triphons") and they obey not Bose but a new type of statistics corresponding to the entangled commutation relations.

We perform a detailed numerical investigation of the dynamics of broken symmetry $\lambda \phi^4$ field theory in 1+1 dimensions using a Schwinger-Dyson equation truncation scheme based on ignoring vertex corrections. In an earlier paper, we called this the bare vertex approximation (BVA). We assume the initial state is described by a Gaussian density matrix peaked around some non-zero value of $ $, and characterized by a single particle Bose-Einstein distribution function at a given temperature. We compute the evolution of the system using three different approximations: Hartree, BVA and a related 2PI-1/N expansion, as a function of coupling strength and initial temperature. In the Hartree approximation, the static phase diagram shows that there is a first order phase transition for this system. As we change the initial starting temperature of the system, we find that the BVA relaxes to a new final temperature and exhibits a second order phase transition. We find that the average fields thermalize for arbitrary initial conditions in the BVA, unlike the behavior exhibited by the Hartree approximation, and we illustrate how $ $ and $ $ depend on the initial temperature and on the coupling constant. We find that the 2PI-1/N expansion gives dramatically different results for $ $.

We review the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model (NJL), proposed long time ago, as a four-fermion interaction theory with chiral symmetry. The theory is not renormalizable and presents a symmetry breaking due to quantum corrections which depends on the strength of the coupling constant. We may associate a phase transition with this symmetry breaking, leading from a fermion massless states to fermion condensates. This condensates can be described effectively by a scalar field. We are interested in this paper in the cosmological dynamics of the NJL model, and in the possibility that it can be related to dark energy and/or dark matter, which form up to 95% of the energy content of the universe at present time. We consider exclusively gravitational interaction between the NJL and the SM particles.

In a series of recent papers it has been shown how free quantum field theory can be derived without using mechanical primitives (including space-time, special relativity, quantization rules, etc.), but only considering the easiest quantum algorithm encompassing a countable set of quantum systems whose network of interactions satisfies the simple principles of unitarity, homogeneity, locality, and isotropy. This has opened the route to extending the axiomatic information-theoretic derivation of the quantum theory of abstract systems to include quantum field theory. The inherent discrete nature of the informational axiomatization leads to an extension of quantum field theory to a quantum cellular automata theory, where the usual field theory is recovered in a regime where the discrete structure of the automata cannot be probed. A simple heuristic argument sets the scale of discreteness to the Planck scale, and the customary physical regime where discreteness is not visible is the relativistic one of small wavevectors. In this paper we provide a thorough derivation from principles that in the most general case the graph of the quantum cellular automaton is the Cayley graph of a finitely presented group, and showing how for the case corresponding to Euclidean emergent space (where the group resorts to an Abelian one) the automata leads to Weyl, Dirac and Maxwell field dynamics in the relativistic limit. We conclude with some perspectives towards the more general scenario of non-linear automata for interacting quantum field theory.

The purpose of this paper is to give a twisted version of the Eynard-Orantin topological recursion by a 2D Topological Quantum Field Theory. We define a kernel for a 2D TQFT and use an algebraic definition for a topological recursion to define how to twist a standard topological recursion by a 2D TQFT. The A-model side enumerative problem consists of counting cell graphs where in addition vertices are decorated by elements in a Frobenius algebra, and which are a twisted version of the generalized Catalan numbers of Dumitrescu-Mulase-Safnuk-Sorkin. We show that the function which counts these decorated graphs satisfies a twisted version of the same type of recursion of Catalan numbers with respect to the edge-contraction axioms of Dumitrescu-Mulase. The path we follow to pass from the A-model side to the remodelled B-model side is to use a discrete Laplace transform based on the ideas of the group of Mulase. We show that a twisted version by a 2D TQFT of the Eynard-Orantin differentials satisfies a twisted generalization of the topological recursion formula. We shall illustrate these results with a toy model for the theory arising from the orbifold cohomology of the classifying space of a finite group. In this example, the graphs are drawn on an orbifold punctured Riemann surface and defined out of the moduli space of stable morphisms from twisted curves to the classifying space of a finite group. In particular we show that the cotangent class intersection numbers on this moduli space satisfy a twisted Eynard-Orantin topological recursion and we derive an orbifold DVV equation as a consequence of it. This proves from a different perspective a result of Jarvis-Kimura, which states that the cotangent class intersection numbers on that moduli space satisfy the Virasoro constraint condition.

We study the spreading of correlations after a local quench in a non-relativistic quantum field theory. We focus on noninteracting non-relativistic fermions and study the time evolution after two identical systems in their ground states are suddenly joined together with a localized impurity at the junction. We find that, even if the quasi-particles of the system have unbounded dispersion, the correlations show light cone effects. We carry out a detailed study of these effects by developing an accurate asymptotic expansion of the two-point function and determining exactly the density of particles at any time after the quench. In particular, we find that the width of the light cone region is $\propto t^{1/2}$. The structure of correlations, however, does not show a pure light cone form - "superluminal corrections" are much larger than in the bounded-dispersion case. These findings can be explained by inspecting the structure of excitations generated by the initial state. We show that a similar picture also emerges in the presence of a harmonic trapping potential and when more than two systems are suddenly joined at a single point.

The subject of the first section-lecture is concerned with the strength and the weakness of the perturbation theory (PT) approach, that is expansion in powers of a small parameter $\alpha$, in Quantum Theory. We start with outlining a general troublesome feature of the main quantum theory instrument, the perturbation expansion method. The striking issue is that perturbation series in powers of $\alpha \ll 1$ is not a convergent series. The formal reason is an essential singularity of quantum amplitude (matrix element) $C(\alpha)$ at the origin $\alpha=0$. In many physically important cases one needs some alternative means of theoretical analysis. In particular, this refers to perturbative QCD (pQCD) in the low-energy domain. In the second section-lecture, we discuss the approach of Analytic Perturbation Theory (APT). We start with a short historic preamble and then discuss how combining the Dispersion Relation with the Renormalization Group (RG) techniques yields the APT with \myMath{\displaystyle e^{-1/\alpha}} nonanalyticity. Next we consider the results of APT applications to low-energy QCD processes and show that in this approach the fourth-loop contributions, which appear to be on the asymptotic border in the pQCD approach, are of the order of a few per mil. Then we note that using the RG in QCD dictates the need to use the Fractional APT (FAPT) and describe its basic ingredients. As an example of the FAPT application in QCD we consider the pion form factor $F_\pi(Q^2)$ calculation. At the end, we discuss the resummation of nonpower series in {(F)APT} with application to the estimation of the Higgs-boson-decay width $\Gamma_{H\to\bar{b}b}(m_H^2)$.

We consider here in a toy model an approach to bound state problem in a nonperturbative manner using equal time algebra for the interacting field operators. Potential is replaced by offshell bosonic quanta inside the bound state of nonrelativistic particles. The bosonic dressing is determined through energy minimisation, and mass renormalisation is carried out in a nonperturbative manner. Since the interaction is through a scalar field, it does not include spin effects. The model however nicely incorporates an intuitive picture of hadronic bound states in which the gluon fields dress the quarks providing the binding between them and also simulate the gluonic content of hadrons in deep inelastic collisions.

Partition Function of ideal (Non-Interacting) Gas of Quantum Particles Useful for �normalisation� of interacting theories

Previously, we have seen that, when treated in a mean-�eld or saddle-point approximation,the �eld theory of the weakly interacting Bose gas shows a transition to a Bose-Einsteincondensed phase when _ =0where the order parameter, the complex condensate wave-function _0acquires a non-zero expectation value, |_0| = _ ___Ld/g. The spontaneousbreaking of the continuous symmetry associated with the phase of the order parameter isaccompanied by the appearance of massless collective phase �uctuations. In the following,we will explore the properties of these �uctuations and their role in the phenomenon ofsuper�uidity.

Asymptotic expansions were first introduced by Henri Poincare in 1886. This paper describes their application to the semi-classical evaluation of amplitudes in quantum field theory with boundaries. By using zeta-function regularization, the conformal anomaly for a massless spin-${1\over 2}$ field in flat Euclidean backgrounds with boundary is obtained on imposing locally supersymmetric boundary conditions. The quantization program for gauge fields and gravitation in the presence of boundaries is then introduced by focusing on conformal anomalies for higher-spin fields. The conditions under which the covariant Schwinger-DeWitt and the non-covariant, mode-by-mode analysis of quantum amplitudes agree are described.

We discuss the approach to asymptotic dynamics due to Kulish and Faddeev. We show that there are problems in applying this method to theories with four point interactions. The source of the difficulties is identified and a more general method is constructed. This is then applied to various theories including some where the coupling does switch off at large times and some where it does not.

We study the causality violation in the non-local phi ^{4}-theory (as formulated by Kleppe and Woodard) containing a finite mass scale Lambda . Starting from the Bogoliubov-Shirkov criterion for causality, we construct and study combinations of S-matrix elements that signal the violation of causality in the one loop approximation. We find that the causality violation in the exclusive process \phi +\phi --> \phi +\phi grows with energy, but the growth with energy, (for low to moderate energies) is suppressed to all orders compared to what one would expect purely from dimensional considerations. We however find that the causality violation in other processes such as \phi +\phi--> \phi +\phi +\phi +\phi grows with energy as expected from dimensional considerations at low to moderate energies. For high enough energies comparable to the mass scale Lambda, however, we find a rapid (exponential-like) growth in the degree of causality violation. We suggest a scenario, based on an earlier work, that will enable one to evade a large theoretical causality violation at high energies, should it be unobserved experimentally.

We construct an approximation to field theories on the noncommutative torus based on soliton projections and partial isometries which together form a matrix algebra of functions on the sum of two circles. The matrix quantum mechanics is applied to the perturbative dynamics of scalar field theory, to tachyon dynamics in string field theory, and to the Hamiltonian dynamics of noncommutative gauge theory in two dimensions. We also describe the adiabatic dynamics of solitons on the noncommutative torus and compare various classes of noncommutative solitons on the torus and the plane.

We show in three dimensions, using functional integral techniques, the equivalence between the partition functions of the massive Thirring model and a gauge theory with two gauge fields, to all orders in the inverse fermion mass. Detailed bosonisation identities, also valid to all orders in the inverse mass, are derived. Specialisation to the lowest (and next to lowest) orders reveals that the gauge theory simplifies to the Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory. Some interesting consequences are discussed in this case.

We discuss the evaluation of observables in two-dimensional conformal field theory using the topological membrane description. We show that the spectrum of anomalous dimensions can be obtained perturbatively from the topologically massive quantum field theories by computing radiative corrections to Aharonov-Bohm scattering amplitudes for dynamical charged matter fields. The one-loop corrections in the case of topologically massive Yang-Mills theory are shown to coincide with the scaling dimensions of the induced ordinary and supersymmetric WZNW models. We examine the effects of the dressing of a topologically massive gauge theory by topologically massive gravity and show that the one-loop contributions to the Aharonov-Bohm amplitudes coincide with the leading orders of the KPZ scaling relations for two-dimensional quantum gravity. Some general features of the description of conformal field theories via perturbative techniques in the three-dimensional approach are also discussed.

Quantum gravity arguments and the entropy bound for effective field theories proposed in PRL 82, 4971 (1999) lead to consider two correlated scales which parametrize departures from relativistic quantum field theory at low and high energies. A simple estimate of their possible phenomenological implications leads to identify a scale of around 100 TeV as an upper limit on the domain of validity of a quantum field theory description of Nature. This fact agrees with recent theoretical developments in large extra dimensions. Phenomenological consequences in the beta-decay spectrum and cosmic ray physics associated to possible Lorentz invariance violations induced by the infrared scale are discussed. It is also suggested that this scale might produce new unexpected effects at the quantum level.

We consider gauge bosons in the bulk of AdS5 in a two-brane theory that addresses the hierarchy problem. We show such a theory can be consistent with gauge coupling unification at a high scale. We discuss subtleties in this calculation and show how to regulate consistently in a bounded AdS5 background. Our regularization is guided by the holographic dual of the calculation.

Neutrino mixing and oscillations in quantum field theory framework had been studied before, which shew that the Fock space of flavor states is unitarily inequivalent to that of mass states (inequivalent vacua model). A paradox emerges when we use these neutrino weak states to calculate the amplitude of $W$ boson decay. The branching ratio of W(+) -> e(+) + nu_mu to W(+) -> e(+) + nu_e is approximately at the order of O({m_i^2}/{k^2}). The existence of flavor changing currents contradicts to the Hamiltonian we started from, and the usual knowledge about weak processes. Also, negative energy neutrinos (or violating the principle of energy conservation) appear in this framework. We discuss possible reasons for the appearance of this paradox.

By resorting to recent results on fermion mixing which show that the Fock space of definite flavor states is unitarily inequivalent to the Fock space of definite mass states, we discuss the phenomenological implications on the neutrino oscillation formula. For finite momentum the oscillation amplitude is depressed, or "squeezed", by a momentum dependent factor. In the relativistic limit the conventional oscillation formula is recovered.

Methods of summation of power series relevant to applications in quantum theory are reviewed, with particular attention to expansions in powers of the coupling constant and in inverse powers of an energy variable. Alternatives to the Borel summation method are considered and their relevance to different physical situations is discussed. Emphasis is placed on quantum chromodynamics. Applications of the renormalon language to perturbation expansions (resummation of bubble chains) in various QCD processes are reported and the importance of observing the full renormalization-group invariance in predicting observables is emphasized. News in applications of the Borel-plane formalism to phenomenology are conveyed. The properties of the operator-product expansion along different rays in the complex plane are examined and the problem is studied how the remainder after subtraction of the first $n$ terms depends on the distance from euclidean region. Estimates of the remainder are obtained and their strong dependence on the nature of the discontinuity along the cut is shown. Relevance of this subject to calculations of various QCD effects is discussed.

A comprehensive study is performed of general massive, scalar, two-loop Feynman diagrams with three external legs. Algorithms for their numerical evaluation are introduced and discussed, numerical results are shown for all different topologies, and comparisons with analytical results, whenever available, are performed. An internal cross-check, based on alternative procedures, is also applied. The analysis of infrared divergent configurations, as well as the treatment of tensor integrals, will be discussed in two forthcoming papers.

We show that the generator of field mixing transformations in Quantum Field Theory induces a non trivial structure in the vacuum which turns out to be a coherent state, both for bosons and for fermions, although with a different condensate structure. The Fock space for mixed fields is unitarily inequivalent to the Fock space of the massive (free) fields in the infinite volume limit. As a practical application we study neutrino mixing and oscillations. A new oscillation formula is found where the oscillation amplitude is depressed, with respect to the usual one, by a factor which is momentum and mass dependent. In the relativistic limit, the usual formula is recovered. We finally discuss in some detail phenomenological features of the modified oscillation formula.

We find that, in presence of the Snyder geometry, the notion of translational invariance needs to be modified, allowing a momentum dependence of this symmetry. This step is necessary to build the maximally localized states and the Feynman rules of the corresponding quantum field theory.

Relativistic dynamics with energy and momentum resricted to an anti-de-Sitter space is presented, specifically in the introduction of coordiate operators conjugate to such momenta. Definition of functions of these operators, their differentiation and integration, all necessary for the development of dynamics is presented. The resulting algebra differs from the standard Heisenberg one, notably in that the space-time coordinates do not commute among each other. The resulting time variable is discrete and the limit to continuous time presents difficulties. A parallel approach, in which an overlap function, between position and momentum states, is obtained from solutions of wave equations on this curved space are also investigated. This approach, likewise, has problems in the that high energy behavior of these overlap functions precludes a space-time definition of action functionals.

We investigate the group field theory formulation of the EPRL/FK spin foam models. These models aim at a dynamical, i.e. non-topological formulation of 4D quantum gravity. We introduce a saddle point method for general group field theory amplitudes and compare it with existing results, in particular for a second order correction to the EPRL/FK propagator.

This thesis considers various aspects of locally covariant quantum field theory (LCQFT; see Brunetti et al., Commun.Math.Phys. 237 (2003), 31-68), a mathematical framework to describe axiomatic quantum field theories in curved spacetimes. New results include: a philosophical interpretation of certain aspects of this framework in terms of modal logic; a proof that the truncated n-point functions of any Hadamard state of the free real scalar field are smooth, except for n=2; a description of he free Dirac field in a representation independent way, showing that the theory is determined entirely by the relations between the adjoint map, the charge conjugation map and the Dirac operator; a proof that the relative Cauchy evolution of the free Dirac field is related to its stress-energy-momentum tensor in the same way as for the free real scalar field (cf. loc.cit.); several results on the Reeh-Schlieder property in LCQFT, including but not limited to those of our earlier paper; a new and elegant approach to wave front sets of Banach space-valued distributions, which allows easy proofs and extensions of results in the literature.

The first part of this work deals with the development of a natural differential calculus on non-commutative manifolds. The second part extends the covariance and equivalence principle as well studies its kinematical consequences such as the arising of gauge theory. Furthermore, a manifestly causal and covariant formulation of quantum field theory is presented which surpasses the usual Hamiltonian and path integral construction. A particular representation of this theory on the kinematical structure developed in section three is moreover given.

We examine canonical quantization of relativistic field theories on the forward hyperboloid, a Lorentz-invariant surface of the form $x_\mu x^\mu = \tau^2$. This choice of quantization surface implies that all components of the 4-momentum operator are affected by interactions (if present), whereas rotation and boost generators remain interaction free -- a feature characteristic of Dirac's `` point-form\rq\rq of relativistic dynamics. Unlike previous attempts to quantize fields on space-time hyperboloids, we keep the usual plane-wave expansion of the field operators and consider evolution of the system generated by the 4-momentum operator. We verify that the Fock-space representations of the Poincar\'e generators for free scalar and spin-1/2 fields look the same as for equal-time quantization. Scattering is formulated for interacting fields in a covariant interaction picture and it is shown that the familiar perturbative expansion of the S-operator is recovered by our approach. An appendix analyzes special distributions, integrals over the forward hyperboloid, that are used repeatedly in the paper.

Arguments coming from Quantum Field Theory are supplemented with a 1-loop perturbative calculation to settle the non-unitarity of mixing matrices linking renormalized mass eigenstates to bare flavor states for non-degenerate coupled fermions. We simultaneously diagonalize the kinetic and mass terms and counterterms in the renormalized Lagrangian. SU(2)_L gauge invariance constrains the mixing matrix in charged currents of renormalized mass states, for example the Cabibbo matrix, to stay unitary. Leaving aside CP violation, we observe that the mixing angles exhibit, within experimental uncertainty, a very simple breaking pattern of SU(2)_f horizontal symmetry linked to the algebra of weak neutral currents, the origin of which presumably lies beyond the Standard Model. It concerns: on one hand, the three quark mixing angles; on the other hand, a neutrino-like pattern in which theta_{23} is maximal and tan(2 theta_{12})=2. The Cabibbo angle fulfills the condition tan (2 theta_c)=1/2 and theta_{12} for neutrinos satisfies accordingly the "quark-lepton complementarity condition" theta_c + theta_{12}= \pi/4. theta_{13} = +- 5.7 10^{-3} are the only values obtained for the third neutrino mixing angle that lie within present experimental bounds. Flavor symmetries, their breaking by a non-degenerate mass spectrum, and their entanglement with the gauge symmetry, are scrutinized; the special role of flavor rotations as a very mildly brokensymmetry of the Standard Model is outlined.

A full mean field solution of a quantum Heisenberg spin glass model is presented in a large-N limit. A spin glass transition is found for all values of the spin S. The quantum critical regime associated with the quantum transition at S=0, and the various regimes in the spin glass phase at high spin are analyzed. The specific heat is shown to vanish linearly with temperature. In the spin-glass phase, intriguing connections between the equilibrium properties of the quantum problem and the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of classical models are pointed out.

Effective-medium theory is applied to the percolation description of the metal-insulator transition in two dimensions with emphasis on the continuous connection between the zero-magnetic-field transition and the quantum Hall transition. In this model the system consists of puddles connected via saddle points, and there is loss of quantum coherence inside the puddles. The effective conductance of the network is calculated using appropriate integration over the distribution of conductances, leading to a determination of the magnetic field dependence of the critical density. Excellent quantitative agreement is obtained with the experimental data, which allows an estimate of the puddle physical parameters.

We prove that the associativity equations of two-dimensional topological quantum field theories are very natural reductions of the fundamental nonlinear equations of the theory of submanifolds in pseudo-Euclidean spaces and give a natural class of potential flat torsionless submanifolds. We show that all potential flat torsionless submanifolds in pseudo-Euclidean spaces bear natural structures of Frobenius algebras on their tangent spaces. These Frobenius structures are generated by the corresponding flat first fundamental form and the set of the second fundamental forms of the submanifolds (in fact, the structural constants are given by the set of the Weingarten operators of the submanifolds). We prove in this paper that each N-dimensional Frobenius manifold can locally be represented as a potential flat torsionless submanifold in a 2N-dimensional pseudo-Euclidean space. By our construction this submanifold is uniquely determined up to motions. Moreover, in this paper we consider a nonlinear system, which is a natural generalization of the associativity equations, namely, the system describing all flat torsionless submanifolds in pseudo-Euclidean spaces, and prove that this system is integrable by the inverse scattering method.

It is shown that the correlations predicted by relativistic quantum field theory in locally normal states between projections in local von Neumann algebras $\cA(V_1),\cA(V_2)$ associated with spacelike separated spacetime regions $V_1,V_2$ have a (Reichenbachian) common cause located in the union of the backward light cones of $V_1$ and $V_2$. Further comments on causality and independence in quantum field theory are made.

x, 207 p. 24 cm

Discuss element of PI construction which demands generalisation_ Generalisation of FPI to many-body systems problematic due to particle indistinguishability and statistics. Can second quantisation help? automatically respects particle statistics. Require complete basis on the Fock space to construct PI. Such eigenstates exist and are known as Coherent States

Discuss element of PI construction which demands generalisation_ Generalisation of FPI to many-body systems problematic due to particle indistinguishability and statistics. Can second quantisation help? automatically respects particle statistics. Require complete basis on the Fock space to construct PI. Such eigenstates exist and are known as Coherent States

Discuss element of PI construction which demands generalisation_ Generalisation of FPI to many-body systems problematic due to particle indistinguishability and statistics. Can second quantisation help? automatically respects particle statistics. Require complete basis on the Fock space to construct PI. Such eigenstates exist and are known as Coherent States

Discuss element of PI construction which demands generalisation_ Generalisation of FPI to many-body systems problematic due to particle indistinguishability and statistics. Can second quantisation help? automatically respects particle statistics. Require complete basis on the Fock space to construct PI. Such eigenstates exist and are known as Coherent States

Discuss element of PI construction which demands generalisation_ Generalisation of FPI to many-body systems problematic due to particle indistinguishability and statistics. Can second quantisation help? automatically respects particle statistics. Require complete basis on the Fock space to construct PI. Such eigenstates exist and are known as Coherent States

Functional determinants of differential operators play a prominent role in theoretical and mathematical physics, and in particular in quantum field theory. They are, however, difficult to compute in non-trivial cases. For one dimensional problems, a classical result of Gel'fand and Yaglom dramatically simplifies the problem so that the functional determinant can be computed without computing the spectrum of eigenvalues. Here I report recent progress in extending this approach to higher dimensions (i.e., functional determinants of partial differential operators), with applications in quantum field theory.

In this article, we formulate the study of the unitary time evolution of systems consisting of an infinite number of uncoupled time-dependent harmonic oscillators in mathematically rigorous terms. We base this analysis on the theory of a single one-dimensional time-dependent oscillator, for which we first summarize some basic results concerning the unitary implementability of the dynamics. This is done by employing techniques different from those used so far to derive the Feynman propagator. In particular, we calculate the transition amplitudes for the usual harmonic oscillator eigenstates and define suitable semiclassical states for some physically relevant models. We then explore the possible extension of this study to infinite dimensional dynamical systems. Specifically, we construct Schroedinger functional representations in terms of appropriate probability spaces, analyze the unitarity of the time evolution, and probe the existence of semiclassical states for a wide range of physical systems, particularly, the well-known Minkowskian free scalar fields and Gowdy cosmological models.

We would now like to quantize the Dirac Lagrangian. We will proceed naively and treat _ as we did the scalar �eld. But we�ll see that things go wrong and we will have to reconsider how to quantize this theory.

I will present a short review of recent achievements in understanding the origin of the statistical properties versus the thermodynamical ones for Anti De Sitter space--time, ADS$_{n+1}$ from the point of view of the "dual" field theory defined on the boundary of ADS$_{{n+1}}$ conformal invariant, CFT$_n$. We try to convince the audience that the symmetries of Quantum Field Theory at the critical points are, on one side, at the basis of the thermodynamical properties of Black Hole solution, i.e. the Hawking temperature $T_H$ and the entropy $S_H$; on the other side the CFT$_n$ in Euclidean time determines the statistical properties of BH.

We quantize a massive scalar field in de Sitter spacetime and derive the S-matrix for the general interacting theory. Using the general boundary formulation of quantum field theory, we also propose a new type of S-matrix derived from the asymptotic limit of the amplitude associated with a spacetime region bounded by one connected and timelike hypersurface. Based on previous works in Minkowski spacetime, we call this region the hypercylinder region. We show how the new S- matrix coincides with the usual one by constructing an isomorphism between the space of temporal asymptotic states of the traditional setting and the space of spatial asymptotic states defined on the asymptotic hypercylinder.

We show that the one-loop effective action at finite temperature for a scalar field with quartic interaction has the same renormalized expression as at zero temperature if written in terms of a certain classical field $\phi_c$, and if we trade free propagators at zero temperature for their finite-temperature counterparts. The result follows if we write the partition function as an integral over field eigenstates (boundary fields) of the density matrix element in the functional Schr\"{o}dinger field-representation, and perform a semiclassical expansion in two steps: first, we integrate around the saddle-point for fixed boundary fields, which is the classical field $\phi_c$, a functional of the boundary fields; then, we perform a saddle-point integration over the boundary fields, whose correlations characterize the thermal properties of the system. This procedure provides a dimensionally-reduced effective theory for the thermal system. We calculate the two-point correlation as an example.

We review a little-known treatment of the relativistic two-body bound-state problem - that provided by Two-Body Dirac Equations obtained from constraint dynamics. We describe some of its more important results, its relation to older formulations and to quantum field theory. We list a number of features crucial for the success of such a formulation, many of which are missing from other methods; we show how the treatment provided by Two-Body Dirac Equations encompasses each of them.

Besides the two fundamental postulates, (i) the principle of relativity and (ii) the constancy of the one-way velocity of light in all inertial frames of reference, the special theory of relativity employs another assumption. This assumption concerns the flat structures of gravity-free space and time in the usual inertial coordinate system. We introduce the primed inertial coordinate system, in addition to the usual inertial coordinate system, for each inertial frame of reference, and assume the flat structures of gravity-free space and time in the primed inertial coordinate system and their generalized Finslerian structures in the usual inertial coordinate system. Combining this alternative assumption with (i) and (ii), we modify the special theory of relativity. The modified theory involves two versions of the light speed, infinite speed c' in the primed inertial coordinate system and finite speed c in the usual inertial coordinate system. It involves the c'-type Galilean transformation between two primed inertial coordinate systems and the localized Lorentz transformation between two corresponding usual inertial coordinate systems. It also involves a new physical principle. This principle is applied to reform of mechanics, field theory and quantum field theory. The validity of relativistic mechanics in the usual inertial coordinate system remains, while field theory is freshened. Based on the establishment of a transformation law for the quantized field systems, we construct a convergent and invariant quantum field theory, in full agreement with experimental facts, founded on the modified special relativity theory and the quantum mechanics theory.

This is a short summary of the phase structure of vector O(N) symmetric quantum field theories in a singular limit, the double scaling limit.It is motivated by the fact that summing up dynamically triangulated random surfaces using Feynman graphs of the O(N) matrix model results in a genus expansion and it provides,in some sense, a nonperturbative treatment of string theory when the double scaling limit is enforced. The main point emphasized here is that this formal singular limit, recently discussed mainly in d=0 O(N) matrix models, has an intriguing physical meaning in d>2 O(N) vector theories. In this limit all orders in {1\over N} are of equal importance since at each order infrared divergences compensate for the decrease in powers of {1\over N}. The infrared divergences are due to the tuning of the strength of the force {g \to g_c} between the O(N) quanta so that a massless O(N) singlet appears in the spectrum. At the critical dimension an interesting phase structure is revealed, the massless excitation has the expected physical meaning: it is the Goldston boson of spontaneous breaking of scale invariance - the dilaton.

This article is concerned with obtaining the standard tau function descriptions of integrable equations (in particular, here the KdV and Ernst equations are considered) from the geometry of their twistor correspondences. In particular, we will see that the quantum field theoretic formulae for tau functions can be understood as arising from geometric quantization of the twistor data. En route we give a geometric quantization formulation of Chern-Simons and WZW quantum field theories using the Quillen determinant line bundle construction and ingredients from Segal's conformal field theory. The $\tau$-functions are then seen to be amplitudes associated with gauge group actions on certain coherent states within these theories that can be obtained from the twistor description.