New Developments In Quantum Field Theory And Statistical Mechanics Cargese 1976

The 1976 Cargese Summer Institute was devoted to the study of certain exciting developments in quantum field theory and critical phenomena. Its genesis occurred in 1974 as an outgrowth of many scientific discussions amongst the undersigned, who decided to form a scientific committee for the organization of the school. On the one hand, various workers in quantum field theory were continuing to make startling progress in different directions. On the other hand, many new problems were arising from these various domains. Thus we feIt that 1976 might be an appropriate occasion both to review recent developments and to encourage interactions between researchers from different backgrounds working on a common set of unsolved problems. An important aspect of the school, as it took place, was the participation of and stimulating interaction between such a broad spectrum of theorists. The central topics of the school were chosen from the areas of solitons, phase transitions, critical behavior, the renormalization group, gauge fields and the analysis of nonrenormalizable field theories. A noteworthy feature of these topics is the interpene tration of ideas from quantum field theory and statistical mechanics whose inherent unity is seen in the functional integral formulation of quantum field theory. The actual lectures were partly in the form of tutorials designed to familiarize the participants with re cent progress on the main topics of the school. Others were in the form of more specialized seminars reporting on recent research.

This volume contains a selection of expository articles on quantum field theory and statistical mechanics by James Glimm and Arthur Jaffe. They include a solution of the original interacting quantum field equations and a description of the physics which these equations contain. Quantum fields were proposed in the late 1920s as the natural framework which combines quantum theory with relativ ity. They have survived ever since. The mathematical description for quantum theory starts with a Hilbert space H of state vectors. Quantum fields are linear operators on this space, which satisfy nonlinear wave equations of fundamental physics, including coupled Dirac, Max well and Yang-Mills equations. The field operators are restricted to satisfy a "locality" requirement that they commute (or anti-commute in the case of fer mions) at space-like separated points. This condition is compatible with finite propagation speed, and hence with special relativity. Asymptotically, these fields converge for large time to linear fields describing free particles. Using these ideas a scattering theory had been developed, based on the existence of local quantum fields.

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 Critical point dominance in quantum field models. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 q>,' quantum field model in the single-phase regions: Differentiability of the mass and bounds on critical exponents. . . . 341 Remark on the existence of q>:. . . • . . . . • . . . . • . . . . . . . . • . • . . . . . . . . . . • . 345 On the approach to the critical point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348 Critical exponents and elementary particles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362 V Particle Structure Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 The entropy principle for vertex functions in quantum field models. . . . . 372 Three-particle structure of q>4 interactions and the scaling limit . . . . . . . . . 397 Two and three body equations in quantum field models. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 Particles and scaling for lattice fields and Ising models. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 The resummation of one particle lines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 VI Bounds on Coupling Constants Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 Absolute bounds on vertices and couplings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480 The coupling constant in a q>4 field theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491 VII Confinement and Instantons Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497 Instantons in a U(I) lattice gauge theory: A coulomb dipole gas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498 Charges, vortices and confinement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516 ix VIII Reflection Positivity Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531 A note on reflection positivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532 x Introduction This volume contains a selection of expository articles on quantum field theory and statistical mechanics by James Glimm and Arthur Jaffe. They include a solution of the original interacting quantum field equations and a description of the physics which these equations contain. Quantum fields were proposed in the late 1920s as the natural framework which combines quantum theory with relativ ity. They have survived ever since.

This book presents a modern view of anomalies in quantum field theories. It is divided into six parts. The first part is preparatory covering an introduction to fermions, a description of the classical symmetries, and a short introduction to conformal symmetry. The second part of the book is devoted to the relation between anomalies and cohomology. The third part deals with perturbative methods to compute gauge, diffeomorphism and trace anomalies. In the fourth part the same anomalies are calculated with non-perturbative heat-kernel-like methods. Part five is devoted to the family's index theorem and its application to chiral anomalies, and to the differential characters and their applications to global anomalies. Part six is devoted to special topics including a complete calculation of trace and diffeomorphism anomalies of a Dirac fermion in a MAT background in two dimensions, Wess-Zumino terms in field theories, sigma models, their local and global anomalies and their cancelation, and finally the analysis of the worldsheet, sigma model, and target space anomalies of string and superstring theories. The book is targeted to researchers and graduate students.

Describes fifteen years' work which has led to the construc- tion of solutions to non-linear relativistic local field e- quations in 2 and 3 space-time dimensions. Gives proof of the existence theorem in 2 dimensions and describes many properties of the solutions.

In August/September 2000, a group of 80 physicists from 53 laboratories in 15 countries met in Erice, Italy, to participate in the 38th Course of the International School of Subnuclear Physics. This book constitutes the proceedings of that meeting. It focuses on the theoretical investigation of several basic unity issues, including: (1) the understanding of gauge theories in both their continuum and lattice versions; (2) the possible existence and relevance of large extra dimensions together with the resultant lowering of the Planck/string scale to the TeV range; (3) the origin and structure of flavour mixing in the quark and lepton (neutrino) sectors.

During the past 15 years, quantum field theory and classical statistical mechanics have merged into a single field, and the need for nonperturbative methods for the description of critical phenomena in statistical mechanics as well as for problems in elementary particle physics are generally acknowledged. Such methods formed the central theme of the 1987 Cargese Advanced Study Institut. e on "Nonpert. urbat. ive Quantum Field Theory." The use of conformal symmet. ry has been of central interest in recent years, and was a main subject at. t. he ASI. Conformal invariant quantum field theory describes statistical mechanical systems exactly at a critical point, and can be analysed to a remarkable ext. ent. by group t. heoretical methods. Very strong results have been obtained for 2-dimensional systems. Conformal field theory is also the basis of string theory, which offers some hope of providing a unified t. heory of all interactions between elementary particles. Accordingly, a number of lectures and seminars were presented on these two topics. After syst. ematic introductory lectures, conformal field theory on Riemann surfaces, orbifolds, sigma models, and application of loop group theory and Grassmannians were discussed, and some ideas on modular geometry were presented. Other lectures combined' traditional techniques of constructive quant. um field theory with new methods such as the use of index-t. heorems and infinite dimensional (Kac Moody) symmetry groups. The problems encountered in a quantum mechanical description of black holes were discussed in detail.