Recent Developments In Statistical Mechanics And Quantum Field Theory

The following topics were covered: the study of renormalization group flows between field theories using the methods of quantum integrability, S-matrix theory and the thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz; impurity problems approached both from the point of view of conformal field theory and quantum integrability. This includes the Kondo effect and quantum wires; solvable models with 1/r² interactions (Haldane-Shastri models). Yangian symmetries in 1/r² models and in conformal field theories; correlation functions in integrable 1+1 field theories; integrability in three dimensions; conformal invariance and the quantum hall effect; supersymmetry in statistical mechanics; and relations to two-dimensional Yang-Mills and QCD.

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.

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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.

Recent developments in theoretical physics include new instances of the unification of quite different phenomena. The theoretical community is challenged by the growing interactions between high-energy physics, statistical physics, and condensed matter physics. The common language, though, is exact solutions of two-dimensional and conformable field theories. This volume is a faithful representation of this interdisciplinary domain. Conformable and integrable field theories have been active research topics for several decades. The main recent developments concern the boundary effects and applications to disordered systems. The number of applications of the exact methods to condensed-matter problems has been growing over the years. Nowadays it is widely recognized that strongly interacting systems in low dimensions can be successfully described by integrable and conformable theories. This volume is an indispensable aid to those seeking to find their way in this domain.