An Introduction to the Standard Model

To treat the front-form Hamiltonian approach to quantum field theory, called light cone quantum field theory, in a mathematically rigorous way, the existence of a well-defined restriction of the corresponding free fields to the hypersurface {x0+x3=0} in Minkowski space is of an essential necessity. However, even in the situation of a real scalar free field such a restriction does canonically not exist; this is called the restriction problem. Furthermore, since the beginning of light cone quantum field theory there is the problem of nonexistence of a well-defined Fock space expansion of a free quantum field in terms of light cone momenta which is called the zero-mode problem. In this paper we present solutions to these long outstanding problems where the study of the zero-mode problem (of the corresponding classical field) will lead us to a solution of the restriction problem. We introduce a new function space of “squeezed” smooth functions which can canonically be embedded into the Schwartz space S(R3). The restriction of the free field to {x0+x3=0} is canonically definable on this function space and we show that the covariant field is uniquely determined by this “tame” restriction.

Information-theoretic derivation of free quantum field theory

In two recent works, we studied the symmetry resolved Rényi entropies of quasi-particle excited states in quantum field theory. We found that the entropies display many model-independent features which we discussed and analytically characterised. In this paper we extend this line of investigation by providing analytical and numerical evidence that a similar universal behavior arises for the symmetry resolved negativity. In particular, we compute the ratio of charged moments of the partially transposed reduced density matrix as an expectation value of twist operators. These are “fused” versions of the more traditionally used branch point twist fields and were introduced in a previous work. The use of twist operators allows us to perform the computation in an arbitrary number of spacial dimensions. We show that, in the large-volume limit, only the commutation relations between the twist operators and local fields matter, and computations reduce to a purely combinatorial problem. We address some specific issues regarding fermionic excitations, whose treatment requires the notion of partial time-reversal transformation, and we discuss the differences and analogies with their bosonic counterpart. We find that although the operation of partial transposition requires a redefinition for fermionic theories, the ratio of the negativity moments between an excited state and the ground state is universal and identical for fermions and bosons as well as for a large variety of very different states, ranging from simple qubit states to the excited states of free quantum field theories. Our predictions are tested numerically on a 1D Fermi chain.

Despite quantum theory’s remarkable success at predicting the statistical results of experiments, many philosophers worry that it nonetheless lacks some crucial connection between theory and experiment. Such worries constitute the Quantum Measurement Problems. One can broadly identify two kinds of worries: (1) pragmatic: it is unclear how to model our measurement processes in order to extract experimental predictions, and (2) realist: we lack a satisfying metaphysical account of measurement processes. While both issues deserve attention, the pragmatic worries have worse consequences if left unanswered: If our pragmatic theory-to-experiment linkage is unsatisfactory, then quantum theory is at risk of losing both its evidential support and its physical salience. Avoiding these risks is at the core of what I will call the Pragmatic Measurement Problem. Fortunately, the pragmatic measurement problem is not too difficult to solve. For non-relativistic quantum theory, the story goes roughly as follows: One can model each of quantum theory’s key experimental successes on a case-by-case basis by using a measurement chain. In modeling this measurement chain, it is pragmatically necessary to switch from using a quantum model to a classical model at some point. That is, it is pragmatically necessary to invoke a Heisenberg cut at some point along the measurement chain. Past this case-by-case measurement framework, one can then strive for a wide-scoping measurement theory capable of modeling all (or nearly all) possible measurement processes. For non-relativistic quantum theory, this leads us to our usual projective measurement theory. As a bonus, proceeding this way also gives us an empirically meaningful characterization of the theory’s observables as (positive) self-adjoint operators. But how does this story have to change when we move into the context of quantum field theory (QFT)? It is well known that in QFT almost all localized projective measurements violate causality, allowing for faster-than-light signaling; These are Sorkin’s impossible measurements. Thus, the story of measurement in QFT cannot end as it did before with a projective measurement theory. But does this then mean that we need to radically rethink the way we model measurement processes in QFT? Are our current experimental practices somehow misguided? Fortunately not. I will argue that (once properly understood) our old approach to modeling quantum measurements is still applicable in QFT contexts. We ought to first use measurement chains to build up a case-by-case measurement framework for QFT. Modeling these measurement chains will require us to invoke what I will call a QFT-cut. That is, at some point along the measurement chain we must switch from using a QFT model to a non-QFT model. Past this case-by-case measurement framework, we can then strive for both a new wide-scoping measurement theory for QFT and an empirically meaningful characterization of its observables. It is at this point that significantly more theoretical work is needed. This paper ends by briefly reviewing the state of the art in the physics literature regarding the modeling of measurement processes involving quantum fields.

Quantum field theory is the study of quantum systems with an infinite number of degrees of freedom. The simplest quantum field theories are the free bose fields, which are essentially assemblies of an infinite number of coupled oscillators. Examples include the quantized electromagnetic field, lattice vibrations in solid state physics, and the Klein-Gordon field, some of which are relativistic while others are not. Particles show up in quantum field theory as “field quanta.” As we will see, these do not quite have all the properties of the usual particles of Newtonian physics or of Schrödinger quantum mechanics. I will in particular show (Section 3) that the quanta of free bose fields, relativistic or not, can not be perfectly localized in a bounded subset of space. This, in my opinion, shows conclusively that the difficulties encountered when attempting to define a position observable for the field quanta of relativistic fields, that continue to be the source of regular debate in the literature [20] [21] [22] [3] [10] [15] [18] [19] [48] [47], do not find their origin in any form of causality violation, as seems to be generally thought. Instead, they result from an understandable but ill-fated attempt to force too stringent a particle interpretation on the states of the quantum field containing a finite number of quanta.

The goal of the present note is to understand whether it is possible to define interacting quantum field theory in global anti de Sitter space-time with Lorentzian signature, in its covering space-time (whose time coordinate is not periodic) and in its Poincare patch. We show that in global anti de Sitter space-time there are certain problems to define quantum field theory properly. This is due to an additional UV singularity of the Feynman propagator which is sitting on the light-cone emanating from the antipodal point of the source. There is no such singularity in flat space-time. At the same time quantum field theory in Poincare region of the AdS space-time can be well defined and is related to the one in Euclidean AdS via the analytical continuation. In principle one can also define and analytically continue quantum field theory in the covering anti de Sitter space-time. However, to do that one has to use an unusual $i\epsilon$-prescription in the Feynman propagator, which cannot be used in loop calculations in non-stationary situations.

The Standard Model of particle physics describes electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions, which are three of the four known fundamental forces of nature. The unification of the fourth interaction, gravity, with the Standard Model has been challenging due to incompatibilities of the underlying theories-general relativity and quantum field theory. While quantum field theory utilizes compact, finite-dimensional symmetries associated with the internal degrees of freedom of quantum fields, general relativity is based on noncompact, infinite-dimensional external space-time symmetries. The present work aims at deriving the gauge theory of gravity using compact, finite-dimensional symmetries in a way that resembles the formulation of the fundamental interactions of the Standard Model. For our eight-spinor representation of the Lagrangian, we define a quantity, called the space-time dimension field, which enables extracting four-dimensional space-time quantities from the eight-dimensional spinors. Four U(1) symmetries of the components of the space-time dimension field are used to derive a gauge theory, called unified gravity. The stress-energy-momentum tensor source term of gravity follows directly from these symmetries. The metric tensor enters in unified gravity through geometric conditions. We show how the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity in the Weitzenböck gauge is obtained from unified gravity by a gravity-gauge-field-dependent geometric condition. Unified gravity also enables a gravity-gauge-field-independent geometric condition that leads to an exact description of gravity in the Minkowski metric. This differs from the use of metric in general relativity, where the metric depends on the gravitational field by definition. Based on the Minkowski metric, unified gravity allows us to describe gravity within a single coherent mathematical framework together with the quantum fields of all fundamental interactions of the Standard Model. We present the Feynman rules for unified gravity and study the renormalizability and radiative corrections of the theory at one-loop order. The equivalence principle is formulated by requiring that the renormalized values of the inertial and gravitational masses are equal. In contrast to previous gauge theories of gravity, all infinities that are encountered in the calculations of loop diagrams can be absorbed by the redefinition of the small number of parameters of the theory in the same way as in the gauge theories of the Standard Model. This result and our observation that unified gravity fulfills the Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) symmetry and its coupling constant is dimensionless suggest that unified gravity can provide the basis for a complete, renormalizable theory of quantum gravity.

Quantum field theory is a well defined and well established framework for describing Nature at accessibly short distances and high energies. It will play this role in the foreseeable future, unless gravity/string theory have low fundamental scale (for reviews of the latter possibility see, for example, Refs. [1–4]). A particular quantum field theory—the Standard Model—is extraordinarily successful in describing particles and their interactions probed so far in terrestrial experimens. The only exception is the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations, which can be incorporated by a relatively mild extension of the Standard Model at accessible energies. Yet the Standard Model is incomplete, and it is likely that new physics will be found at the LHC. These lectures give an introduction to quantum field theory and the Standard Model, to set the stage for more specialized discussions of heavy flavours, QCD, physics beyond the Standard Model, cosmology, etc. given in other series of lectures at this School. This overview is certainly incomplete and cannot be used to replace textbooks. The purpose is to expose the basic ideas and emphasize some points which are not always emphasized. There are numerous excellent reviews of the Standard Model, in particular, those published in Proceedings of previous Schools [5, 6]. An important aspect of the Standard Model and all high-energy physics—electroweak symmetry breaking—is reviewed, for example, in Refs. [7–11].

Using a recent proposal of circuit complexity in quantum field theories introduced by Jefferson and Myers, we compute the time evolution of the complexity following a smooth mass quench characterized by a time scale δt in a free scalar field theory. We show that the dynamics has two distinct phases, namely an early regime of approximately linear evolution followed by a saturation phase characterized by oscillations around a mean value. The behavior is similar to previous conjectures for the complexity growth in chaotic and holographic systems, although here we have found that the complexity may grow or decrease depending on whether the quench increases or decreases the mass, and also that the time scale for saturation of the complexity is of order δt (not parametrically larger).

An imaginary-time method was developed for calculating the probability of particle transmission through smooth barriers variable with time. Within the imaginary-time method, the tunneling process is described by using classical equations of motion written in terms of an imaginary time (t → it), while the probability of tunneling is determined by the imaginary part of the action functional, this imaginary part being calculated along the subbarrier particle trajectory. The fundamentals of the imaginary-time method are surveyed, and its applications in the theory of atomic-state ionization under the effect of constant electric and magnetic fields that have various configurations, in the field of intense monochromatic laser radiation and of an ultrashort electromagnetic pulse, in the process of Lorentz ionization of atoms and ions during their motion in a strong magnetic field, etc., are outlined. The applications of the imaginary-time method in relativistic cases—for example, in the theory of ionization of levels of multiply charged ions whose binding energy is commensurate with the electron rest energy—and in quantum field theory (Schwinger effect, which consists in the production of electron-positron pairs from a vacuum by a superstrong external field) are briefly described. Particular attention is given to methodological issues and details of the imaginary-time method that are of importance in solving specific physics problems, but which are usually skipped in original publications.

The derivation of fundamental effects related to the rotation and acceleration of a medium consisting of relativistic particles based on quantum-statistical approaches is presented. The Unruh effect for an accelerated medium is derived based on the Zubarev density operator. A nonperturbative formula is obtained for the chiral vortical effect (CVE) in a medium with vorticity at a finite mass based on a generalization of the first terms of the quantum-field perturbation theory calculated using the statistical operator. Various corrections to these effects in higher orders in acceleration and vorticity were found. The concept of vorticity and acceleration as new real and imaginary chemical potentials is substantiated. The duality of the quantum-statistical Zubarev density operator and quantum field theory in a space-time with a conical singularity is revealed and shown by the example of the correspondence of quantum corrections with acceleration in two approaches. The consequences of this duality for both methods are investigated. A new effect related to thermodynamic instability at the Unruh temperature is shown.

In this thesis we present two geometric theories designed to extend general relativity. It can be seen as one of the aims of such theories to model the observed accelerating expansion of the universe as a gravitational phenomenon, or to provide a mathematical structure for the formulation of quantum field theories on curved spacetimes and quantum gravity. This thesis splits into two parts: In the first part we consider multimetric gravity theories containing N > 1 standard model copies which interact only gravitationally and repel each other in the Newtonian limit. The dynamics of each of the standard model copies is governed by its own metric tensor. We show that the antisymmetric case, in which the mutual repulsion between the different matter sectors is of equal strength compared to the attractive gravitational force within each sector, is prohibited by a no-go theorem for N = 2. We further show that this theorem does not hold for N > 2 by explicitly constructing an antisymmetric multimetric repulsive gravity theory. We then examine several properties of this theory. Most notably, we derive a simple cosmological model and show that the accelerating expansion of the late universe can indeed be explained by the mutual repulsion between the different matter sectors. We further present a simple model for structure formation and show that our model leads to the formation of filament-like structures and voids. Finally, we show that multimetric repulsive gravity is compatible with high-precision solar system data using the parametrized post-Newtonian formalism. In the second part of the thesis we propose a mathematical model of quantum spacetime as an infinite-dimensional manifold locally homeomorphic to an appropriate Schwartz space. This extends and unifies both the standard function space construction of quantum mechanics and the differentiable manifold structure of classical spacetime. In this picture we demonstrate that classical spacetime emerges as a finite-dimensional manifold through the topological identification of all quantum points with identical position expectation value. We speculate on the possible relevance of this geometry to quantum field theory and gravity.

In this paper we explore the possibility of giving a justification of the “semantic information” content and measure, in the framework of the recent coalgebraic approach to quantum systems and quantum computation, extended to QFT systems. In QFT, indeed, any quantum system has to be considered as an “open” system, because it is always interacting with the background fluctuations of the quantum vacuum. Namely, the Hamiltonian in QFT always includes the quantum system and its inseparable thermal bath, formally “entangled” like an algebra with its coalgebra, according to the principle of the “doubling” of the degrees of freedom (DDF) between them. This is the core of the representation theory of cognitive neuroscience based on QFT. Moreover, in QFT, the probabilities of the quantum states follow a Wigner distribution, based on the notion and measure of quasiprobability, where regions integrated under given expectation values do not represent mutually exclusive states. This means that a computing agent, either natural or artificial, in QFT, against the quantum Turing machine paradigm, is able to change dynamically the representation space of its computations. This depends on the possibility of interpreting QFT system computations within the framework of category theory logic and its principle of duality between opposed categories, such as the algebra and coalgebra categories of QFT. This allows us to justify and not only to suppose, like in the “theory of strong semantic information” of L. Floridi, the definition of modal “local truth” and the notion of semantic information as a measure of it, despite both measures being defined on quasiprobability distributions.

Conformal covariance, modular structure, and duality for local algebras in free massless quantum field theories

We study a class of free local quantum field theories on a flat 10-dimensional space, assuming a symmetry with respect to the symplectic groupSp(4,R) acting on the coordinates through its adjoint representation. These theories describe «particles» that transform according to irreducible unitary representations of an inhomogeneousSp(4,R) group satisfying a spectral condition (positivity of the energy). We give the explicit form of these representations, we construct the corresponding quantum fields and we determine the field equations, the transformation laws, the (anti)commutation relations and the two-point Wightman functions. We discuss the local (anti)commutativity properties of the fields, that are in a strict sense weaker than the ones of the Lorentz-invariant theories, and we find a connection between «spin» and statistics.