Renormalization and motivic Galois theory

We investigate the nature of divergences in quantum field theory, showing that they are organized in the structure of a certain `` motivic Galois group'', which is uniquely determined and universal with respect to the set of physical theories. The renormalization group can be identified canonically with a one parameter subgroup. The group is obtained through a Riemann-Hilbert correspondence. Its representations classify equisingular flat vector bundles, where the equisingularity condition is a geometric formulation of the fact that in quantum field theory the counterterms are independent of the choice of a unit of mass. As an algebraic group scheme, it is a semi-direct product by the multiplicative group of a pro-unipotent group scheme whose Lie algebra is freely generated by one generator in each positive integer degree. There is a universal singular frame in which all divergences disappear. When computed as iterated integrals, its coefficients are certain rational numbers that appear in the local index formula of Connes-Moscovici. When working with formal Laurent series over the field of rational numbers, the data of equisingular flat vector bundles define a Tannakian category whose properties are reminiscent of a category of mixed Tate motives.