Related papers: Relating on-shell and off-shell formalism in pertu…
In this article which is the first of a series of three, we consider $\mathcal W({\mathfrak{sl}_d})$-symmetric conformal field theory in topological regimes for a generic value of the background charge, where $\mathcal W({\mathfrak{sl}_d})$…
These notes describe how perturbative on-shell and off-shell string amplitudes can be computed using string field theory. Computational methods for approximating arbitrary amplitudes are discussed, and compared with standard world-sheet…
We study the behaviour of quantum field theories defined on a surface $S$ as it tends to a null surface $S_n$. In the case of a real, free scalar field theory the above limiting procedure reduces the system to one with a finite number of…
The functional renormalization group flow of a scalar field theory with quartic couplings and a sharp spatial momentum cutoff is presented in four-dimensional Minkowski space-time for the bare action by retaining the entanglement of the IR…
We consider scalar field theory in de Sitter space with a general vacuum invariant under the continuously connected symmetries of the de Sitter group. We begin by reviewing approaches to define this as a perturbative quantum field theory.…
We define a perturbatively calculable quantity--the on-shell correlator--which furnishes a unified description of particle dynamics in curved spacetime. Specializing to the case of flat and anti-de Sitter space, on-shell correlators…
The perturbative framework of the space-time non-commutative real scalar field theory is formulated, based on the unitary S-matrix. Unitarity of the S-matrix is explicitly checked order by order using the Heisenberg picture of Lagrangian…
This is a set of introductory lecture notes on conformal field theory. Unlike most existing reviews on the subject, CFT is presented here from the perspective of a unitary quantum field theory in Minkowski space-time. It begins with a…
The spherical field formalism---a nonperturbative approach to quantum field theory---was recently introduced and applied to phi^4 theory in two dimensions. The spherical field method reduces a quantum field theory to a finite-dimensional…
We attempt a direct derivation of a conformal field theory description of 2D quantum gravity~+~matter from the formalism of integrable hierarchies subjected to Virasoro constraints. The construction is based on a generalization of the…
Action principles of the BF type for diffeomorphism invariant topological field theories living in n-dimensional spacetime manifolds are presented. Their construction is inspired by Cuesta and Montesinos' recent paper where Cartan's first…
The issue of gauge invariances in the sigma model formalism is discussed at the free and interacting level. The problem of deriving gauge invariant interacting equations can be addressed using the proper time formalism. This formalism is…
In the modern on-shell approach, the perturbative S-matrix is constructed iteratively using on-shell building blocks with manifest unitarity. As only gauge invariant quantities enter in the intermediate steps, the notion of gauge anomaly is…
The doubled formulation of string theory, which is T-duality covariant and enlarges spacetime with extra coordinates conjugate to winding number, is reformulated and its geometric and topological features examined. It is used to formulate…
We propose a new formalism for quantum field theory which is neither based on functional integrals, nor on Feynman graphs, but on marked trees. This formalism is constructive, i.e. it computes correlation functions through convergent rather…
The worldline formalism is a useful scheme in quantum field theory which has also become a powerful tool for numerical computations. The key ingredient in this formalism is the first quantization of an auxiliary point-particle whose…
We study perturbative general relativity with a two-form and a dilaton using the double field theory formulation which features explicit index factorisation at the Lagrangian level. Explicit checks to known tree level results are performed.…
First steps are taken in a project to construct a general class of conformal and perhaps, eventually, non-conformal quantum field theories of (n-1)-dimensional extended objects in a d=2n dimensional conformal space-time manifold M. The…
The general boundary formulation of quantum field theory is applied to a massive scalar field in two dimensional Rindler space. The field is quantized according to both the Schr\"odinger-Feynman quantization prescription and the holomorphic…
A solution to the long-standing problem of identifying the conformal field theory governing the transition between quantized Hall plateaus of a disordered noninteracting 2d electron gas, is proposed. The theory is a nonlinear sigma model…