Related papers: What is an anomaly?
We survey three different ways in which K-theory in all its forms enters quantum field theory. In Part 1 we give a general argument which relates topological field theory in codimension two with twisted K-theory, and we illustrate with some…
It is shown that a version of PT-symmetric electrodynamics based on an axial-vector current coupling massless fermions to the photon possesses anomalies and so is rendered nonrenormalizable. An alternative theory is proposed based on the…
Quantum field theory currently has a single standard mathematical characterization (the Standard Model), but no single accepted conceptual framework to interpret the mathematics. Many of these conceptualizations rely on intuitive concepts…
General covariance in quantum gravity is seen once one integrates over all possible metrics. In recent years topological field theories have given us a different route to general covariance without integrating over all possible metrics.…
The quantum nature of a black hole is revealed using the simplest terms that one learns in undergraduate and beginning graduate courses. The exposition demonstrates -- vividly -- the importance and power of the quantum oscillator in…
A hidden gauge theory structure of quantum mechanics which is invisible in its conventional formulation is uncovered. Quantum mechanics is shown to be equivalent to a certain Yang-Mills theory with an infinite-dimensional gauge group and a…
We get deeper understanding of the role played by boundary conditions in quantum field theory, by studying the structure of a scalar massless quantum field theory bounded by two one dimensional planar crystal plates. The system can also be…
After having explained Samuel Clarke's conception of the new philosophy of physical reality, we will treat the electron field in this context as a field modifying the void. From this we will be able to derive the so-called quantum rules…
This paper is a collection of lecture notes on the superfield approach in three- and four-dimensional supersymmetric quantum field theory. Many examples of the applications of this approach to different superfield models are considered.
We comment on a recent paper by Hobson, explaining that quantum "fields" are no more fields than quantum "particles" are particles, so that the replacement of a particle ontology by an all-field ontology cannot solve the typical…
We develop a reformulation of the functional integral for bosons in terms of bilocal fields. Correlation functions correspond to quantum probabilities instead of probability amplitudes. Discrete and continuous global symmetries can be…
Quantum field theory has formed the conceptual framework of most of physics for more than sixty years. It incorporates a complete revision of our conception of the nature of matter and existence itself. Yet it is rarely taught, or even…
From one point of view in the quantum theory of fields, free quantum fields are uniquely determined, not by field equations, but by the transformations of the field and the annihilation and creation operators from which the field is…
The momentum of a free massive particle, invariant under translation, thereby realizes a trivial representation of the translation group. By allowing nontrivial reps of translations, momentum changes with translation, a recipe for force.…
A growing number of studies is being devoted to the identification of plausible quantum properties of spacetime which might give rise to observably large effects. The literature on this subject is now relatively large, including studies in…
It is made the attempt to explain why there exists a division between internal symmetries referring to quantum numbers and external symmetries referring to space-time within the description of relativistic quantum field theories. It is hold…
Qubits have been designed in the framework of quantum mechanics. Attempts to formulate the problem in the language of quantum field theory have been proposed already. In this short note we refine the meaning of qubits within the framework…
We describe the scalar and spinor fields on noncommutative sphere starting from canonical realizations of the enveloping algebra ${\cal A}={\cal U}{u(2))}$. The gauge extension of a free spinor model, the Schwinger model on a noncommutative…
Chiral symmetries in field theory are typically affected by an anomaly in the quantum theory. This anomaly emerges when one introduces an interaction with a Yang-Mills or gravitational background. Physical applications of this quantum…
Quantum theory can be understood as pointing to an ontology of relations. I observe that this reading of quantum mechanics is supported by the ubiquity of relationality in contemporary fundamental physics, including in classical mechanics,…