Scattering in Quantum Field Theories

Scattering in Quantum Field Theories: The Axiomatic and Constructive Approaches

Daniel Iagolnitzer
Series: Princeton Series in Physics
Copyright Date: 1993
Published by: Princeton University Press
Pages: 312
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7ztp4s
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  • Book Info
    Scattering in Quantum Field Theories
    Book Description:

    Axiomatic and constructive approaches to quantum field theory first aim to establish it on precise, non-perturbative bases: general axioms and rigorous definition of specific theories respectively. From the viewpoint of particle physics, the goal is then to develop a relativistic scattering theory, including particle analysis and the derivation of general properties of collision amplitudes. Taking into account successive improvements, this book provides a modern, self-contained, and coherent presentation of important developments from the last twenty years, most of which have not been treated or discussed in detail in earlier books. These developments include in particular the axiomatic derivation, in massive theories, of general causal and momentum-space analyticity properties of multiparticle collision amplitudes; the constructive definition, initially in the (unphysical) euclidean space, of various models including non-super-renormalizable theories treated in the 1980s via phase-space expansions; and the subsequent constructive approach to scattering theory, which provides information on the mass spectrum, asymptotic completeness, and multiparticle structure in increasingly higher energy regions.

    Originally published in 1993.

    ThePrinceton Legacy Libraryuses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

    eISBN: 978-1-4008-6316-7
    Subjects: Physics

Table of Contents

  1. Front Matter
    (pp. i-iv)
  2. Table of Contents
    (pp. v-viii)
  3. Preface
    (pp. ix-xii)
  4. Introduction
    (pp. xiii-2)

    The aim of this introduction is to present an overall view of the organization and contents of the book, which will complement indications given in the Preface. Contents will be described in Sect. 2 and some brief technical remarks are given in Sect. 3. More details and explanations on the various topics treated, as also an historical survey and references, will be found in the introductory section of each chapter.

    The book is composed of four chapters. Chapters II, III and IV are concerned with the first, second and third themes mentioned in the Preface, namely, scattering theory in axiomatic...

  5. CHAPTER I The Multiparticle S Matrix
    (pp. 3-54)

    The aim of this chapter is to introduce the scattering operatorS,orSmatrix, independently of field theory and to present general properties that can be expected on various rigorous or heuristic grounds, with emphasis on various aspects of interest developed in the 1970s and 1980s, which will not be found in standard books of field theory. As mentioned in the Preface, we restrict our attention to systems of massive particles with short-range interactions. Our purpose is mainly descriptive. Links between various properties will be mentioned but we do not try to start from a minimal number of principles...

  6. CHAPTER II Scattering Theory in Axiomatic Field Theory
    (pp. 55-148)

    Let us first recall the traditional Wightman axioms in Minkowski space-time. This framework will be somewhat modified and completed for our purposes, but it can be considered as the fundamental starting point. Wightman axioms apply to field operatorsA(x)acting on a Hilbert spaceHof physical states (to be later interpreted asymptotically in terms of particles in theories of interest);$x = ({x_0},\vec x)$is a real space-time variable and eachAis more precisely an operator-valued distribution which, to each test functionf, associates an operatorA(f)(= “∫ A(x)f(x)d(x)”)inH. (The fieldsAof interest here might be defined in...

  7. CHAPTER III Euclidean Constructive Field Theory
    (pp. 149-207)

    As mentioned in Sect. 3 of the general Introduction, notations are different throughout this part from those of Chapter II:xorpwill be taken real in Euclidean space, with${x^2} = x_0^2 + {\vec x^2},{p^2} = p_0^2 + {\vec p^2}.$

    The purpose of this chapter is to present the Euclidean definition of models, and related results, in nonperturbative field theory. We start in Sects. 1.2 and 1.3 with some preliminaries. Sect. 1.2 presents the standard Euclidean axioms [OS,GJ] that are believed to be satisfied by any probability measure dμ(φ)(on the space of distributionsφin Euclidean space-time) characterizing a field theory in the class we wish to...

  8. CHAPTER IV Particle Analysis in Constructive Field Theory
    (pp. 208-270)

    We start in Sect. 1.1 with some indications on the perturbative approach and will then give a more precise introduction to the constructive (and semi-axiomatic) analysis in Sect. 1.2. With regard to notations used in this chapter, see Sect. 3.2 of the general Introduction.

    As explained in Sect. 2.1 of Chapter III, (connected)N-point functions appear in the perturbative approach as formal infinite sums of possibly renormalized Feynman integrals, with possibly renormalized coupling constants at each vertex. (For simplicity, we leave aside the effective expansions mentioned in Sect. 2.2 of Chapter III.) We consider these series, initially, in Euclidean energy-momentum...

  9. Mathematical Appendix: Distributions, analytic functions, and microlocal analysis
    (pp. 271-278)
  10. Bibliography
    (pp. 279-280)
  11. References
    (pp. 281-286)
  12. Index
    (pp. 287-290)