No Arabic abstract
The study of the heat-trace expansion in noncommutative field theory has shown the existence of Moyal nonlocal Seeley-DeWitt coefficients which are related to the UV/IR mixing and manifest, in some cases, the non-renormalizability of the theory. We show that these models can be studied in a worldline approach implemented in phase space and arrive to a master formula for the $n$-point contribution to the heat-trace expansion. This formulation could be useful in understanding some open problems in this area, as the heat-trace expansion for the noncommutative torus or the introduction of renormalizing terms in the action, as well as for generalizations to other nonlocal operators.
We consider a noncommutative field theory with space-time $star$-commutators based on an angular noncommutativity, namely a solvable Lie algebra: the Euclidean in two dimension. The $star$-product can be derived from a twist operator and it is shown to be invariant under twisted Poincare transformations. In momentum space the noncommutativity manifests itself as a noncommutative $star$-deformed sum for the momenta, which allows for an equivalent definition of the $star$-product in terms of twisted convolution of plane waves. As an application, we analyze the $lambda phi^4$ field theory at one-loop and discuss its UV/IR behaviour. We also analyze the kinematics of particle decay for two different situations: the first one corresponds to a splitting of space-time where only space is deformed, whereas the second one entails a non-trivial $star$-multiplication for the time variable, while one of the three spatial coordinates stays commutative.
The fuzzy disc is a discretization of the algebra of functions on the two dimensional disc using finite matrices which preserves the action of the rotation group. We define a $varphi^4$ scalar field theory on it and analyze numerically for three different limits for the rank of the matrix going to infinity. The numerical simulations reveal three different phases: uniform and disordered phases already the present in the commutative scalar field theory and a nonuniform ordered phase as a noncommutative effects. We have computed the transition curves between phases and their scaling. This is in agreement with studies on the fuzzy sphere, although the speed of convergence for the disc seems to be better. We have performed also three the limits for the theory in the cases of the theory going to the commutative plane or commutative disc. In this case the theory behaves differently, showing the intimate relationship between the nonuniform phase and noncommutative geometry.
We discuss the obstruction to the construction of a multiparticle field theory on a $kappa$-Minkowski noncommutative spacetime: the existence of multilocal functions which respect the deformed symmetries of the problem. This construction is only possible for a light-like version of the commutation relations, if one requires invariance of the tensor product algebra under the coaction of the $kappa$-Poincare group. This necessitates a braided tensor product. We study the representations of this product, and prove that $kappa$-Poincare-invariant N-point functions belong to an Abelian subalgebra, and are therefore commutative. We use this construction to define the 2-point Whightman and Pauli--Jordan functions, which turn out to be identical to the undeformed ones. We finally outline how to construct a free scalar $kappa$-Poincare-invariant quantum field theory, and identify some open problems.
We revisit the question of microcausality violations in quantum field theory on noncommutative spacetime, taking $O(x)=:phistarphi:(x)$ as a sample observable. Using methods of the theory of distributions, we precisely describe the support properties of the commutator [O(x),O(y)] and prove that, in the case of space-space noncommutativity, it does not vanish at spacelike separation in the noncommuting directions. However, the matrix elements of this commutator exhibit a rapid falloff along an arbitrary spacelike direction irrespective of the type of noncommutativity. We also consider the star commutator for this observable and show that it fails to vanish even at spacelike separation in the commuting directions and completely violates causality. We conclude with a brief discussion about the modified Wightman functions which are vacuum expectation values of the star products of fields at different spacetime points.
This is the introductory chapter to the volume. We review the main idea of the localization technique and its brief history both in geometry and in QFT. We discuss localization in diverse dimensions and give an overview of the major applications of the localization calculations for supersymmetric theories. We explain the focus of the present volume.