No Arabic abstract
The standard way to construct a path integral is to use a Legendre transformation to find the hamiltonian, to repeatedly insert complete sets of states into the time-evolution operator, and then to integrate over the momenta. This procedure is simple when the action is quadratic in its time derivatives, but in most other cases Legendres transformation is intractable, and the hamiltonian is unknown. This paper shows how to construct path integrals when one cant find the hamiltonian because the first time derivatives of the fields occur in ways that make a Legendre transformation intractable; it focuses on scalar fields and does not discuss higher-derivative theories or those in which some fields lack time derivatives.
Time derivatives of scalar fields occur quadratically in textbook actions. A simple Legendre transformation turns the lagrangian into a hamiltonian that is quadratic in the momenta. The path integral over the momenta is gaussian. Mean values of operators are euclidian path integrals of their classical counterparts with positive weight functions. Monte Carlo simulations can estimate such mean values. This familiar framework falls apart when the time derivatives do not occur quadratically. The Legendre transformation becomes difficult or so intractable that one cant find the hamiltonian. Even if one finds the hamiltonian, it usually is so complicated that one cant path-integrate over the momenta and get a euclidian path integral with a positive weight function. Monte Carlo simulations dont work when the weight function assumes negative or complex values. This paper solves both problems. It shows how to make path integrals without knowing the hamiltonian. It also shows how to estimate complex path integrals by combining the Monte Carlo method with parallel numerical integration and a look-up table. This Atlantic City method lets one estimate the energy densities of theories that, unlike those with quadratic time derivatives, may have finite energy densities. It may lead to a theory of dark energy. The approximation of multiple integrals over weight functions that assume negative or complex values is the long-standing sign problem. The Atlantic City method solves it for problems in which numerical integration leads to a positive weight function.
We consider Euclidean path integrals with higher derivative actions, including those that depend quadratically on acceleration, velocity and position. Such path integrals arise naturally in the study of stiff polymers, membranes with bending rigidity as well as a number of models for electrolytes. The approach used is based on the relation between quadratic path integrals and Gaussian fields and we also show how it can be extended to the evaluation of even higher order path integrals.
A real symmetric n times n matrix is called copositive if the corresponding quadratic form is non-negative on the closed first orthant. If the matrix fails to be copositive there exists some non-negative certificate for which the quadratic form is negative. Due to the scaling property, we can find such certificates in every neighborhood of the origin but their properties depend on the matrix of course and are hard to describe. If it is an integer matrix however, we are guaranteed certificates of a complexity that is at most a constant times the binary encoding length of the matrix raised to the power 3/2.
The class of mixed Tsirelson spaces is an important source of examples in the recent development of the structure theory of Banach spaces. The related class of modified mixed Tsirelson spaces has also been well studied. In the present paper, we investigate the problem of comparing isomorphically the mixed Tsirelson space T[(S_n,theta_{n})_{n=1}^{infty}] and its modified version T_{M}[(S_{n},theta_{n})_{n=1}^{infty}]. It is shown that these spaces are not isomorphic for a large class of parameters (theta_{n}).
A computable structure A is x-computably categorical for some Turing degree x, if for every computable structure B isomorphic to A there is an isomorphism f:B -> A with f computable in x. A degree x is a degree of categoricity if there is a computable A such that A is x-computably categorical, and for all y, if A is y-computably categorical then y computes x. We construct a Sigma_2 set whose degree is not a degree of categoricity. We also demonstrate a large class of degrees that are not degrees of categoricity by showing that every degree of a set which is 2-generic relative to some perfect tree is not a degree of categoricity. Finally, we prove that every noncomputable hyperimmune-free degree is not a degree of categoricity.