A spinless covariant field $phi$ on Minkowski spacetime $M^{d+1}$ obeys the relation $U(a,Lambda)phi(x)U(a,Lambda)^{-1}=phi(Lambda x+a)$ where $(a,Lambda)$ is an element of the Poincare group $Pg$ and $U:(a,Lambda)to U(a,Lambda)$ is its unitary repre
sentation on quantum vector states. It expresses the fact that Poincare transformations are being unitary implemented. It has a classical analogy where field covariance shows that Poincare transformations are canonically implemented. Covariance is self-reproducing: products of covariant fields are covariant. We recall these properties and use them to formulate the notion of covariant quantum fields on noncommutative spacetimes. In this way all our earlier results on dressing, statistics, etc. for Moyal spacetimes are derived transparently. For the Voros algebra, covariance and the *-operation are in conflict so that there are no covariant Voros fields compatible with *, a result we found earlier. The notion of Drinfeld twist underlying much of the preceding discussion is extended to discrete abelian and nonabelian groups such as the mapping class groups of topological geons. For twists involving nonabelian groups the emergent spacetimes are nonassociative.
In this paper, we further develop the analysis started in an earlier paper on the inequivalence of certain quantum field theories on noncommutative spacetimes constructed using twisted fields. The issue is of physical importance. Thus it is well know
n that the commutation relations among spacetime coordinates, which define a noncommutative spacetime, do not constrain the deformation induced on the algebra of functions uniquely. Such deformations are all mathematically equivalent in a very precise sense. Here we show how this freedom at the level of deformations of the algebra of functions can fail on the quantum field theory side. In particular, quantum field theory on the Wick-Voros and Moyal planes are shown to be inequivalent in a few different ways. Thus quantum field theory calculations on these planes will lead to different physics even though the classical theories are equivalent. This result is reminiscent of chiral anomaly in gauge theories and has obvious physical consequences. The construction of quantum field theories on the Wick-Voros plane has new features not encountered for quantum field theories on the Moyal plane. In fact it seems impossible to construct a quantum field theory on the Wick-Voros plane which satisfies all the properties needed of field theories on noncommutative spaces. The Moyal twist seems to have unique features which make it a preferred choice for the construction of a quantum field theory on a noncommutative spacetime.
We show how to get a non-commutative product for functions on space-time starting from the deformation of the coproduct of the Poincare group using the Drinfeld twist. Thus it is easy to see that the commutative algebra of functions on space-time (R^
4) can be identified as the set of functions on the Poincare group invariant under the right action of the Lorentz group provided we use the standard coproduct for the Poincare group. We obtain our results for the noncommutative Moyal plane by generalizing this result to the case of the twisted coproduct. This extension is not trivial and involves cohomological features. As is known, spacetime algebra fixes the coproduct on the dffeomorphism group of the manifold. We now see that the influence is reciprocal: they are strongly tied.
The Moyal and Wick-Voros planes A^{M,V}_{theta} are *-isomorphic. On each of these planes the Poincare group acts as a Hopf algebra symmetry if its coproducts are deformed by twist factors. We show that the *-isomorphism T: A^M_{theta} to A^V_{theta}
does not also map the corresponding twists of the Poincare group algebra. The quantum field theories on these planes with twisted Poincare-Hopf symmetries are thus inequivalent. We explicitly verify this result by showing that a non-trivial dependence on the non-commutative parameter is present for the Wick-Voros plane in a self-energy diagram whereas it is known to be absent on the Moyal plane (in the absence of gauge fields). Our results differ from these of (arXiv:0810.2095 [hep-th]) because of differences in the treatments of quantum field theories.
