Perturbative algebraic quantum field theory. An introduction for mathematicians (Q892956): Difference between revisions

The author, who claims to be both a physicist and a mathematician, offers a useful and fascinating book which should be of interest and useful to professional mathematicians and students of both mathematics and physics. It is dedicated to prominent mathematical physicists who passed away recently: Rudolf Haag, Daniel Kastler, Uffe Haagerup, Raymond Stora, and John Roberts, who are known for their groundbreaking ideas concerning the algebraic approach to quantum field theory. What is tried in this book is to make mathematical sense of perturbative QFT using several fields of mathematics. The book has eight chapters. After some short introduction in Chapter 1 the main topic in Chapter 2 is the algebraic approach to quantum theory using the Haag-Kastler axioms. However, for the purpose of a \textit{perturbative algebraic quantum field theory}, some of the assumptions of the Haag-Kastler framework need to be dropped. In Chapter 3, the author starts with the classical theory which is subsequently quantized. The kinematical structure of both classical and quantum theories is described in detail. A generalization of the Lagrange formalism is used in Chapter 4 and the relation to notions, adopted from classical mechanics, are explained. The framework used in Chapter 5 is called \textit{deformation quantization}. It is combined with what is called \textit{causal perturbation theory}. Chapter 6 provides an approach to renormalization of interacting scalar fields. Gauge theory is the subject of Chapter 7. Gauge fixing and the quantization formalism of Batalin-Vilkoviski is discussed. The road to quantum gravity explained in Chapter 8 when the spacetime structure is dynamical. The book intends to be pedagogical and self-contained. It establishes the mathematical foundation of perturbation theory in a convincing manner.