Renormalization and short distance singular structure (Q1597491)

A modification of elimination of the singular part of \(N\)-point functions (renormalization of short distance divergence) is presented. The author's method is based on the following decomposition of the algebra of observables (and states). Let \({\mathcal A}\) be the characteristic algebra of operators, \({\mathcal A}_S\) the space of selfadjoint observables and \(\widehat{\mathcal A}\) the minimal subalgebra of the observables that commute with the Hamiltonian \(H\). The singular part of the observable is considered belonging to \(\widehat{\mathcal A}\). Let \({\mathcal V}_r\) be the space of nonsingular observables, and \({\mathcal V}_{rS}\) the space of selfadjoint nonsingular observables. Then \(\widehat{\mathcal A}\cap{\mathcal V}_r= \{0\}\) and the space of observables is \[ {\mathcal O}=\widehat{\mathcal A}\oplus{\mathcal V}_{rS}\subset{\mathcal A}_S, \] which is dense in \({\mathcal A}_S\). \(\widehat{\mathcal A}\) is the algebra of diagonal operators and \({\mathcal A}_{rS}\) the space of nondiagonal operators; their basis are \(|\omega)= |\omega\rangle\langle\omega|\) and \(|\omega, \omega')= |\omega\rangle\langle\omega'|\), respectively. A generic observable of \({\mathcal O}\) is \[ O= \int d\omega O_\omega|\omega)+ \int\int d\omega d\omega' O_{\omega\omega'}|\omega, \omega'), \] where \(O_\omega\) and \(O_{\omega\omega'}\) are regular functions (as to more detailed conditions these functions must satisfy, the author quotes \textit{R. Laura} and \textit{M. Castagnino} [Phys. Rev. A (3) 57, 4140-4152 (1997) and Phys. Rev. E 57, 3948-3962 (1998)]). A state is a functional over \({\mathcal O}\). So it takes the form \[ \rho= \int d\omega \rho_\omega(\omega|+ \int\int d\omega d\omega' \rho_{\omega\omega'} (\omega,\omega'|, \] where \(\rho_\omega\) and \(\rho_{\omega\omega'}\) are regular functions. Then the mean value \[ (\rho|O)= \int d\omega \rho_\omega O_\omega+ \int\int d\omega d\omega' \rho_{\omega\omega'} O_{\omega\omega'}, \] is well defined and yields physical results. Note that originally, \(O\) and \(\rho\) take the forms \[ \begin{aligned} O &= \int\int d\omega d\omega'[O_\omega \delta(\omega- \omega')+ O_{\omega\omega'}|\omega\rangle \langle\omega'|,\\ \rho &= \int\int d\omega d\omega' [\rho_\omega\delta(\omega- \omega')+ \rho_{\omega\omega'}]|\omega\rangle \langle\omega'|.\end{aligned} \] Hence the mean value \(\text{Tr}(\rho O)\) can not be defined. Taking \({\mathcal A}={\mathcal H}\otimes{\mathcal H}\otimes{\mathcal N}\), \({\mathcal H}\) the Hilbert space where the field \(\phi(x)\) is an operator and the vacuum state \(|0\rangle\) a vector, \({\mathcal N}\) the vector space of functions of \(N\) \((N\to\infty)\) variables \(x_1,x_2,\dots, x_N\), where the functions \(\phi(x_1),\phi(x_2),\cdots, \phi(x_N)\) can be considered as the coordinates of the vectors of \({\mathcal N}\) in a basis \(|x_1,x_2,\dots, x_N)\), this formalism is applied to the observable \[ O= \int\int dx dx'\Biggl[{O_x\over n-4} \delta(x- x')+ O_{xx'}\Biggr]|x,x'). \] In this case, the (renormalized) mean value is \[ (\rho|O)= \int dx{\rho_x O_x\over n-4}+ \int\int dx dx'\rho_{xx'} O_{xx'}. \] Hence in the case \(n=4\), either \(O_x= 0\) or \(\rho_x= 0\) is necessary. Renormalization according to this formalism of \(n\)-point functions is also performed (Section 6). Before stating this new formalism of elimination of singularities, traditional methods of elimination of singularities are reviewed in Sections 2-5, taking scalar quantum field theory in a curved space-time (Section 2) and \(\lambda\phi^4\) theory (Section 3-5) as examples.