Translation group and modular automorphisms for local regions (Q2638487)

The present paper is about quantum field theory (in the Araki-Haag- Kastler framework) but it is inspired by statistical mechanics. Since the energy in statistical mechanics is associated with the modular automorphism group, it seems interesting to look for the modular property for one-parameter subgroups of the space-time-translations in field theory. It was already known from Bisognano-Wichmann that the time- translation automorphism group does satisfy the modular property. The present paper prepares the mathematical tools for a proof of the converse result, in the case of two space-time dimensions. The work of the author is then continued in a sequel paper (yet unpublished) ``The CPT-theorem in two-dimensional theories of local observables''. In the algebraic quantum field theoretic setting, the author shows \((d=2)\) that a representation of the ``small'' Poincaré-group in fact results from a minimal set of axioms which includes the modular property (in one coordinate-direction), and also the spectral condition; i.e., a support condition on a certain spectral measure, or equivalently an analytic continuation condition (to a certain tube domain) of a certain unitary representation. It turns out that the local algebras may also be reconstructed from the same axioms by a clever use of double-cones in space-time. A novel feature in this formulation is that the (local) von Neumann algebras \({\mathcal M}\) are not covariant for the unitary space-time-translation group \(\{\) U(a); \(a=(a_ 0,a_ 1)\in {\mathbb{R}}^ 2\}\). Instead the author assumes only the following semigroup property, AdU(a)\({\mathcal M}\subset {\mathcal M}\) for all a, \(a_ 1>| a_ 0|\). He also notes that U(a) generally does not normalize \({\mathcal M}\) when a is outside the mentioned cone. A cyclic and separating vector \(\Omega\) is further given, and the spectral condition is assumed relative to the forward light cone \(a_ 0\geq | a_ 1|\). The author then shows that \(\Delta^{it}U(a)\Delta^{- it}=U(L_ ta)\) holds for \(t\in {\mathbb{R}}\), \(a\in {\mathbb{R}}^ 2\), where \(L_ t=\left( \begin{matrix} \cosh 2\pi t\\ -\sinh 2\pi t\end{matrix} \begin{matrix} - \sinh 2\pi t\\ \cosh 2\pi t\end{matrix} \right)\) and \(\Delta^{it}\) is the modular group associated with (\({\mathcal M},\Omega)\). This means that a representation of the ``small'' Poincaré group results from the axioms, and that \(\Delta^{it}\) represents the hyperbolic time-``rotation''. That is, if \(U(t):=\Delta^{it}\), then the pair (U(t),U(a)) combines to a representation of the semidirect product group.