Free Fermi and Bose fields in TQFT and GBF (Q352496)

In this paper Oeckl discusses axioms for a general boundary formulation of quantum field theory in the context of both fermionic and bosonic fields. The aim of general boundary formulation theories is to allow one to consider models that do not come with a fixed background metric. The result for bosonic fields is most familiar in the case that all observables are topological invariants. This is a topological field theory [\textit{M. Atiyah}, Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 68, 175--186 (1988; Zbl 0692.53053)]. Such a topological theory assigns a Hilbert space to any closed, oriented manifold, and a linear map associated to a bordism between two such. Oeckl argues that in the presence of fermionic fields, one needs to generalize from Hilbert spaces to something called Krein spaces. A Krein space is a generalization of a Hilbert space that allows for non-degenerate, indefinite pairings. The negative definite component will arise from the fermionic fields. The first part of the paper reviews how the general boundary formulation arises out of geometric quantization. It provides enough detail that someone familiar with geometric quantization (for example following [\textit{N. Woodhouse}, Geometric quantization. Oxford Mathematical Monographs. Oxford: Clarendon Press (1980; Zbl 0458.58003)]) should be able to follow the general outline. It then reviews Krein spaces, and Fock spaces. After listing axioms for a classical theory that are similar to the axioms of a topological quantum field theory, the paper discuss a specific model based on constant time slices of Minkowski space as the original manifolds, and regions bounded by pairs of such subspaces as the cobordisms. It explains where the classical data arises in this example, and then expands to the axioms of a full quantum general boundary formulation. After some discussion of the role of renormalization, the paper continues with a description of probabilities in the context of Krein spaces. This paper provides a nice tie to the physics for a mathematician working in field theory, as well as suggesting a new variation that in addition to being physically relevant, may inspire new mathematical invariants.