Locally covariant quantum field theory with external sources (Q498598)

This article is both a survey of important aspects of classical as well as quantized Klein-Gordon fields and a collection of previous results by Fewster and other mathematical physicists. The basic structure behind is that of a functor from the category of spacetimes to a category of observable algebras. In addition, the basic spacetime category also includes external sources , i.e. a multiplet of inhomogeneous Klein-Gordon fields interacts with a classical non-dynamical source. The quantum theory of these models is not given by a CCR algebra, but by a quotient of such algebras. Also, the techniques developed here can be applied to affine field theories in general and to Abelian gauge theories in particular. The article has nine Sections and three Appendices in which Fewster and Schenkel exclusively work in a category setting, which ought to be interpreted as an extension of the standard framework of locally covariant QFT in the textbooks.