MASSLESS PARTICLES, ELECTROMAGNETISM, AND RIEFFEL INDUCTION

DOI10.1142/S0129055X95000359zbMATH Open0833.58051arXivhep-th/9411174MaRDI QIDQ4852278FDOQ4852278

Klaas Landsman, Urs Achim Wiedemann

Publication date: 25 March 1996

Published in: Reviews in Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The connection between space-time covariant representations (obtained by inducing from the Lorentz group) and irreducible unitary representations (induced from Wigner's little group) of the Poincar'{e} group is re-examined in the massless case. In the situation relevant to physics, it is found that these are related by Marsden-Weinstein reduction with respect to a gauge group. An analogous phenomenon is observed for classical massless relativistic particles. This symplectic reduction procedure can be (`second') quantized using a generalization of the Rieffel induction technique in operator algebra theory, which is carried through in detail for electro- magnetism. Starting from the so-called Fermi representation of the field algebra generated by the free abelian gauge field, we construct a new (`rigged') sesquilinear form on the representation space, which is positive semi-definite, and given in terms of a Gaussian weak distribution (promeasure) on the gauge group (taken to be a Hilbert Lie group). This eventually constructs the algebra of observables of quantum electro- magnetism (directly in its vacuum representation) as a representation of the so-called algebra of weak observables induced by the trivial representation of the gauge group.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9411174

zbMATH Keywords

quantizationgeneral relativitygauge groupsfield theories with constraintsquantum electromagnetism

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Infinite-dimensional groups and algebras motivated by physics, including Virasoro, Kac-Moody, (W)-algebras and other current algebras and their representations (81R10) Yang-Mills and other gauge theories in quantum field theory (81T13) Electromagnetic interaction; quantum electrodynamics (81V10) Methods of quantum field theory in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C47) Applications of global analysis to the sciences (58Z05)

Cited In (7)

• Why have we never observed the massless charged particle?
• Rieffel induction as generalized quantum Marsden-Weinstein reduction
• Constrained quantization and \(\theta \)-angles
• Exploring the holographic principle in asymptotically flat spacetimes via the BMS group
• The Stückelberg–Kibble model as an example of quantized symplectic reduction
• Superselection in the presence of constraints
• Quantum constraints

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