Quantum groups, quantum categories and quantum field theory (Q686869)

This book is concerned with the relations between quantum groups and (algebraic) quantum field theories. Its main results can be viewed as extensions of a classical theorem of Doplicher and Roberts, which associates a compact group \(G\) to any quantum field theory in \(\geq 4\) spacetime dimensions. It is shown that, for certain quantum field theories in 2 or 3 spacetime dimensions, one must replace \(G\) by a quantum group \(U_ q({\mathfrak g})\), where \(\mathfrak g\) is a finite- dimensional complex simple Lie algebra and the deformation parameter \(q\) is a root of unity. To describe the results of the book in more detail, fix an algebraic quantum field theory and let \(A\) be its \(C^*\)-algebra of observables. The Hilbert space \(H\) of physical states of the theory carries a representation of \(A\), and decomposes into orthogonal invariant subspaces, called superselection sectors, which are inequivalent representations of \(A\). All of these representations may be obtained from one of them, the vacuum representation, by composing with \(*\)- endomorphisms of \(A\). Composition of such endomorphisms gives rise to a way of taking the `tensor product' of superselection sectors. In fact, these sectors are the objects of a monoidal category. The theorem of Doplicher and Roberts asserts that, in \(\geq 4\) spacetime dimensions, this monoidal category is actually a tensor category, and in fact is equivalent as a tensor category to the category of finite-dimensional representations of a compact group \(G\), with the usual tensor product operation. In 2 or 3 spacetime dimensions, however, the associated monoidal category is no longer tensor, in general, but only quasitensor (or braided). The latter occurs, for example, in the Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witten models in 2 dimensions, and in Chern-Simons gauge theories in 3 dimensions. In fact, the tensor product in these theories is such that the associated monoidal categories cannot be equivalent to the category of representations of any Hopf algebra. Instead, the authors show that these categories can be obtained from the quantum group \(U_ q(sl_ 2)\), when \(q\) is a root of unity, as follows. Suppose that \(q = e^{2\pi i/\ell}\), where \(\ell\) is odd (\(\ell\) is simply related to the `level' of the quantum field theory in question). There is, up to isomorphism, exactly one irreducible representation of \(U_ q(sl_ 2)\) of each dimension \(<\ell\). The tensor product of two such representations is not, in general, completely reducible. However, essentially (but not quite) by discarding those indecomposable summands of the tensor product which are not irreducible, one obtains a semisimple tensor product. These representations, and this `reduced' tensor product, give rise to a quasitensor category which is equivalent to the category associated to the quantum field theory. The equivalence is proved by establishing a uniqueness theorem for quasitensor categories of a certain type. This theorem, in turn, is proved by classifying a certain class of new (at least to mathematicians) algebraic structures called fusion rule algebras. One can associate such an algebra to any quantum field theory; the algebra is closely related to the Grothendieck ring of the category associated to the theory. The following are the chapter titles: 1. Introduction and survey of results. 2. Local quantum theory with braid group statistics. 3. Superselection sectors and the structure of fusion rule algebras. 4. Hopf algebras and quantum groups at roots of unity. 5. Representation theory of \(U_ q^{red}(sl_ 2)\). 6. Path representations of the braid groups for quantum groups at roots of unity. 7. Duality theory for local quantum theories, dimensions and balancing in quantum categories. 8. The quantum categories with a generator of dimension less than two.