Glimm, J. Quantum field theory and statistical mechanics : expositions

Title

Glimm, J. Quantum field theory and statistical mechanics : expositions

Files

Description

James Glimm, Arthur Jaffe. Quantum field theory and statistical mechanics: expositions

This volume contains a selection of expository articles on quantum field theory and statistical mechanics by James Glimm and Arthur Jaffe. They include a solution of the original interacting quantum field equations and a description of the physics which these equations contain. Quantum fields were proposed in the late 1920s as the natural framework which combines quantum theory with relativity. They have survived ever since. The mathematical description for quantum theory starts with a Hilbert space H of state vectors. Quantum fields are linear operators on this space, which satisfy nonlinear wave equations of fundamental physics, including coupled Dirac, Maxwell, and Yang-Mills equations. The field operators are restricted to satisfy a "locality" requirement that they commute (or anti-commute in the case of fermions) at space-like separated points. This condition is compatible with finite propagation speed, and hence with special relativity. Asymptotically, these fields converge for large time to linear fields describing free particles. Using these ideas a scattering theory had been developed, based on the existence of local quantum fields.

ISBN

0817632751

Publication Date

1985

Publisher

Birkhäuser

City

Boston

Keywords

quantum field theory, statistical mechanics

Comments

The Rockefeller University Library Math Physics Library QC 174.45 G559 v.1 1985

The Rockefeller University Library President's Office OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Glimm, J. Quantum field theory and statistical mechanics : expositions

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