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arXiv:2102.09632 · Journal of Mathematical Physics

Manifold topology, observables, and gauge group

G. Morchio, Franco Strocchi

Published Nov 1, 2021• 1 citation

Abstract

The relation between the manifold topology, observables, and gauge group is clarified on the basis of the classification of the representations of the algebra of observables associated with positions and displacements on the manifold. The guiding, physically motivated, principles are (i) locality, i.e., the generating role of the algebras localized in small, topologically trivial, regions, (ii) diffeomorphism covariance, which guarantees the intrinsic character of the analysis, and (iii) the exclusion of additional local degrees of freedom with respect to the Schrödinger representation. The locally normal representations of the resulting observable algebra are classified by unitary representations of the fundamental group of the manifold, which actually generate an observable, “topological,” subalgebra. The result is confronted with the standard approach based on the introduction of the universal covering M̃ of M and on the decomposition of L2(M̃) according to the spectrum of the fundamental group, which plays the role of a gauge group. It is shown that in this way one obtains all the representations of the observables iff the fundamental group is amenable. The implications on the observability of the permutation group in particle statistics are discussed.

DOI: 10.1063/5.0048336

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The relation between the manifold topology, observables, and gauge group is clarified on the basis of the classification of the representations of the algebra of observables associated with positions and displacements on the manifold. The guiding, physically motivated, principles are (i) locality, i.e., the generating role of the algebras localized in small, topologically trivial, regions, (ii) diffeomorphism covariance, which guarantees the intrinsic character of the analysis, and (iii) the exclusion of additional local degrees of freedom with respect to the Schrödinger representation. The locally normal representations of the resulting observable algebra are classified by unitary representations of the fundamental group of the manifold, which actually generate an observable, “topological,” subalgebra. The result is confronted with the standard approach based on the introduction of the universal covering M̃ of M and on the decomposition of L2(M̃) according to the spectrum of the fundamental group, which plays the role of a gauge group. It is shown that in this way one obtains all the representations of the observables iff the fundamental group is amenable. The implications on the observability of the permutation group in particle statistics are discussed.

For the description of observables and states of a quantum system, it may be convenient to use a canonical Weyl algebra of which only a subalgebra A, with a non-trivial center Z, describes observables, the other Weyl operators playing the role of intertwiners between inequivalent representations of A. In particular, this gives rise to a gauge symmetry described by the action of Z. A distinguished case is when the center of the observables arises from the fundamental group of the manifold of the positions of the quantum system. Symmetries that do not commute with the topological invariants represented by elements of Z are then spontaneously broken in each irreducible representation of the observable algebra, compatibly with an energy gap; such a breaking exhibits a mechanism radically different from Goldstone and Higgs mechanisms. This is clearly displayed by the quantum particle on a circle, the Bloch electron and the two body problem.

We define operator manifolds as manifolds on which a spectral measure on a Hilbert space is given as additional structure. The spectral measure mathematically describes space as a quantum mechanical observable. We show that the vectors of the Hilbert space can be represented as functions on the manifold. The arbitrariness of this representation is interpreted as local gauge freedom. In this way, the physical gauge principle is linked with quantum mechanical measurements of the position variable. We derive the restriction for the local gauge group to be U(m), where m is the number of components of the wave functions.

In this paper I shall extend the formulation of the hole argument to permutable theories. As covariant theories provides a general mathematical framework for classical physics, permutable theories provide the language for quantum physics. This analogy is deeply founded: as covariant theories are defined functorially on the category of manifolds and local diffeomorphisms with values into the category of fibered manifolds and fiber-preserving morphisms, and some rule of selecting sections, permutable theories are functorially defined on the category of sets and permutations with values into the category of fibered sets and fiber-preserving automorphisms, and rules of selecting sections. One of the main features of covariant theories, in particular general relativity, is that the field equation possesses gauge freedom associated with global diffeomorphisms of the underlying manifold. I shall explain here how the hole argument is a reflection of this gauge freedom. Finally I shall point out some implications of the hole argument to current development in physics.

Abstract In the previous sections we treated the irreducible representation space associated with the vacuum state. In this chapter we treat other representation spaces necessary to describe particle systems with the vacuum as a background. Such representation spaces are characterized as transportable localized excitations on the vacuum background. If we assume Haag’s duality of the vacuum representation, such a localized excitation is described by a localized endomorphism of the observables and its equivalence classes correspond to different representations called sectors(eigensubspaces of the superselection rules in each of which unrestricted superposition principle holds). From the discussion about composition and conjugation of localized endomorphisms, we define the statistics (of a sector) which represents the behaviour of more than two equivalent localized excitations under permutation, and we derive the connection of spin and statistics. We also introduce the lattice of local field algebras as operators intertwining different sectors, and the gauge group acting on them. Then the local observable algebras are the gauge invariant part of the local field algebras and sectors are inequivalent representations of the gauge group. The local field algebras can be chosen to satisfy the standard commutation or anticommutation relations between space-like separated regions and we can derive the connection of spin and statistics of sectors. In this way we obtain a deep understanding of the reason why Fermi fields in spatially separated regions anticommute.

Group representations play a central role in theoretical physics. In particular, in quantum mechanics unitary — or, in general, projective unitary — representations implement the action of an abstract symmetry group on physical states and observables. More specifically, a major role is played by the so-called square integrable representations. Indeed, the properties of these representations are fundamental in the definition of certain families of generalized coherent states, in the phase-space formulation of quantum mechanics and the associated star product formalism, in the definition of an interesting notion of function of quantum positive type, and in some recent applications to the theory of open quantum systems and to quantum information.