Publications of the Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences
Temperature as Order Parameter of Broken Scale Invariance
Izumi Ojima
Abstract
In algebraic quantum field theory the (inverse) temperature is shown to be a macroscopic order parameter to parametrize mutually disjoint thermal sectors arising from the broken scale invariance under renormalization-group transformations. This is accomplished in a mathematical formalism for the consistent treatment of explicitly broken symmetries such as broken scale invariance, on the basis of a clearcut criterion for the symmetry breakdown in a unified scheme for sectors proposed recently by the author.