BRAID STATISTICS IN LOCAL QUANTUM THEORY
Jürg Martin Fröhlich, Fabrizio Gabbiani
We present details of a mathematical theory of superselection sectors and their statistics in local quantum theory over (two- and) three-dimensional space-time. The framework for our analysis is algebraic quantum field theory. Statistics of superselection sectors in three-dimensional local quantum theory with charges not localizable in bounded space-time regions and in two-dimensional chiral theories is described in terms of unitary representations of the braid groups generated by certain Yang-Baxter matrices. We describe the beginnings of a systematic classification of those representations. Our analysis makes contact with the classification theory of subfactors initiated by Jones. We prove a general theorem on the connection between spin and statistics in theories with braid statistics. We also show that every theory with braid statistics gives rise to a “Verlinde algebra”. It determines a projective representation of SL(2, ℤ) and, presumably, of the mapping class group of any Riemann surface, even if the theory does not display conformal symmetry.
Reviews in Mathematical Physics•Jan 1, 1990•233 citations