arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Peter van Nieuwenhuizen.
We prove the renormalizability of the Curci-Ferrari model with and without auxiliary fields using BRST methods. In both cases we find 5 $Z$ factors instead of 3. We verify our results by explicit one loop calculations. We determine a set of generators for the ``physical states'', many of which have negative norm. Supersymmetrization is considered.
We construct the path integral for one-dimensional non-linear sigma models, starting from a given Hamiltonian operator and states in a Hilbert space. By explicit evaluation of the discretized propagators and vertices we find the correct Feynman rules which differ from those often assumed. These rules, which we previously derived in bosonic systems \cite{paper1}, are now extended to fermionic systems. We then generalize the work of Alvarez-Gaumé and Witten \cite{alwi} by developing a framework to compute anomalies of an $n$-dimensional quantum field theory by evaluating perturbatively a corresponding quantum mechanical path integral. Finally, we apply this formalism to various chiral and trace anomalies, and solve a series of technical problems: $(i)$ the correct treatment of Majorana fermions in path integrals with coherent states (the methods of fermion doubling and fermion halving yield equivalent results when used in applications to anomalies), $(ii)$ a complete path integral treatment of the ghost sector of chiral Yang-Mills anomalies, $(iii)$ a complete path integral treatment of trace anomalies, $(iv)$ the supersymmetric extension of the Van Vleck determinant, and $(v)$ a derivation of the spin-$3\over 2$ Jacobian of Alvarez-Gaumé and Witten for Lorentz anomalies.
By carefully analyzing the relations between operator methods and the discretized and continuum path integral formulations of quantum-mechanical systems, we have found the correct Feynman rules for one-dimensional path integrals in curved spacetime. Although the prescription how to deal with the products of distributions that appear in the computation of Feynman diagrams in configuration space is surprising, this prescription follows unambiguously from the discretized path integral. We check our results by an explicit two-loop calculation.
We reformulate the proof of the renormalization of a spontaneously broken gauge theory by multiplicatively renormalizing the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field in the $SU(2)$~Higgs model.
Instead of imposing the Schrödinger equation to obtain the configuration space propagator $\csprop$ for a quantum mechanical nonlinear sigma model, we directly evaluate the phase space propagator $\psprop$ by expanding the exponent and pulling all operators $\hat p$ to the right and $\hat x$ to the left. Contrary to the widespread belief that it is sufficient to keep only terms linear in $Δt$ in the expansion if one is only interested in the final result through order $Δt$, we find that all terms in the expansion must be retained. We solve the combinatorical problem of summing the infinite series in closed form through order $Δt$. Our results straightforwardly generalize to higher orders in $Δt$. We then include fermions for which we use coherent states in phase space. For supersymmetric $N{=}1$ and $N{=}2$ quantum mechanics, we find that if the super Van Vleck determinant replaces the original Van Vleck determinant the propagator factorizes into a classical part, this super determinant and the extra scalar curvature term which was first found by DeWitt for the purely bosonic case by imposing the Schrödinger equation. Applying our results to anomalies in $n$-dimensional quantum field theories, we note that the operator ordering in the corresponding quantum mechanical Hamiltonians is fixed in these cases. We present a formula for the path integral action, which corresponds one to one to any given covariant or noncovariant $\hat H$. We then evaluate these path integrals through two loop order, and reobtain the same propagators in all cases.
The 1-loop anomalies of a d-dimensional quantum field theory can be computed by evaluating the trace of the regulated path integral jacobian matrix, as shown by Fujikawa. In 1983, Alvarez-Gaumé and Witten observed that one can simplify this evaluation by replacing the operators which appear in the regulator and in the jacobian by quantum mechanical operators with the same (anti)commutation relations. By rewriting this quantum mechanical trace as a path integral with periodic boundary conditions for a one-dimensional supersymmetric nonlinear sigma model, they obtained the chiral anomalies for spin 1/2 and 3/2 fields and selfdual antisymmetric tensors in d dimensions. In this article, we treat the case of trace anomalies for spin 0, 1/2 and 1 fields in a gravitational and Yang-Mills background. We do not introduce a supersymmetric sigma model, but keep the original Dirac matrices $\g^\m$ and internal symmetry generators $T^a$ in the path integral. As a result, we get a matrix-valued action. Gauge covariance of the path integral then requires a definition of the exponential of the action by time-ordering. We exponentiate the factors $\sqrt g$ in the path integral measure by using vector ghosts in order to exhibit the cancellation of the sigma model divergences more clearly. We compute the trace anomalies in d=2 and d=4.
We briefly review some results in the theory of quantum $W_3$ gravity in the chiral gauge. We compare them with similar results in the analogous but simpler cases of $d=2$ induced gauge theories and $d=2$ induced gravity.