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Wayne Polyzou

Publications and source records attributed to Wayne Polyzou.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2023

Electromagnetic current operators for phenomenological relativistic models

Background: Phenomenological Poincar\'e invariant quantum mechanical models can provide an efficient description of the dynamics of strongly interacting particles that is consistent with spectral and scattering observables. These models are representation dependent and in order to apply them to reactions with electromagnetic probes it is necessary to have a consistent electromagnetic current operator. Purpose: The purpose of this work is to use local gauge invariance to construct consistent strong current operators. Method: Current operators are constructed from a model Hamiltonian by replacing momentum operators in the Weyl representation by gauge covariant derivatives. Results: The construction provides a systematic method to construct explicit expressions for current operators that are consistent with relativistic models of strong interaction dynamics.

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arXiv2023

Light-front puzzles

Light-front formulations of quantum field theories have many advantages for computing electroweak matrix elements of strongly interacting systems and other quantities that are used to study hadronic structure. The theory can be formulated in Hamiltonian form so non-perturbative calculations of the strongly interacting initial and final states are in principle reduced to linear algebra. These states are needed for calculating parton distribution functions and other types of distribution amplitudes that are used to understand the structure of hadrons. Light-front boosts are kinematic transformations so the strongly interacting states can be computed in any frame. This is useful for computing current matrix elements involving electroweak probes where the initial and final hadronic states are in different frames related by the momentum transferred by the probe. Finally in many calculations the vacuum is trivial so the calculations can be formulated in Fock space. The advantages of light front-field theory would not be interesting if the light-front formulation was not equivalent to the covariant or canonical formulations of quantum field theory. Many of the distinguishing properties of light-front quantum field theory are difficult to reconcile with canonical or covariant formulations of quantum field theory. This paper discusses the resolution of some of the apparent inconsistencies in canonical, covariant and light-front formulations of quantum field theory. The puzzles that will be discussed are (1) the problem of inequivalent representations (2) the problem of the trivial vacuum (3) the problem of ill-posed initial value problems (4) the problem of rotational covariance (5) the problem of zero modes and (6) the problem of spontaneously broken symmetries.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2021

Path integrals, complex probabilities and the discrete Weyl representation

A discrete formulation of the real-time path integral as the expectation value of a functional of paths with respect to a complex probability on a sample space of discrete valued paths is explored. The formulation in terms of complex probabilities is motivated by a recent reinterpretation of the real-time path integral as the expectation value of a potential functional with respect to a complex probability distribution on cylinder sets of paths. The discrete formulation in this work is based on a discrete version of Weyl algebra that can be applied to any observable with a finite number of outcomes. The origin of the complex probability in this work is the completeness relation. In the discrete formulation the complex probability exactly factors into products of conditional probabilities and exact unitarity is maintained at each level of approximation. The approximation of infinite dimensional quantum systems by discrete systems is discussed. Applications to scattering theory and quantum field theory are illustrated.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2021

The relation between instant and light-front formulations of quantum field theory

The scattering equivalence of quantum field theories formulated with light-front and instant-form kinematic subgroups is established using non-perturbative methods. The difficulty with field theoretic formulations of Dirac's forms of dynamics is that the free and interacting unitary representations of the Poincar\'e group are defined on inequivalent representations of the Hilbert space, which means that the concept of kinematic transformations must be modified on the Hilbert space of the field theory. This work addresses this problem by assuming the existence of a field theory with the expected properties and constructs equivalent representations with instant and front form kinematic subgroups. In this construction both the light-front and instant-form formulations share the same vacuum and one-particle states. The free field Fock space plays no role. There is no "quantization" of a classical theory. The property that survives from the perturbative approach is the notion of a kinematic subgroup, which means kinematic Poincar\'e transformations can be trivially implemented by acting on suitable basis vectors. This non-perturbative approach avoids dealing with issues that arise in perturbative treatments where is it necessary to have a consistent treatment of renormalization, rotational covariance, and the structure of the light-front vacuum. While addressing these issues in a computational framework is important for applications, this work may provide some insight into the nature of the expected resolution and identifies the origin of some of differences between the perturbative and non-perturbative approaches.

hep-th↗
arXiv2019

Relativistic invariance in Euclidean formulations of quantum mechanics

Relativistic invariance in Euclidean formulations of quantum mechanics is discussed. Relativistic treatments of quantum theory are needed to study hadronic systems at sub-hadronic distance scales. Euclidean formulations of relativistic quantum mechanics have some computational advantages. In the Euclidean representation the physical Hilbert space inner product is expressed in terms of Euclidean space-time variables with no need for any analytic continuation. The identification of the complex Euclidean group with the complex Poincar\'e group relates the infinitesimal generators of both groups. In this work explicit representations of the Poincar\'e generators in Euclidean space-time variables for all positive-mass positive-energy irreducible representations of the Poincar\'e group are derived. The commutation relations are checked, both hermiticity and self-adjointness are established, and reflection positivity of the kernels is verified.

math-ph↗
arXiv2016

The light-front vacuum

We discuss the relation between the trivial light-front vacuum and the non-trivial Heisenberg vacuum.

hep-th↗
arXiv2015

Scattering asymptotic conditions in Euclidean relativistic quantum theory

We discuss the formulation of the scattering asymptotic condition as a strong limit in Euclidean quantum theories satisfying the Osterwalder-Schrader axioms. When used with the invariance principle this provides a constructive method to compute scattering observables directly in the Euclidean formulation of the theory, without an explicit analytic continuation.

hep-th↗
arXiv2015

Relativistic few-body methods

I discuss the role of relativistic quantum mechanics in few-body physics, various formulations of relativistic few-body quantum mechanics and how they are related.

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arXiv2015

The Light-Front Vacuum

Background: The vacuum in the light-front representation of quantum field theory is trivial while vacuum in the equivalent canonical representation of the same theory is non-trivial. Purpose: Understand the relation between the vacuum in light-front and canonical representations of quantum field theory and the role of zero-modes in this relation. Method: Vacuua are defined as linear functionals on an algebra of field operators. The role of the algebra in the definition of the vacuum is exploited to understand this relation. Results: The vacuum functional can be extended from the light-front Fock algebra to an algebra of local observables. The extension to the algebra of local observables is responsible for the inequivalence. The extension defines a unitary mapping between the physical representation of the local algebra and a sub-algebra of the light-front Fock algebra. Conclusion: There is a unitary mapping from the physical representation of the algebra of local observables to a sub-algebra of the light-front Fock algebra with the free light-front Fock vacuum. The dynamics appears in the mapping and the structure of the sub-algebra. This correspondence provides a formulation of locality and Poincar\'e invariance on the light-front Fock space.

hep-th↗
arXiv2013

Relativistic few-body physics

I discuss different formulations of the relativistic few-body problem with an emphasis on how they are related. I first discuss the implications of some of the differences with non-relativistic quantum mechanics. Then I point out that the principle of special relativity in quantum mechanics implies that the quantum theory has a Poincaré symmetry, which is realized by a unitary representation of the Poincaré group. This representation can always be decomposed into direct integrals of irreducible representations and the different formulations differ only in how these irreducible representations are realized. I discuss how these representations appear in different formulations of relativistic quantum mechanics and discuss some applications in each of these frameworks.

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arXiv2013

Euclidean Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

We discuss a formulation of exactly Poincar\'e invariant quantum mechanics where the input is model Euclidean Green functions or their generating functional. We discuss the structure of the models, the construction of the Hilbert space, the construction and transformation properties of single-particle states, and the construction of GeV scale transition matrix elements. A simple model is utilized to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach.

math-ph↗
arXiv2011

A Euclidean formulation of relativistic quantum mechanics

In this paper we discuss a formulation of relativistic quantum mechanics that uses Euclidean Green functions or generating functionals as input. This formalism has a close relation to quantum field theory, but as a theory of linear operators on a Hilbert space, it has many of the advantages of quantum mechanics. One interesting feature of this approach is that matrix elements of operators in normalizable states on the physical Hilbert space can be calculated directly using the Euclidean Green functions without performing an analytic continuation. The formalism is summarized in this paper. We discuss the motivation, advantages and difficulties in using this formalism. We discuss how to compute bound states, scattering cross sections, and finite Poincare transformations without using analytic continuation. A toy model is used to demonstrate how matrix elements of exp(-beta H) in normalizable states can be used to construct-sharp momentum transition matrix elements.

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arXiv2004

Stability of Covariant Relativistic Quantum Theory

In this paper we study the relativistic quantum mechanical interpretation of the solution of the inhomogeneous Euclidean Bethe-Salpeter equation. Our goal is to determine conditions on the input to the Euclidean Bethe-Salpeter equation so the solution can be used to construct a model Hilbert space and a dynamical unitary representation of the Poincaré group. We prove three theorems that relate the stability of this construction to properties of the kernel and driving term of the Bethe-Salpeter equation. The most interesting result is that the positivity of the Hilbert space norm in the non-interacting theory is not stable with respect to Euclidean covariant perturbations defined by Bethe-Salpeter kernels. The long-term goal of this work is to understand which model Euclidean Green functions preserve the underlying relativistic quantum theory of the original field theory. Understanding the constraints imposed on the Green functions by the existence of an underlying relativistic quantum theory is an important consideration for formulating field-theory motivated relativistic quantum models.

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