The Principle of Locality. Effectiveness, fate and challenges

The Special Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics merge in the key principle of Quantum Field Theory, the Principle of Locality. We review some examples of its ``unreasonable effectiveness'' (which shows up best in the formulation of Quantum Field Theory in terms of operator algebras of local observables) in digging out the roots of Global Gauge Invariance in the structure of the local observable quantities alone, at least for purely massive theories; but to deal with the Principle of Local Gauge Invariance is still a problem in this frame. This problem emerges also if one attempts to figure out the fate of the Principle of Locality in theories describing the gravitational forces between elementary particles as well. Spacetime should then acquire a quantum structure at the Planck scale, and the Principle of Locality is lost. It is a crucial open problem to unravel a replacement in such theories which is equally mathematically sharp and reduces to the Principle of Locality at larger scales. Besides exploring its fate, many challenges for the Principle of Locality remain; among them, the analysis of Superselection Structure and Statistics also in presence of massless particles, and to give a precise mathematical formulation to the Measurement Process in local and relativistic terms; for which we outline a qualitative scenario which avoids the EPR Paradox.Comment: 36 pages. Survey partially based on a talk delivered at the Meeting "Algebraic Quantum Field Theory: 50 years", Goettingen, July 29-31, 2009, in honor of Detlev Buchholz. Submitted to Journal of Mathematical Physic

Lie 2-algebra models

In this paper, we begin the study of zero-dimensional field theories with fields taking values in a semistrict Lie 2-algebra. These theories contain the IKKT matrix model and various M-brane related models as special cases. They feature solutions that can be interpreted as quantized 2-plectic manifolds. In particular, we find solutions corresponding to quantizations of R^3, S^3 and a five-dimensional Hpp-wave. Moreover, by expanding a certain class of Lie 2-algebra models around the solution corresponding to quantized R^3, we obtain higher BF-theory on this quantized space.Comment: 47 pages, presentation improved, version published in JHE

Do We Understand Quantum Mechanics - Finally?

After some historical remarks concerning Schroedinger's discovery of wave mechanics, we present a unified formalism for the mathematical description of classical and quantum-mechanical systems, utilizing elements of the theory of operator algebras. We then review some basic aspects of quantum mechanics and, in particular, of its interpretation. We attempt to clarify what Quantum Mechanics tells us about Nature when appropriate experiments are made. We discuss the importance of the mechanisms of "dephasing" and "decoherence" in associating "facts" with possible events and rendering complementary possible events mutually exclusive.Comment: 42 pages, contribution to the Proceedings of a conference in memory of Erwin Schroedinger, Vienna, January 201

Lotfi A. Zadeh: On the man and his work

AbstractZadeh is one of the most impressive thinkers of the current time. An engineer by formation, although the range of his scientific interests is very broad, this paper only refers to his work towards reaching computation, mimicking ordinary reasoning, expressed in natural language, namely, with the introduction of fuzzy sets, fuzzy logic, and soft computing, as well as more recently, computing with words and perceptions