Are Rindler Quanta Real? Inequivalent particle concepts in quantum field theory

Philosophical reflection on quantum field theory has tended to focus on how it revises our conception of what a particle is. However, there has been relatively little discussion of the threat to the "reality" of particles posed by the possibility of inequivalent quantizations of a classical field theory, i.e., inequivalent representations of the algebra of observables of the field in terms of operators on a Hilbert space. The threat is that each representation embodies its own distinctive conception of what a particle is, and how a "particle" will respond to a suitably operated detector. Our main goal is to clarify the subtle relationship between inequivalent representations of a field theory and their associated particle concepts. We also have a particular interest in the Minkowski versus Rindler quantizations of a free Boson field, because they respectively entail two radically different descriptions of the particle content of the field in the very same region of spacetime. We shall defend the idea that these representations provide complementary descriptions of the same state of the field against the claim that they embody completely incommensurable theories of the field.Comment: 62 pages, LaTe

Alternative Algebraic Structures from Bi-Hamiltonian Quantum Systems

We discuss the alternative algebraic structures on the manifold of quantum states arising from alternative Hermitian structures associated with quantum bi-Hamiltonian systems. We also consider the consequences at the level of the Heisenberg picture in terms of deformations of the associative product on the space of observables.Comment: Accepted for publication in Int. J. Geom. Meth. Mod. Phy

Schwinger's Picture of Quantum Mechanics I: Groupoids

A new picture of Quantum Mechanics based on the theory of groupoids is presented. This picture provides the mathematical background for Schwinger's algebra of selective measurements and helps to understand its scope and eventual applications. In this first paper, the kinematical background is described using elementary notions from category theory, in particular the notion of 2-groupoids as well as their representations. Some basic results are presented, and the relation with the standard Dirac-Schr\"odinger and Born-Jordan-Heisenberg pictures are succinctly discussed.Comment: 32 pages. Comments are welcome

Microlocal sheaves and quiver varieties

We relate Nakajima Quiver Varieties (or, rather, their multiplicative version) with moduli spaces of perverse sheaves. More precisely, we consider a generalization of the concept of perverse sheaves: microlocal sheaves on a nodal curve X. They are defined as perverse sheaves on normalization of X with a Fourier transform condition near each node and form an abelian category M(X). One has a similar triangulated category DM(X) of microlocal complexes. For a compact X we show that DM(X) is Calabi-Yau of dimension 2. In the case when all components of X are rational, M(X) is equivalent to the category of representations of the multiplicative pre-projective algebra associated to the intersection graph of X. Quiver varieties in the proper sense are obtained as moduli spaces of microlocal sheaves with a framing of vanishing cycles at singular points. The case when components of X have higher genus, leads to interesting generalizations of preprojective algebras and quiver varieties. We analyze them from the point of view of pseudo-Hamiltonian reduction and group-valued moment maps.Comment: 49 page

Perverse sheaves on Grassmannians

We give a complete quiver description of the category of perverse sheaves on Hermitian symmetric spaces in types A and D, constructible with respect to the Schubert stratification. The calculation is microlocal, and uses the action of the Borel group to study the geometry of the conormal variety.Comment: AMS-LaTeX, 35 pages, 11 figure

The Geometry of Integrable and Superintegrable Systems

The group of automorphisms of the geometry of an integrable system is considered. The geometrical structure used to obtain it is provided by a normal form representation of integrable systems that do not depend on any additional geometrical structure like symplectic, Poisson, etc. Such geometrical structure provides a generalized toroidal bundle on the carrier space of the system. Non--canonical diffeomorphisms of such structure generate alternative Hamiltonian structures for complete integrable Hamiltonian systems. The energy-period theorem provides the first non--trivial obstruction for the equivalence of integrable systems