Quantum Field Theory from First Principles

When quantum fields are studied on manifolds with boundary, the corresponding one-loop quantum theory for bosonic gauge fields with linear covariant gauges needs the assignment of suitable boundary conditions for elliptic differential operators of Laplace type. There are however deep reasons to modify such a scheme and allow for pseudo-differential boundary-value problems. When the boundary operator is allowed to be pseudo-differential while remaining a projector, the conditions on its kernel leading to strong ellipticity of the boundary-value problem are studied in detail. This makes it possible to develop a theory of one-loop quantum gravity from first principles only, i.e. the physical principle of invariance under infinitesimal diffeomorphisms and the mathematical requirement of a strongly elliptic theory. It therefore seems that a non-local formulation of quantum field theory has some attractive features which deserve further investigation.Comment: 16 pages, plain Tex, paper submitted for the Proceedings of the Conference "Geometrical Aspects of Quantum Fields", Physics Department of Londrina University, April 17-20, 200

Numerical study of the disordered Poland-Scheraga model of DNA denaturation

We numerically study the binary disordered Poland-Scheraga model of DNA denaturation, in the regime where the pure model displays a first order transition (loop exponent $c=2.15>2$). We use a Fixman-Freire scheme for the entropy of loops and consider chain length up to $N=4 \cdot 10^5$, with averages over $10^4$ samples. We present in parallel the results of various observables for two boundary conditions, namely bound-bound (bb) and bound-unbound (bu), because they present very different finite-size behaviors, both in the pure case and in the disordered case. Our main conclusion is that the transition remains first order in the disordered case: in the (bu) case, the disorder averaged energy and contact densities present crossings for different values of $N$ without rescaling. In addition, we obtain that these disorder averaged observables do not satisfy finite size scaling, as a consequence of strong sample to sample fluctuations of the pseudo-critical temperature. For a given sample, we propose a procedure to identify its pseudo-critical temperature, and show that this sample then obeys first order transition finite size scaling behavior. Finally, we obtain that the disorder averaged critical loop distribution is still governed by $P(l) \sim 1/l^c$ in the regime $l \ll N$, as in the pure case.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures. Revised versio

Nonstandard Drinfeld-Sokolov reduction

Subject to some conditions, the input data for the Drinfeld-Sokolov construction of KdV type hierarchies is a quadruplet (\A,\Lambda, d_1, d_0), where the $d_i$ are $\Z$-gradations of a loop algebra \A and \Lambda\in \A is a semisimple element of nonzero $d_1$-grade. A new sufficient condition on the quadruplet under which the construction works is proposed and examples are presented. The proposal relies on splitting the $d_1$-grade zero part of \A into a vector space direct sum of two subalgebras. This permits one to interpret certain Gelfand-Dickey type systems associated with a nonstandard splitting of the algebra of pseudo-differential operators in the Drinfeld-Sokolov framework.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX fil

Lagrange Stabilization of Pendulum-like Systems: A Pseudo H-infinity Control Approach

This paper studies the Lagrange stabilization of a class of nonlinear systems whose linear part has a singular system matrix and which have multiple periodic (in state) nonlinearities. Both state and output feedback Lagrange stabilization problems are considered. The paper develops a pseudo H-infinity control theory to solve these stabilization problems. In a similar fashion to the Strict Bounded Real Lemma in classic H-infinity control theory, a Pseudo Strict Bounded Real Lemma is established for systems with a single unstable pole. Sufficient conditions for the synthesis of state feedback and output feedback controllers are given to ensure that the closed-loop system is pseudo strict bounded real. The pseudo H-infinity control approach is applied to solve state feedback and output feedback Lagrange stabilization problems for nonlinear systems with multiple nonlinearities. An example is given to illustrate the proposed method