15,017 research outputs found
Path Integral Formulation with Deformed Antibracket
We propose how to incorporate the Leites-Shchepochkina-Konstein-Tyutin
deformed antibracket into the quantum field-antifield formalism.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX. v2: Added references. To appear in Phys. Lett.
Higher gauge theory -- differential versus integral formulation
The term higher gauge theory refers to the generalization of gauge theory to
a theory of connections at two levels, essentially given by 1- and 2-forms. So
far, there have been two approaches to this subject. The differential picture
uses non-Abelian 1- and 2-forms in order to generalize the connection 1-form of
a conventional gauge theory to the next level. The integral picture makes use
of curves and surfaces labeled with elements of non-Abelian groups and
generalizes the formulation of gauge theory in terms of parallel transports. We
recall how to circumvent the classic no-go theorems in order to define
non-Abelian surface ordered products in the integral picture. We then derive
the differential picture from the integral formulation under the assumption
that the curve and surface labels depend smoothly on the position of the curves
and surfaces. We show that some aspects of the no-go theorems are still present
in the differential (but not in the integral) picture. This implies a
substantial structural difference between non-perturbative and perturbative
approaches to higher gauge theory. We finally demonstrate that higher gauge
theory provides a geometrical explanation for the extended topological symmetry
of BF-theory in both pictures.Comment: 26 pages, LaTeX with XYPic diagrams; v2: typos corrected and
presentation improve
Casimir forces from a loop integral formulation
We reformulate the Casimir force in the presence of a non-trivial background.
The force may be written in terms of loop variables, the loop being a curve
around the scattering sites. A natural path ordering of exponentials take place
when a particular representation of the scattering centres is given. The basic
object to be evaluated is a reduced (or abbreviated) classical pseudo-action
that can be operator valued.Comment: references added, text clarified in place
Integral formulation of the measured equation of invariance
A novel integral formulation of the measured equation of invariance is derived from the reciprocity theorem. This formulation leads to a sparse matrix equation for the induced surface current, resulting in great CPU time and memory savings over the conventional approaches. The algorithm has been implemented for two-dimensional perfectly conducting scatterers.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
't Hooft's quantum determinism -- path integral viewpoint
We present a path integral formulation of 't Hooft's derivation of quantum
from classical physics. Our approach is based on two concepts: Faddeev-Jackiw's
treatment of constrained systems and Gozzi's path integral formulation of
classical mechanics. This treatment is compared with our earlier one
[quant-ph/0409021] based on Dirac-Bergmann's method.Comment: Presented at Second International Workshop DICE2004, From Decoherence
and Emergent Classicality to Emergent Quantum Mechanics Piombino (Tuscany),
September 1-4, 2004, 6 pages, accepted to Braz.J.Phy
- …