Lorentzian bordisms in algebraic quantum field theory

Severin Bunk, Alexander Schenkel, James MacManus

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

It is shown that every algebraic quantum field theory has an underlying functorial field theory which is defined on a suitable globally hyperbolic Lorentzian bordism pseudo-category. This means that globally hyperbolic Lorentzian bordisms between Cauchy surfaces arise naturally in the context of algebraic quantum field theory. The underlying functorial field theory encodes the time evolution of the original theory, but not its spatially local structure. As an illustrative application of these results, the algebraic and functorial descriptions of a free scalar quantum field are compared in detail.
Original languageEnglish
Article number16
Pages (from-to)1-43
Number of pages43
JournalLetters in Mathematical Physics
Volume115
Issue number1
Early online date3 Feb 2025
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 3 Feb 2025

Keywords

  • 18N10
  • 53C50
  • 81Txx
  • Algebraic quantum field theory
  • Bordisms
  • Functorial field theory
  • Lorentzian geometry
  • Pseudo-categories

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