On the construction of macroscopically local relativistic quantum theories
"The problem of providing a physical interpretation of a relativistic quantum theory is discussed. It is shown that a single operator corresponding to a localized measurement on the states of the-theory is sufficient for a significant part (perhaps all) of this interpretation. The application of this method of interpretation to the relativistic quantum theory defined on the representation space of an irreducible representation of a higher symmetry group containing the Poincare group is discussed. It is concluded that the higher symmetry is, in fact, of little use for this interpretation. This .leads in a natural way to the problem of finding some of these ""quasilocal"" operators on the space of states of a given relativistic quantum theory. 1'/ This problem is specialized to the problem of constructing a model relativistic quantum theory of a certain type. The procedure used is to attempt to construct a representation of the generators of the Poincare group on the Fock space X of real scalarbosons in such a way that quasilocal observables are easily expressible in terms of the canonical creation-destruction operators. The structure of the model permits the construction of the generators to be approached by successively satisfying their structure relations in each of the spaces ~(n) specified by the eigenvalues of the free field particle number operator. These structure relations are satisfied in~(l) and~(2). The mathematical details of the problem increase rapidly with n, and no explicit solution is obtained for n > 2. Arguments are given which make it plausible that the structure relations in~(n), with n> 2, may be satisfied by a large class of generators. Several trial solutions in the space ~(3) are described, and the difficulties associated with them are discussed."
macroscopically local relativistic quantum theory, relativistic quantum theory, field theory, scattering theory, quasilocal observables, scalar boson model
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations