Modular localization and the holistic structure of causal quantum theory, a historical perspective

Abstract

dx.doi.org/10.7437/NF2318-4957/2014.01.002 Abstract Recent insights into the conceptual structure of in QFT (modular localization) led to clarications of old unsolved problems.The oldest one is the Einstein-Jordan conundrum which led Jordan in1925 to the discovery of quantum eld theory. This comparison of fluctuations in subsystems of heat bath systems (Einstein) with those resulting from the restriction of the QFT vacuum state to an open subvolume (Jordan) leads to a perfect analogy; the globally pure vacuum state becomes upon local restriction a strongly impure KMS state. This phenomenon of localization-caused thermal behavior as well as the vacuum-polarization clouds at the causal boundary of the region places localization n QFT into a sharp contrast with quantum mechanics and justies the attribute holstic. In fact it positions the E-J Gedankenexperiment into the same conceptual category as the cosmological constant problem and the Unruh Gedankenexperiment. The holistic structure of QFT resulting from modular localization also leads to a revision of the conceptual origin of the crucial crossing property which entered particle theory at the time of the bootstrap S-matrix approach but suered from incorrect use in the S-matrix settings of the dual model and string theory. The new holistic point of view, which strengthens the autonomous aspect of QFT, also comes with new messages for gauge theory by exposing the clash between Hilbert space structure and and presenting alternative solutions based on the use of stringlocal elds in Hilbert space. Among other things this leads to a radical reformulation of the Englert- Higgs symmetry breaking mechanism.