Towards a more algebraic footing for quantum field theory

Abstract

The predictions of the standard model of particle physics are highly successful in spite of the fact that several parts of the underlying quantum field theoretical framework are analytically problematic. Indeed, it has long been suggested, by Einstein, Schrödinger and others, that analytic problems in the formulation of fundamental laws could be overcome by reformulating these laws without reliance on analytic methods namely, for example, algebraically. With this in mind, we focus here on the analytic ill-definedness of the quantum field theoretic Fourier and Legendre transforms of the generating series of Feynman graphs, including the path integral. To this end, we develop here purely algebraic and combinatorial formulations of the Fourier and Legendre transforms, employing rings of formal power series. These are all-purpose transform methods, i.e. their applicability is not restricted to quantum field theory. When applied in quantum field theory to the generating functionals of Feynman graphs, the new transforms are well-defined and thereby help explain the robustness and success of the predictions of perturbative quantum field theory in spite of analytic difficulties. Technically, we overcome here the problem of the possible divergence of the various generating series of Feynman graphs by constructing Fourier and Legendre transforms of formal power series that operate in a well-defined way on the coefficients of the power series irrespective of whether or not these series converge. Our new methods could, therefore, provide new algebraic and combinatorial perspectives on quantum field theoretic structures that are conventionally thought of as analytic in nature, such as the occurrence of anomalies from the path integral measure. In comparison, the use of formal power series in QFT by Bogolubov, Hepp, Parasiuk and Zimmermann concerned a different kind of divergencies, namely the UV divergencies of loop integrals and their renormalization.